So I’m sitting here tonight, and I’ve got a thousand ideas running through my head for what to write about tonight, and I can’t settle on a single one. So I start one of my favorite online hobbies….surfing the news headlines. As I’m looking at all the blurbs while I’m scrolling down the pages and watching the screenshots roll by, I’m struck by a question for what must be the billionth time – what happened to our news?
For me, that question might be a little different that it is for you. See, the one actual degree I have is in Journalism. I love to write, and I love the news, or rather, I love to research and find the truth. In my late teens and early 20s, it seemed a perfect match. Until the last semester in my community college, where I was officially the staff editor of the student newspaper, and had previously been the arts editor and a staff writer. So I’m pretty familiar with what journalism is supposed to be about. At the beginning of that semester, I walked out of the classroom, and away from journalism.
You see, knowing that journalism is supposed to be about reporting news, it’s supposed to be about truth. The reason I walked out of that classroom that day, is because the main editorial for the first edition of the paper was an apology for creating “controversy” the previous semester. It was an apology for telling the truth.
I want you to let that sink in for a minute. A newspaper publishing an apology for telling the truth. I was shocked when I saw it. And I think what made it worse is that this was a student newspaper. In other words, this was an organization that is supposed to teach students how to report the news, not apologize for it.
I can’t change what journalists and reporters do in sensationalizing stories, or fabricating information. My only choice is what I am doing. To keep telling you the truth as I understand it, with the facts and I have found during my own research. I encourage everyone of you, please, if you question something, if you question anything, please research it. Find the facts, find the truth. Pray for those who do faulty reporting, and set a better intent for them. But please, don’t take anything I say for granted. If you find a different result, send me your facts. I’m always willing to seek new knowledge. But I will not blindly accept sensationalist news, regardless of who reports it. Every day, I am grateful I walked out of that newsroom. And every day that I come and write here, I am more grateful for it.
The Warriors Den 