Telling The Story Vitally Important Coverage Helps Communities Need Facts To Progress.

Fri., June 4, 1999

Jamie Tobias Neely For The Edit

When danger strikes, whether it’s a terrible shooting in Littleton, Colo., or an empty threat at Sacajawea Middle School, parents rush to the school grounds.

They search for two forms of reassurance: the sight of their own unscathed child and the chance to hear accurate information about the event itself. The first is priceless. The second, whether conveyed on the spot or disseminated by a professional news organization, has a value we forget to measure: the power of truth.

During a frightening event, the human imagination can spin out of control. A dark swirl of rumor mounts. But the careful, accurate reporting of the facts has the capacity to calm a community’s anxiety, to quell our collective fear.

Knowing exactly what happened and when, and where and how, helps the human mind make sense of the senseless. Truth brings order to chaos, drawing limits and bringing clarity to the murkiest events. As news reporters convey facts, community healing begins.

All responsible journalists know the significance of their role in a free society. They realize the risks of overreacting, of feeding the public an unrelenting diet of mayhem and tragedy. Careful journalists work to contain that impulse. For today’s teens, far more dangerous influences exist in the form of nihilistic music, ghastly videogames and Internet bomb-building sites.

Dreadful as the Littleton shooting was, much good has come from the news coverage surrounding it. The nation’s attention has been riveted on the needs of its children. Constructive conversations have begun. Parents, educators, lawmakers, physicians, ministers and mental health professionals have taken action. None of this would have been possible in an information void.

Together, we search for the reasons underlying these events. They will be found not in a journalist’s zeal to tell a dramatic story but in a nation’s inattention to its youngest and most vulnerable citizens, its children. The role of responsible news organizations will be to help Americans grapple with this profound issue, make sense out of reality and construct solutions.

Any parent can tell you: Accurate information has the power to reassure. Newspapers and television broadcasts that delve deeper may even inspire a country to heal.

Local journalism is essential.

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