It’s time for us to learn how to respect journalism once again. 

Yes, I recognize that means that we journalists have a responsibility in that — perhaps the largest responsibility. After all, it is our industry. And as such, those of us who are called to it have the responsibility to do justice by it. 

For us that means, rediscovering the truth that my former political science instructor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha — and former Omaha City Councilman —  Franklin Thompson once dropped into our hearts and minds during one of his lectures. 

He said, “We have to understand that when it comes to most anything in life, you won’t find truth to the far left nor will you find it to the far right. But often truth resides right in the middle.” 

As journalists, we have to get back to the idea that I posited in my introductory column: that it is our responsibility to step forward to our readers and communities we serve, present you with facts and information in as unbiased a way as humanly possible, then step back to allow you to do with that information what you will. 

And truthfully, as a 20-plus year veteran in this business, I must say that most of us strive to do that. Most true journalists aren’t six-figure-salary talking heads on one of the “alphabet soup” news channels. Most true journalists aren’t interested in pushing propaganda as we are making sure people in our neighborhoods are well informed and elected officials and other community stakeholders are held accountable. 

Alas, the journalism pool has been poisoned, though, by some who represent big-dollar corporations and special interest groups. These folks pass of their rhetoric as “journalism,” when many times it is nothing more than one-sided drivel designed to divide. Because, contrary to what we like to believe, salaciousness, sensationalism and polarity sells. 

True journalists understand that it’s our job to rise above the fray and be bigger and better than that. And as long as I’m here in the position I’m in, that’s what the journalists at The Covington News will always strive to do. Sometimes you’ll love it. Sometimes you’ll hate it. But just because you hate it doesn’t mean it’s not right nor does it mean it isn’t journalism. 

But this is the part where we as readers, also have a responsibility. If our responsibility is to be critical in the way we report — and by critical I simply mean carefully examining and presenting all sides of a matter with whatever information we have at our disposal — readers and consumers of news have the responsibility to be critical in the way we think. That means reading beyond just the headline of a story. That means taking time to re-acquaint 

ourselves with what true fact finding and fact checking is. 

That means taking a beat to swallow the initial emotions that come from seeing something we may not like, or reading or hearing something that may feel prickly and uncomfortable, step back and truly understand what we’re consuming. 

For example, over the weekend there was a matter where our sports editor Phillip Hubbard reported on an alleged altercation that was said to have happened after last Friday’s Morgan County at Social Circle football game. The original report came from a reporter at a real newspaper, The Lake Oconee News. That reporter used his Twitter page to say that sources confirmed to him that Social Circle students jumped a Morgan County player at his bus, and that the bus needed police escort back down I-20 upon leaving the stadium. 

Mr. Hubbard was all over it as soon as we got wind of it. Not because we wanted to “jump on a story” for the sake of driving up newspaper sales or because we have some strange blood thirst to be first to put high school kids — or anybody for that matter — in a bad light. We pursued it because Social Circle is one of the communities in our coverage area that we cherish. And we wanted to see if these allegations were or were not true. And if they were false, we wanted Social Circle Schools to have the opportunity to publicly share their side of whatever happened (or didn’t happen).

Some say, “You shouldn’t have chased down something that appeared on social media.” But those who say that perhaps don’t understand that most breaking news gets publicized on social media channels before it ever reaches newspapers. We aren’t in a print-only world anymore. This isn’t the era of journalism where the folks in the newsroom find out 24 hours before the newspaper hits your front doorstep. 

In the first iteration of that story, Mr. Hubbard called all the right people, asked all the right questions to get all sides of the story. That’s what led to him being able to quote to Social Circle football coach who gave us the first inkling that all wasn’t right with the initial report. 

Within 48 hours, Mr. Hubbard published two more updates — the last allowed us to hear from both Morgan County and Social Circle school systems that the initial report of a melee was, indeed, untrue. 

That, my friends, is what journalism was originally intended to do. We heard a potentially damning report about residents in our community. We shared that report with you with no additional conjecture or opinion whatsoever, and we kept giving you information from each side until we found out the truth. 

We did our job. And more times than not, that’s what local and community journalists all over this country are doing day in and day out. Finding out what’s true, separating it from what’s false and letting you, our readers, see it for yourselves. 

As long as I’m privileged to serve this community, that’s the kind of journalism we’re going to do. Sometimes it’ll produce nice, fluffy, feel-good stories. Sometimes it will give you solid information that helps you make decisions about your life in this community. And sometimes it will report some hard, difficult stuff that we’d actually rather not have to write. But all of it is journalism. 

And while I’m sure we’ll make some mistakes along the way, I am confident in saying that it won’t be because we’re craving sensationalism. It’ll simply be because we’re human. 

But make no mistake here: While I can’t speak for anyone else involved, Mr. Hubbard did exactly what a good, local community journalist did — he found the truth and presented it fairly without inserting any of his own opinions into it. And as long as our folks do their jobs the right way, I’ll always have their backs. 

All we simply ask from you, our readers, is that you’ll also do your part and understand that your local, community journalists — at least here in this community — are not “the media.” We aren’t the same media that gets paid to cause division and create chaos. We’re the ones who tell the stories that personally affect you in ways that no one else can. And while you ask us to be fair and balanced in our news reporting, we ask you to be the same in your news consumption. 

If both sides commit to that, we can not only restore faith and respect in a beleaguered yet vital industry. We’ll restore and maintain faith and respect in each other as residents of this community — a community we all love. 

Gabriel Stovall is the publisher and editor of  The Covington News. He can be reached at gstovall@covnews.com, or on Twitter and Instagram: @GabrielCStovall.