EDITOR’S NOTE: Shelly Sulser, former ace reporter in bygone days for me and now executive editor of the Battle Creek Shopper News, penned this timely letter this week and has granted me permission to reprint it.
by Shelly Sulser
Back in August of 2008, yours truly was executive news director of the Marshall Chronicle when I learned that then Shopper News editor Jim Hitchcock was on the move.
Being a commuter, I was weary of the treacherous I-94 stretch, especially in winter (and after late night public meetings) and, since moving was out of the question for a number of reasons, I longed to shorten my drive.
At my request, my employers, who owned both papers, agreed to allow my transfer to Battle Creek, though I continue to care about the people of Marshall and their right to good, thorough “hard news” coverage, in addition to the good news.
But back then, there was unrest in the school district emanating from the superintendent’s office. There was unrest among citizens opposed to the encroachment of Oaklawn Hospital into the surrounding unofficial historic residential district, and unease around the desire to grow while facing an emerging economic downturn.
And, there were readers disgruntled over my coverage of these issues who felt I was too soft on local government by including all sides of the issues to speak their case.
At least one of those readers was also upset with me for declining to give him his own, weekly column in which to print his wild theories and accusations against local public figures.
He once even called me and, trying to disguise his voice and calling himself by another name, attempted to convince me that his columns were much desired by many in the community.
When I challenged him on his true identity, he took great offense and I landed eternally on his bad side.
Just as I was happily transitioning to Battle Creek to start a new chapter in my journalism career, a new “citizen journalist” publication was ramping up in print and online, designed to criticize local government and coverage of such by the Chronicle.
However, the stories clearly were unresearched and consisted of pure speculation and I quickly recognized the writing to be mostly from my biggest critic.
After hearing of my departure, the Marshall Mirror, jumped to false conclusions about my departure and actually published a story indicating that I had been let go by my publishers for committing acts of heinous bias or something along those lines.
To this day, I’m sure there are people who read his false speculations about my departure who still believe I was fired for failing to hold local government accountable. (On the contrary, I worked hard to hold local government accountable and many of those officials were just as disgruntled by their actions being reported as the Marshall Mirror folks.)
I convey this as an example of how the truth, when it doesn’t sit well, can simply be changed to fit the liking of the reader or listener and then disseminated to wrongly inform and influence the public.
Sadly, separating fact from fiction is something too many people today no longer care about.
Also back in 2008, author Farhad Manjoo, identified this problem and released his book of examples, “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post Fact Society.”
I have written about this topic before because as a person who has based an entire career, even life, on securing and respecting facts and my readers’ need for them, it’s been extremely difficult to see so many people on such a national scale ignoring facts and truth.
My mantra has always been, “It’s my job to give people facts they can use to make informed decisions about their lives, their families, their property, their finances.”
Now, pundits and language manipulators like Frank Luntz have the entire nation in such a state of confusion about what is true and what isn’t, that people seem to have just given up and are simply now operating only on emotion and fear mongering.
Where does that leave the protection of life, families, properties and finances?
With the mammoth decisions we have facing us at the polls on Tuesday because of how our lives will be affected, I couldn’t help but think once again about what is driving people to vote they way they plan to vote.
I am broken hearted to realize that for many, it is not the facts, but promises with no explanation for how things will get done that is influencing their votes. After the election is too late to look hard at the facts.
Here is the synopsis of Manjoo’s book, as it appears on Amazon and though it’s from eight years ago, it rings true today:
“Why has punditry lately overtaken news? Why do lies seem to linger so long in the cultural subconscious even after they’ve been thoroughly discredited? And why, when more people than ever before are documenting the truth with laptops and digital cameras, does fact-free spin and propaganda seem to work so well? True Enough explores leading controversies of national politics, foreign affairs, science, and business, explaining how Americans have begun to organize themselves into echo chambers that harbor diametrically different facts—not merely opinions—from those of the larger culture.”
I encourage all of you to read the full book review by Scott McKenzie https://techcrunch.com/…/review-true-enough-by-farhad-manj…/ if not the book itself.
Ever the idealist as well as realist, I would love to think that we can somehow find our way back to truth and fact-based problem solving.
These are the facts as I see them.
Could it be media itself should look in the mirror and report what is and not what they want it to be? Both sides of the debate for political gain always seems to be reported on by the media with a decidedly liberal bent and attitude. When the public can no longer trust those we used to rely on for “news” and not political spin (let the politicians do that themselves), and you cry about “punditry overtaking news” – please, save the crocodile tears for something meaningful.
The media has gotten themselves into this mess and the media can right it if they want. Evidently, they don’t give a damn. You are giving journalism a bad name with this poorly analyzed pile of dung.
The media and their willing accomplices in the Washington Establishment have created this populist candidate called Trump – the American people are waiting for a leader to show up not to mock their beliefs and “little people” way of life, and what little freedom and liberty we have left. And they have found one. So be it.