Snap judgments. Oh boy oh boy. Being in the news business for what is now 15 years, you learn a few things about society and dealing with the public in general.
One thing as a representative of the press, I’ve learned to have patience. Sometimes it is hard. It has, at times, been a difficult lesson to learn. (And in my case, learn over and over again.) But when in the pursuit of the truth, it takes patience to learn all the facts in a situation before putting the story out for general consumption. This is done to primarily eliminate any misconceptions and to make sure the fully story is explained.
However, despite our best efforts to put forth the facts in a story, there are still some who only read what they want to read and stop absorbing any facts or statements after reading what they want to believe it true. They are essentially making snap decisions.
An example of this occurred over this past weekend.
The paper publishes public record every week. This is a service to our subscribers. We put forth the public records from the courthouse so our subscribers don’t need to make the journey to the courthouse to review the public documents themselves.
The public record pages are straight forward. We don’t edit or even put them into article form. We literally cut and paste the information on dispatch reports, jail dockets, land transactions, marriages and …divorces.
We don’t single anyone out. We don’t pick and choose who we publish. Over the years I’ve received calls from grandmothers, mamas, daddies, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, husbands and wives, begging me to leave “their” person or situation off the list.
Here’s the thing, Every. Single. Person. On. The. List. Has their own story. Their own situation, their own reason to be special.
So, if everyone on the lists has their own unique situation, the only option is to treat everyone the same. We print them all without discretion or favoritism.
While my heart hurts for some of the people who reach out to me, I can’t travel down the road of picking and choosing who we leave off because the integrity of the paper would come into question.
The paper is not “out to get anyone” or “punish anyone”. It is simply putting the public records out for the public to view and save them a trip to the courthouse to view the documents themselves. Newspapers have done this since the inception of the industry.
What hasn’t been around this whole time but has influenced the mindset of the public is social media.
Posts on social media can be made and deleted in a matter of seconds. So the general public has adopted the mindset that all things can be posted and deleted with the problem being solved.
Newspapers do not work that way. Sure. If we get something wrong, we are more than happy to print a correction the following edition. But intentionally picking and choosing who we print is not getting something wrong.
I often am asked the question in various levels of condemnation, “Would you print your own children?”
Yup. Sure would. My children have not one parent who is a newspaper publisher, but two. And their Bonus-Dad is in law enforcement. They’ve been told since day one, if they mess up, they will be put on the front page. If they mess up badly, they will go to jail and be put on the front page. I would rather my children learn the hard lessons of life while they are still under my roof. In the long run it will be a lot easier for them to learn the lessons while they are young than to face them out in the world where they can no longer come home to my house.
I’ve had a lot of people sneer at me about this. It doesn’t mean I don’t love my children or that I love them any less than the next parent. I love them enough to make sure they are prepared for the world in the best way I know how.
At the end of day, if people would read or ask questions, they might learn a thing or two before making their “snap decisions”.
