Is That a Fact

By Gordon Hopkins “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is just public relations.” - George Orwell When I first started working at this newspaper, I was writing editorials and features.No, that's not true. I started as a receptionist, answering phones. Very quickly, though, my boss figured out I can write and soon, every week, I would sit down to write a column for the editorial page. What I wrote about, the boss-man pretty much left me to my own discretion, which is never a good idea. My topics were pretty much all over the map. Along with the columns about nonsense like my favorite movies and trips I had taken and how my car broke down again, occasionally, I wrote an angry, political editorial.Well, I did that for a while. Then I started covering news as a reporter. Despite what some people who write for television think, reporter and columnist are two very different jobs. Dick Wolfe, the creator of “Law and Order” and its umpteen spin-offs seems to think they are the same thing but I can assure you, they aren't. (Can you tell I watched a “Law and Order” episode recently that annoyed me?)Then I became the news editor, which is something else altogether.I know I've covered this ground before but I think it bears repeating, especially right now. While I write hard news, I still have the column. I have to come up with something to fill those inches every Friday.With very few exceptions, that something will not include politics. I occasionally write an opinion piece dealing with things like freedom of the press or the like because that's a topic that I have a unique perspective on, given my job.Otherwise, when I started writing hard news, I decided writing opinions about politics was not a good idea, since I may be called upon to write news stories about the very same subject. That is why my columns now consist mostly of frippery about my cats. None of my cats are registered voters and, as such, their political leanings are largely unknown.Publishers are a different matter. American newspaper publishers have a long history of expressing their opinions in the editorial pages of their own publications. This isn't usually an issue since publishers don't do the bulk of the news reporting.I work very hard as a journalist to report objectively about whatever it is I am reporting on. Objectively doesn't mean uncritically. It simply means that something I write should be objectively, provably true.Of course, there is more to it than that. I'm trying to adhere to the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law. For example, if I quote Mr. So-and-So who claims the squirrels of Nebraska are spies, technically speaking, that is true. I'm not saying squirrels are spies, Mr. So-and-So is saying it. I'm just reporting what he said. That is the same argument the sleaziest of supermarket tabloids have used to avoid culpability for some of their more outre claims. I am going to ask Mr. So-and-So if he has any evidence to back up his claims about spy squirrels, like their repeated attacks on our power grid.I guess the point I am trying to make (assuming I have a point and I'm not convinced I do) is that there are certainly topics I have reported on for which I may have very strong feelings, but I work hard to keep the news and opinion side of my writing career largely separate.The legendary editor Ben Bradlee of “All the President's Men” and “The Post” fame was well known for getting involved in virtually everything The Washington Post published, with one notable exception. He said he never messed around with editorial.News and opinion are two completely different things. To me, it is important the reader always know if they are reading fact or opinion.

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