We cover meetings, events, games played by our children and yes, even courtroom proceedings.
We don’t make up the stories you read. To the very best of our ability, we cover any of these events--great or small, of the utmost importance to many or only important to a select few.
More often than not, we do not have a personal stake in what we’re covering. Whether we do or not is our business, but it will not change how we cover events. We view covering them as our job to do our best to offer the who, what, when, where, how and why of what took place. We want you, our readers, to be informed.
We will also, when available and to our knowledge, provide background information for our reporting. That, too, is part of our duty to you as journalists.
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who served as the third president of the United States from 1801-1809, recognized this.
Jefferson underscored the importance of literacy and a free press when he said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.”
Beyond that, we do not allow ourselves to get caught up in the story. That part of what we do is left up to our readers, however they choose to do so.
A saying we’ve always strictly adhered to is this: “We don’t make the news--we just print it.”
That’s what we will always do our very best to do for our readers.
Nothing more, nothing less.
We note here that unlike other media, we do not use unnamed, confidential sources as integral parts of our stories. If we don’t have a qualified source who is willing to go on the record--meaning that person is willing to share anything in a communication that may be publicly disclosed, then we don’t have a story.
Our readers have not nor will ever read a story in this newspaper citing “sources close to the story said...” We don’t believe in that type of journalism. We have, and will continue to do so, quote sources from other media, however.
If you want to read our writers’ opinions or the opinions of this newspaper as a whole, please turn to our Opinion page, which you’re reading right now.
There you’ll find personal columns from our writers and editorials written by our staff or provided from guest writers. Yes, we will even publish letters to the editor provided they don’t send us both to the courtroom!
From our editorials, we hope readers feel enlightened, or empowered, or helped in forming their own opinion on an issue. A good editorial expresses an opinion--it does not force it down the throat of the reader. The feeling after a good editorial is done with is one of profundity.
But an editorial is simply OUR opinion. You can agree with us or not, and thankfully, that’s your right, as it is ours to share our opinion with you.