Journalists are not the opposition, said former CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer during the Texas Press Association Midwinter Trade Show in Denton last weekend.
One hundred plus newspaper publishers of weeklies and dailies watched as Bill Cooke, publisher emeritus of the Rockdale Reporter was inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame in Denton.
The next morning newspaper men and women were inspired by Schieffer’s words. They are worth repeating.
“You cannot have a democracy unless citizens h a v e access to inde- pendently gathered information that they can compare with the government’s version.
We are not the opposition party as some in power will try to make us seem.
I do not consider myself an enemy of the people. I consider myself a citizen of the United States of America doing what I see as my job as a reporter and that is to try to get to the truth.
Let the politicians deliver the messages, we simply have to check out and find out if their message is true or false, then let people decide what to do about that.
This is what separates a totalitarian society from a democracy. In a totalitarian society only the government gives out the news. I don’t think there’s anybody in America who thinks that’s the way to go. Newspapers are the place that our citizens can get independently gathered news.”
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