“Buy the truth, and sell it not.”
— Proverbs 23:23a
It stands to reason that when a new editor comes to a newspaper that he state his general philosophy of journalism so the community will know where the newspaper stands on issues of public importance. First of all, what is journalism? It is a search for the truth using an objective method. That means seeking out eyewitnesses and people with direct knowledge of the news from both sides of every controversy. It involves not only being truthful, but also being fair. That is, giving everyone an opportunity to voice their opinions and portraying the facts within their appropriate context.
And it involves the process of verification — getting information from credible sources and spelling out who those sources are so readers can weight their credibility for themselves. Sometimes that calls for restraint when news is breaking and waiting to make sure you get it right rather than first. And it calls for humility when a mistake is made by openly admitting and correcting it. That method doesn’t necessarily ensure pure objectivity, which is nearly impossible to obtain, but it’s the best approach ever developed for ascertaining the truth.
And it’s the opposite approach of social media, where everything is posted immediately without any vetting as to its accuracy and seemingly without any consequences when mistakes are (often) made.
This newspaper stands for those classical journalistic principles that are enshrined in our 1st Amendment and have played a crucial role in our nation being the greatest in world history. And ensuring our posterity enjoys those same qualities means standing up for the three-legged stool of freedom of information: open government records, open government meetings and public notice in newspapers of important issues. That means living up to the press’s role as the Fourth Estate, a watchdog that keeps an eye on what the government is doing with the people’s money.
At the same time, newspapers play an important role in the civic and social lives of their communities. That means reporting the good news about outstanding accomplishments and events. As the late J.O. Emmerich, former owner of this newspaper and father of the current owner, was fond of saying, a newspaper is both its community’s biggest cheerleader and its biggest critic.
Of course, this approach is all for nothing without engagement from readers. Your input is needed to make a successful newspaper and community. We welcome it in any form, public or private. Let’s work together to make Columbia the best it can be.
