In my last post, I posed the question as to who would be the best person to write a story about a devastating event like the meat packing fiasco that has recently swept newspapers and news television stations throughout the country. As I looked at my inbox this evening, I believe I found the answer.
It doesn't matter.
My grandmother, who currently resides in Boston, MA., is a copy editor and received her journalism degree here at MSU. She makes a habit of sending me words of encouragement to help me stay on the often-downtrodden path of journalistic excellence. It's always been helpful. Lately, she's sent me links to New York Times articles. This one caught my eye.
It's a short article about the coverage that the Northern Illinois University campus newspaper (the Northern Star) did during the recent shootings. Those reporters were the first on the scene and are likely to be one of the few to continue with coverage long after the rest of the country has forgotten. Now, no one is more connected to this story than these students-journalists. One student employee of the Star was killed by the violence which occurred that day. Yet this didn't stop the coverage. Which got me thinking...
In the end, it doesn't matter what bias you have, so long as you have the dignity, honesty, and integrity to push it to the side and tell the world a true story about itself... with a platform as balanced as the scales of justice (a bit dramatic, but I'll take it). When it comes down to it, we've just got to do our job. And we ought to do it the best we can.
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