By: Forrest R. Church, Publisher
Publishing community news isn’t for the faint of heart. In our small communities in Northwest Ohio, there’s no hiding behind a byline—everyone knows everyone, and sooner or later you’ll find yourself standing behind someone you’ve written about in the grocery store or singing next to them at church.
“We are in each other’s business,” as the phrase goes. Our citizens are teammates, classmates, work partners, and, now and then, headline material. Despite all these ties, my job still requires reporting the good, the bad, and, frankly, the downright uncomfortable.
I’d love for every story to be a heart warmer about bake sales and championship games, but the reality is, life in our community—like everywhere else—is messy.
People stumble. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone, so as awkward as it is, reporting the hard truth comes with the territory.
I’ve made mistakes—let me rephrase that, I make mistakes probably hourly. Folks close to me have made mistakes—and, for the record, we’ve covered those right here in our own pages if their life choices resulted in “major news.”
If I played favorites, I’d just look away, but that’s not how this works. If you’re reading this, congratulations—you’ve made mistakes too. It’s called being human.
Let me be perfectly clear: just because you know someone personally, it doesn’t mean their actions are off-limits for news. When there’s an arrest, nobody blinks at the 10,000 other arrests we’ve reported previously—until it’s their nephew’s name in print.
Suddenly, we’re the bad guys, despite being appreciated for bringing similar news until there’s a personal connection.
To those who like to take shots at us for covering local news in rare ethical and non-slanting fashion, I’ll just say: if you were the publisher, you’d need to run “Biased” right under your masthead if you conducted such practices. Too direct of a comment? Maybe. But it’s the truth.
I understand the emotional attachment when seeing someone we care about in a negative light within news content. We all want to believe the best about folks we see at the ball game or bump into at the post office, and that is generally the case. But choices have consequences.
I learned that as a kid, lived it as a teenager, and see it play out every day in this job after 24 years. The theft from a little league club. The Highway Patrol release about a teenage driver who was drinking and is now in the morgue.
The prosecutor’s release showing a local teacher you have known personally since they were little being charged with sexual relations with a student. These are just random examples of what hits my desk.
Unfortunately, as I edit our final edition each week, it is rare that I do not read about someone I know personally on our own pages.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern: when the person in the news isn’t a model citizen or doesn’t have a familiar last name, outrage is scarce.
But when it’s the local football star or a respected clergy member, suddenly we’re public enemy number one for doing our job and “out to get them.” Why the double standard?
Do you want news, or do you just want us to sweep certain stories under the rug because they make you uncomfortable?
Like I already mentioned, people will gleefully go through our Police Reports pages, being nosy about whether their neighbor was busted for speeding again, but fling mud at our newspaper when their relatives are mentioned in the indictments section on the following page.
Picture a large room of people (readers). Should I have to get consent from the group? “By a raise of hands, who knows (name)?” Am I allowed to do a news story on their criminal activities since nobody knows them?
I take no joy in running these stories. Frankly, I hate it—and then, to add insult to injury, I pay to publish them. But it’s our responsibility.
If you’re looking for a news outlet that picks and chooses coverage based on personal connections, The Village Reporter probably isn’t for you.
We can and must include tragic car accidents, legal issues, political rallies, and other highly sensitive coverage in the midst of, fortunately, what is typically page after page of positive news on why it’s great living in Northwest Ohio.
Can we all agree at least that we enjoy those “feel good” stories? Probably not. I swear we could publish a story about a group donating their time and money to paint benches at a park on a Saturday, and somebody would rip us for some strange reason.
One of the most recycled criticisms we hear is, “They’re just trying to sell newspapers by hurting people.” If you believe that, you clearly don’t know us personally or professionally.
As I’ve said before, we sell our papers for less than it costs to print and mail them. If you’re going to criticize, at least get creative.
For what it’s worth, we’ve been thanked over the years for taking the high road. For example, while some outlets race to snap the most graphic crash scene photos, my staff knows I’ll pay them an extra hour to wait until the scene is cleared, then get a sensitive, respectful photo.
How would we want to be treated by the media if it were our son in that tragic accident? If we wanted to “sell papers” with shocking images, we could. But that’s not who we are. We try to live by the Golden Rule. I (we) are not perfect—ask my wife—but it is always in the back of our minds.
If the subject matter is sensitive, we may call a timeout on publishing for an hour to think about how we can take the sharpness down (note: most in the media will try to dig the pain even deeper).
