Hiding behind the words

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I think 80% of you will agree with me.

I should not define your news.

It would be an insult to you and make me less of a journalist or publisher. News is real stuff. We fret over it. We even have meetings about what it means.

You should, too.

Three times in the past week I received a message or a package a message referred to. Each message was well written and thoughtful.

But they weren’t signed.

After reading those great, wonderful letters, I thought it might be a good time to explain newspaper ethics. It’s an easy course.

We do, reluctantly, provide anonymity on a case by case basis. After all, we receive news tips more than you might imagine. Ninety-nine percent of those tips come from people we know or, many times, have only just met. But we know the person’s name. It helps us determine validity. We can judge motivation. It helps us approach the matter fairly.

In return, we put our name on everything we do. One hundred percent. It’s an accountability thing. Last week, I had names wrong on a photograph and felt horrible for three days. I knew the phone would ring for me because my name was on the photo. It would have been easier had it not been although the caller was extremely understanding. Our news writers are the best. You can recognize each by a byline – a signature. I’d put them up against anyone in a word fight. But I’m not going to assign them the tasks of chasing signatures to verify information on unsourced material. We’re simply too small a staff for that. If, though, we were a large metro-daily, I still wouldn’t use my budget for something that could easily be remedied by a visit to our newsroom. We all agree the newspaper has a sacred obligation to tell the truth, as best we can. In a small town, it’s a fun truth and usually easy to write. Honestly, it’s the easiest job in town. The hardest part is the punctuation and the ever-raging debate over the Oxford comma.

We own those words (even the commas) and when you send me something without owning the words you are passionately writing; well it’s going to be treated like third class mail. It may sound harsh or maybe puritanical, but no matter what you think, I think you should own it. I know you should.

I want to listen. I’m an intense listener. I won’t out you or publicize your name if you think what you know will lead to trouble. I won’t even use you as a source. That would be counterintuitive. I sell news. I’m not going to put a flower pot in the front window to signal you when we need to talk, though. Instead, I’ll hope for a visit – even a phone call. Simply put, I need to know something human stands behind the words. Especially now.

Just to be clear, you have made the claim in a letter to me that something dire is about to happen in Gonzales. But you won’t tell me your name.

I’d pay to hide you. But I need a name.

I need you to claim your thought and own the words. Oxford commas are optional.

                                                                        ****

Our writer, Rob Ford will tell you I’ve been in the rabbit hole trying to find out about feral pig poisoning. He wrote a great piece on it last week, explaining the use of the pesticide Warfarin as a control measure. Nobody in the news room was aware it was being used. Warfarin is essentially rat poison. It also has been found to be highly effective on wild hogs. A reader who gave his name alerted us to its use in Gonzales County, so Rob studied it, talked to state and local officials and determined it wasn’t so bad. We thought we had learned something new that day.

Something cool happened. We posted the story on our Facebook page. One of our readers did the heavy lifting and looked for the safety data sheet on the product made to kill hogs with Warfarin and commented: “Section 12: Ecological Information

This product may be toxic to fish, birds and other wildlife. Dogs and other predatory and scavenging mammals and birds might be poisoned if they feed upon animals that have eaten the bait.

Section 4 lists extreme thirst as a symptom and Section 7 warns not to contaminate lakes, streams and ponds.”

We checked out the data sheet and realized we missed something. We love admitting that because it is the way this stuff should work. You tell us about an issue, with your own self right in front of us; we check it out. And then, we all start discussing it. Facts are arrived at. We go there together. With names.

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