Community Newspaper’s Role When News Is Bad

Country Living in the City

CENTRAL — What is the role of a community newspaper when bad things happen?

What are we supposed to do when tragic accidents occur and people die?  What should we do when disaster hits and there is devastation?  What should we do when serious crimes occur?  What should we do when public officials are caught in unethical or even criminal activity?

Is the editor of your community newspaper supposed to lean back in his rocking chair, smile, whistle a happy tune, and say, “Oh no, we don’t cover any of that.  We’re just a happy-news paper!  We just cover the ‘good news’!”

Are you kidding me?  If you don’t cover the news, you’re not a newspaper.  The fact that we publish this newspaper once a week in a smaller community doesn’t change any of the fundamentals.

As journalists, we have all of the same responsibilities and duties to our readers that they do in the big cities — maybe more so, because people in communities like Central expect a higher standard.

Do you think that a physician who practices in Central should have a lower standard of professionalism and competency than if he practiced in a big city?  Should an attorney who practices here have a lower standard of professionalism and competency than if he practiced in a big city?

Of course not, and neither does a journalist.

As journalists, our primary responsibility is to provide you with the information you need to have as a citizen to make decisions in your role as a citizen.

To make decisions, you need the truth — not some cockamammy caricuture of the truth but the real truth.  That won’t always be “good news.”  Sometimes it won’t be “happy news.”  But it should always be things that enable you to deal with the real world and the real issues that you and our community have to confront.

A ‘newspaper’ is not just a random collection of news releases and pass outs from schools, churches, and businesses.  A real newspaper analyzes what is going on in the community, writes original news and editorials about those events, and reports them to you.

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News