Not long ago I received an email from a resident who was angry about the way I reported on an issue that was discussed at one of the Clearwater City Council meetings. She felt that I was ‘throwing citizens under the bus’ by not doing any further research on this issue and not including quotes from each person who spoke out against it. She stated that as a journalist it was my responsibility to find out more about the issue, and that as a local reporter I should be ‘held accountable’ for my actions and ‘consider the consequences of only picking and choosing what parts I report on.’

Before I address this claim, I first want all of our readers to know that myself and everyone else at the Patriot newspaper takes what we do seriously, and we do our best to be as fair and unbiased as possible. None of us would ever deliberately slant an issue or not report on everything discussed at these meetings that was important for local residents to be aware of. In today’s media world I feel that’s something to be proud of.

I’m aware that accusations similar to this one have been brought against the Patriot in the past, and I realized that most of them appear to come from the fact that readers don’t understand what our role is during public meetings such as those held by our city councils and townships. For those of you who might have misconceptions, let me explain.

Our role at those meetings is to report on the agenda items and what decisions were made in regard to them. That’s it. We’re not there to pick apart all the issues discussed at each, although we can and do write separate features on some of them later if warranted. 

The Patriot covers four city councils and eight townships each month. That’s a lot of meetings, and many of these meetings have very long agendas. If we reported every single word that was said, each meeting could potentially take up the entire newspaper. It’s not possible for us to investigate all sides of every issue that comes up in them, and if we did so for one we would have to do so for all the others in order to be fair. It’s just not feasible.

Keep in mind that we’re also a small, free newspaper, we don’t have the resources or manpower to research all sides of every issue that comes before all the city councils and township boards we cover each month. At these meetings we’re just there to report on decisions that were made so residents are aware of them.

Let me repeat. At these meetings our role is to report the decisions that were made so the community is aware of them. That’s it.

I understand residents don’t always agree with what is being said and decided on during their local government meetings, but neither the newspaper nor its contributors are the ones they should be taking their anger out on. I suggested to the reader who sent me the angry email that the best way for her to get her voice heard was to have other like-minded citizens actually attend the monthly meetings to voice their concerns and opinions. The power of people coming together can and does make a difference.

I also suggested that she could get a community action group together to work toward resolving the issue. When that happens we’re then able to investigate and research the subject fully and report on the pros and cons in detail from all sides of the issue. 

I’m always open to constructive criticism, that’s how we all learn and get better. Questioning the media can also be a good thing, it holds us all responsible. Just make sure that before you do you understand the issue. 

I can say with certainty that the reason myself and my peers at the Patriot do what we do is that we care about our communities. We’re not going to get rich doing it. We’re not going to win a Pulitzer Prize. The purpose of local newspapers like ours is to provide citizens with an accurate and honest introduction to their neighbors and the issues about which their neighbors are passionate. The purpose is to see, know, care about, and understand your community.

We do our best with what we can do. Please keep that in mind before you get angry about something you read within our pages.