July 22, 2004

Editorial

Just the facts ma’am

Julie Davis Berry
Executive Editor

The important thing to remember when writing for a community newspaper is that most people are truly good. There are hundreds of positive stories to write about ranging from stories about well adjusted teenagers raising money to save music classes to civic minded seniors picking up trash.

Yes, there are going to be sad, even frightening stories to report too—in any community. Just in the past few months in the Almaden community, the Times has had to report on a murder, deaths and suspected child molestations. These are not easy stories to write and there is always a fine line walked between telling the stories from the “just the facts ma’am” school of journalism to simply sensationalizing a tragic event. We agonize over every word in those stories to hit the right balance and by your comments we repeatedly accomplish that goal.

But after returning from vacation recently, I realized that others in the industry don’t always address journalism from the same perspective. In the slow-as-molasses dog days of summer, story ideas sometimes dry up. It isn’t easy to put out a newspaper on a weekly basis and the temptation to embellish or even to create controversy where there isn’t any can sometimes rear its ugly head.

Sometimes the story topic is a little dry and you try to beef it up with a little sarcasm or mystery. Occasionally the people you are writing about aren’t available when you call them or can’t get you the information fast enough to make your looming deadline. The question then is do you hold the story until you can get the information you need or do you press on ahead with an “unavailable for comment” tagline?

It’s a hassle to hold a story until it’s just right, especially in a competitive marketplace—but that’s just what needs to be done sometimes to maintain journalistic integrity.