The Editor’s Notebook
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The value of reliable, local news coverage should never be underestimated
Last week’s chaotic events at the McCreary County School District’s Central Office, resulting in the arrest of the former superintendent of schools, somehow managed to make the value of reliable local news coverage even more apparent.
In today’s world of social media, it’s easy for stories to grow, grow, grow. With that growth, bad stories get bigger and bigger as rumors and unverified reports circulate and are repeated. Social media tempts us to get “the news” out to the community as soon as possible-without allowing the time needed to gather and verify all of the facts.
“If it bleeds, it leads” is an adage often heard in the news world. Seemingly there is some truth to that adage, because when bad news happens in McCreary County, we often find ourselves the target of news stations in Lexington, Knoxville, and other metropolitan areas who zoom in and report a mere tidbit of a bad news story-without bothering to even show up in beautiful McCreary County to get the whole story in context and without verifying information.
That is the good thing about hometown newspapers dedicated to the local community. Hometown newspapers care enough about their community to print “Just the facts, m’am, just the facts” after spending the time needed to gather and verify the facts.
Yes, for a newspaper dedicated to its readers, timely reporting is important. However, timely reporting should never take priority over accurate, adequate reporting. The two must balance on a tightrope, walking hand in hand.
That’s why we at The Voice spend time searching out, researching, and verifying stories before they go into print or up on social media. That’s why we rely on our team of proofreaders and our publisher to ensure we deliver quality and truth to our readers. That’s also why, The Voice welcomes information from its readers. Rest assured, when we receive new verifiable, factual information from readers, we don’t hesitate to correct, retract, or follow-up.
The Voice is committed to its mission statement of informing, educating, and caring about its community while preserving the history of McCreary County. In fulfilling that mission, The Voice is dedicated to fairly reporting facts without sensationalism. Our readers deserve that.
