Last Thursday, newspapers around the nation editorialized about the importance of a free news media in a democratic republic like the United States America. The first amendment to our constitution enshrines the freedom of the press.
I didn’t participate in Thursday’s concerted effort by newspapers because, let’s face it, I’m not a newspaper. LarryInFishers.com is just a very small news blog trying to concentrate mostly on news events in Fishers and news stories impacting Fishers. As a mostly retired guy, I do this as a volunteer activity because there is a lack of regular daily news coverage of what’s happening in Fishers. We do have some outlets that pay attention to Fishers – Current in Fishers is a weekly, The Indianapolis Star covers some Fishers news, The Indianapolis Business Journal does cover Fishers when it can and I have a news gathering partnership with The Hamilton County Reporter, a weekly print newspaper that publishes five days a week with an online PDF newspaper delivered by e-mail.
I go over all this in order to ask an important question – Am I an enemy of the people? I ask this question because there are high-level elected officials, as well as many in the political realm, arguing that journalists such as myself are, in fact, an enemy of the people.
I practice my journalism very much like the news generated by main stream news organizations. I write about what I learn, what I see and what I hear. I cover events that busy people living within a growing suburban community such as Fishers cannot always attend themselves. I produce podcasts with local people so that you can hear long-form discussions about what local people are doing throughout the community.
So, what have I done that labels me an enemy of the people? Ask yourself that question when you hear or read another argument that the news media are the enemy of the people.
Journalists are members of the local community. They participate in their neighborhoods, they send their children to local schools, you see them coaching local sports and generally participating in community life as many other citizens. To put it bluntly, journalists are people just like you.
Does that make us enemies of the people?
Journalists also risk their lives to report on important stories. Journalists die covering war zones. We are threatened by those unhappy with our reporting. When working as a journalist for a living in the 1970s and early 1980s, I had my life threatened several times. The threats required me to take reasonable precautions, but threats never changed the way I did my job or reported on any story,
Let us not forget the vicious attack on the newsroom of a relatively small newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, killing five excellent reporters and editors just at work doing their jobs. Were they all enemies of the people?
As I meet some of you while covering stories about Fishers, please feel free to explain why you think I am an enemy of the people, because if you take the position that the news media are the enemy of the people, then I am an enemy of the people. Look me in the eye and tell me why I, along with all the other journalists working to get news to you, are the enemies of the people.
I am no longer paid to be a journalist, but, trust me, the news media doesn’t make journalists rich. There may be a few celebrity journalists with high-paying jobs at the national level, but most working in the news business are not paid well. If you make a good living as a reporter, that’s the best you can expect. The Indianapolis Star reporters are fighting their management just to keep the health care coverage they have now, and Gannett, the owner of the Star, has withheld scheduled pay raises while this dispute over health coverage continues.
Here’s my bottom line. All journalists are accountable about what appears on our platforms, whether it be a news blog like mine, a newspaper, radio station or TV news operation. We all work hard to report accurately, but when there is an error, we correct them as soon as we verify the error has been made. We all work hard to get the story to you as quickly and accurately as humanly possible. We don’t expect a lot of thanks or accolades – just don’t call us the enemy of the people. We are not enemies of the people.
