Every once in a while, I just get a gutful.
Oftentimes, this comes from sitting in public meetings.
And even the ones I DON’T sit in on, I hear from my employees the crap that goes on in these meetings. And it just infuriates me.
So my column this month addresses the frustration we who are serious about reporting what’s REALLY going on in your government bodies feel frequently. Here now is your mid-day Read the Lead, The REAL reason journalism has always been referred to as the Fourth Branch of Government, my column in the current edition.
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I know I have ranted about this general subject in the past, so if this starts sounding familiar and you get bored, feel free to skip this column and move to something else.
I mean, it’s not like I have this page embedded with a nano-optical sensing device that will transmit your GPS position to me if you do not spend the required amount of time open to this page that it would take to read it.
No, it’s not like that at all.
So here we are, dear readers, once again embroiled in one of the oldest fights known to journalism and that is keeping an eye on and making sure your elected/public officials are doing their jobs within the confines of the law, which is exactly how they expect you to conduct the business of your life.
And that IS our job despite what faux journalists might tell you.
Screw all those painted-up meat-puppets that insist journalists are only here to report exactly what is said and then go back to their desk and type up for you dear readers some form of a transcript, with a few quotes thrown in here and there, adding legitimacy to every word that came vomiting out of the pie-holes of whatever officials were on the board or council.
It is NOT the journalist’s place to present everything elected/public officials say as gospel.
On the contrary, it is their jobs to make sure what they are reporting to you readers is as accurate as possible, not just take somebody’s word for what was said.
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To read the rest of the column, click on the headline link in you have an online membership to the e-Edition; or, if you don’t, simply click this link here to get started with your subscription! Or, if you prefer to hold a newspaper in your hands, visit one of our many vendors across southern Illinois; and of course you can always subscribe to the print version at that same link! Don’t miss out; this paper’s off the stands in a little more than a week!