Some recent comments on a sensitive community subject:
Barbara: “Village Reporter—you like to dramatize news. Report what is needed but putting some of these facts out to the public is unnecessary. (Subject matter) has broken some laws but deserves limited unbiased reporting!”
Jody: “Shame on you Village Reporter, don’t you have better things to report?”
Barbara and Jody, I stand with you to have your opinions—they do not have to match my own. That is what is great about Freedom of Speech, but guess what, I get to have an opinion as well.
Your responses indicate you want us to sweep things under the rug? Not going to happen. I do not believe the community should pick up a pitchfork and attack when a well-liked person makes negative news, but equally, it is important the coverage goes forward with factual data.
Another wave of negativity rolled in last week, echoing what I addressed in my last column. Folks will write entire paragraphs of opinion on sensitive community issues, but it’s obvious they only read the headline.
Their comments often make about as much sense as writing about chicken wings on a story about a traffic accident. Quick to comment, slow to read—or more like never read at all.
If you’re bored, do some research on the percentage of Americans who only read headlines (never reading a line of the actual story), or depend on somebody else to relay news via a podcast, video, or social media (most of which are all opinion and seldom backed up with factual data).
And it’s not just here locally—this happens everywhere. On the national stage, if you love President Trump, any criticism is “liberal fake news.”
If you do not like him, he could broker world peace, and you’d still find fault. It’s the same phenomenon, just with a bigger audience. Look at how the media covers the President from a neutral standpoint and tell me I’m wrong.
So, as I’ve asked before: do you really want unbiased local news that does its best to cover everything in our community, or would you prefer a publication that sweeps things under the rug?
I’d much rather focus on the good—there’s plenty of it—but if a mayor is caught in a scandal, or village funds go missing, or a teacher crosses the line, do you really want us to pretend it didn’t happen? Is that what you expect from your local newspaper?
I suspect a large part of the mindset comes from practices of other media outlets. I also have noted that Facebook town community groups are very popular to share information—I think they are great.
But some administrators will delete any and all negative comments. I recall not that long ago a police officer making some horrific personal decisions—it wasn’t even debatable and more or less admitted.
All mention of it would immediately be deleted by a group administrator. I do not agree with this practice.
Again, I will stand up for Freedom of Speech, even when it, often heavily, contradicts my personal opinions and beliefs.
Now, onto another recent publication frustration—because there’s always one in front of you if you work in local news. Shoulders back, march ahead, and stick to your principles.
In my last column, I mentioned being attacked—mostly from conservatives—for sharing anything that doesn’t fit their worldview. The No Kings rallies in our area are a prime example.
For the record, probably nine out of ten political articles we publish—fundraising, events, guest speakers—are about Republican activities, as we live in an extremely conservative part of the county electing almost exclusively Republican leadership.
Also note that I’m an Independent who leans conservative myself and am mostly surrounded by conservatives.
But as soon as we share one article about a forthcoming anti-Trump rally submitted properly as a press release, suddenly, as Barbara put it, we’re “very biased, unfair reporting and promoting!”
Barbara, are you suggesting we shouldn’t share a public press release from a political group simply because it doesn’t align with your beliefs (or if I’m being honest, mine)?
I typically let people comment and try not to take offense—though some days it’d be easy. But here’s the truth: if you read our coverage, you’ll see all sides get a voice.
My rare response to the online criticism last week: “Barbara, there are no conservative rallies planned right now—if there were, we’d share those too. Just because you don’t like a group’s stance doesn’t make us biased for covering their event.”
“We fight for freedom of speech, whether or not we agree with the cause. Anything less is called state-run media, practiced by countries like China and Iran.”
While the No Kings rallies frankly are not my cup of tea personally, as a newspaper publisher, I will stand with them to have their right to share their voices (as long as peaceful), including within The Village Reporter.
If a press release about an event is sent to us and it directly takes place in our coverage area, we run them 100% of the time.
To be clear, I’m not a psychologist; most days, I struggle enough with the balding guy staring back at me in the mirror. I do feel that I am pretty good at observing.
But I have summarized this mindset that I see heavily shared on our public website and social media accounts. People will say they want fair, balanced news—until it involves someone they know or challenges what they believe. Can people actually handle unbiased news?
So, before you shoot the messenger for reporting something uncomfortable or involving someone in your circle, remember, it’s our job to inform, not to protect anyone’s comfort zone.
History is full of folks who tried to “kill the messenger” for delivering unwelcome news. The message remains, even if the messenger takes the heat. We’ll keep doing our job—warts and all—so our community can see itself, honestly, in the mirror.