Commentary

Posted in: Commentary
Commentary: The Gazette and KCRG Showed the World What it Means to be Iowans
By Mitch Traphagen
Jun 26, 2008 - 5:03:41 PM

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There is a growing distrust - even a hatred - of the media today.  Conservatives point to the “drive-by liberal media” reporting only the bad news while liberals see it as conservative-owned corporations giving conservative elected officials a free pass.

Some of the distrust is deserved, much of it is not.  The reporters I’ve met in my years in the media have worked hard - very hard - to present stories fairly and without bias of any sort.  Photographers agonize over their photographs to ensure that the image they present is precisely what was seen.  Ethics in reporting is not just a rule handed down by management, it is literally in the blood of most journalists.

The bad “journalists”, however, have made the news recently - Jayson Blair of the New York Times and others  have needlessly shattered the public’s trust due to ego and laziness.  The few bad examples have made the headlines - the vast majority of outstanding reporters remain unsung.

Locally, there are two examples of media organizations for which praises are indeed warranted.  KCRG Channel 9 in Cedar Rapids provided round the clock coverage of the flooding in the city.  I’m certain it was no easy task but the station’s journalists remained on the air informing their neighbors and the world of the growing emergency.  Also, the Cedar Rapids Gazette newspaper kept publishing the news even as flood waters approached their building - they kept working as the water was turned off and portable toilets appeared outside.

In both cases, certainly some of the people dedicated to providing up to the minute coverage should have been somewhere else, saving their own homes and belongings.  But for the staffs of both organizations, their responsibility to the public - to their viewers and readers - came first.  For such dedicated journalists, the public will always come first.

The people of Iowa should be proud to have two first-rate news organizations serving the state.  Neither the Gazette nor KCRG are the “drive-by media” the conservatives love to hate, they are not on an agenda to ignore the failings of conservatives, they are simply journalists - people dedicated to delivering the news as best they can.

As William Allen White, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper editor, politician and author once supposedly told his reporters:  “Dip your pen into your arteries and write.”

The past few weeks, many area reporters did just that.  

I’m sure none of them are looking for gratitude, yet we should be grateful, nonetheless. When the chips were down, they stood up and showed the world - through words, pictures and their own hard work - just what it means to be Iowans.



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