It has been a whirlwind week, but I want to assure you, the people of Marion County, that The Columbian-Progress is committed to being vigilant and transparent in its investigation of the Columbia Police Department and the City of Columbia.
I do my best to stay out of the Facebook comments of our articles. I absolutely have zero desire to infringe on the First Amendment rights of Marion Countians to speak freely under our stories. But I do see them in passing while checking our Facebook and want to address a few of the things that keep getting mentioned that could not be further from the truth.
The most prevalent one is the belief that the C-P has an agenda and is in cahoots with the city to cover up wrongdoing. Let me make this perfectly clear — I will never jeopardize my journalistic integrity like that. I’m not from Columbia, I didn’t grow up with any of the people involved and I owe nothing to them. What I owe is the truth to Marion County, and that’s what I’m committed to.
There may have been employees in the past who worked with departments and governmental agencies — I honestly have no idea — but this idea that the C-P has allegiances to anyone, any school, any team or anything else along those lines is false. We simply do our best to cover the news and sports for the community. That’s it.
I have some passing friendships with leaders in the community, people who I talk to at various events we’re covering, but I have never once spent time with any of them socially. I make it a point to keep my professional and personal lives separate so that I can remain objective.
I have also seen people comment about other news agencies posting stories before us. The reality to that is, as the publisher of a staff of just four full-time employees, I am effectively filling four job roles at the moment. When I began at the C-P eight years ago, we had eight full-time employees. Our current construction is set up for five — we’re currently hiring for an advertising representative. So when news breaks, I’m rarely in the position to immediately drop what I’m working on and write it on the spot. The C-P also has to abide by different rules than some other news sources, which can cause a delay as well.
This investigation is not the only thing I’m covering right now either — far from it. I cannot simply drop all other news coverage to focus solely on the investigation. There are too many other things going on in Marion County, many of which are good for the community, to do that. I’m all in on the investigation, but I’m also just one person with many other fires burning.
I assure you we have no ulterior motive other than the truth. We want to uncover every bit of wrongdoing because the real victims here are the people of Marion County. That’s who we are built to serve — the citizens of Marion County.
We are committed to doing everything within our power to deliver the truth, and nothing is going to get in the way of that.
Joshua Campbell is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com or call (601) 736-2611.
