Vent

This is going to be a brief post to vent. Here goes ...

Someday you might read something in your local newspaper about someone you know - maybe he or she is a student or former student; maybe they were a high school classmate; maybe they taught your child's Sunday School or preschool class; maybe they are a neighbor or even a friend.

Maybe it will be a glowing story about their amazing community service or their state-of-the art classroom.

And maybe it will be the most awful thing you've ever read - someone you know and like is arrested. maybe it's for tax evasion or dealing drugs or something worse. And I promise - it will suck when that happens.

But here's something you need to chew on when you're reading those stories - good, bad, impartial ...

The journalist who wrote that story is not writing it because they love your neighbor and want to write about how wonderful they are, and likewise, they are not writing that story because they hate the person and want to see them reamed in the court of public opinion. (Which is not to say that sometimes the journalist handling the story will enjoy what they are writing about - maybe they loved hearing the story or maybe the person they are writing about has always been a jerk in public encounters so it feels good for them to get theirs, so to speak - those sort of news encounters are much more rare than the average reader thinks - honest).

The journalist who is writing that story is doing so because it's the news. Period. 

And when you're sitting back in your comfy chair, complaining about the "biased media", remember this: My husband, and many of our friends, ARE those journalists. And the good ones - they agonize over every story, every photo, because they want to be truthful. And sometimes the truth, it sucks. And it's not what you, or I, want to hear.

Good, honorable, ethical journalists want to deserve the trust you've given them. They bring those stories - and many you can be thankful you've never have to read - home with them. And many, many times it's heartbreaking for them to have to run those stories - but it's their job, their passion. 'Cause trust me when I say - the pay is not worth the heartache (from agonizing over stories) and the uncertainty (of the profession) that many - most - good journalists live with day in and day out.

So when you're reading about this great kid that you know who made a stupid mistake and the local paper had to run that story (because they can't ethically choose to run only the good stuff about the same kid/team/school), remember how much you appreciated that same newspaper running the story about the unregistered sex offender who left his light on last Halloween and invited kids into his/her home; or the driver who has had multiple DUI's but is still out there driving around - on the same roads that you and your children drive on - and how that story resulted in his/her license being suspended or was jailed. And remember: You didn't know those people, so you didn't think that the local newspaper was out to get you and yours.

That's all. That's my vent for the weekend. Enjoy some college football today, Friends!