The Boerne Star is a newspaper.
The Boerne Star is a good newspaper.
The Boerne Star is your good community newspaper.
Webster defines a newspaper as “a paper that is printed and distributed … that contains news, articles of opinion, features and advertising.”
To put it simply, it’s a paper with news – and information.
Throughout my career, I’ve preached that any newspaper – or media source for that matter – is simply the messenger. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, my hometown newspaper was called the Vidette-Messenger for that very reason.
What’s a messenger? The dictionary definition: “A person who carries a message or is employed to carry messages.”
There you have it. A newspaper is the messenger of the news. Period.
And any newspaper or media source worth its salt will be that messenger of the news – come … what … may.
Recently, a couple of tragedies have taken place on Boerne’s north side in which accidents on Interstate 10 have claimed lives. Both were horrific in every sense and led to extreme pain and grief for the families and friends of the victims.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families, friends and everyone involved.
Unfortunately, because they happened and because of their nature, they were and are news. And as your community newspaper, we’re responsible and expected to report on any and all facts as they become available. That’s our First Amendment right – and duty.
And that’s us being a newspaper. That’s us being the messenger. Period.
Many have complained and/ or become upset, saying we should not have reported what we did. That’s your right and your privilege. We understand. We truly understand.
And please believe me when I say we feel the pain.
But we must do our due diligence. We must do our jobs. We must be that quality newspaper. We must be the messenger.
It’s really that simple – and that complicated.
That doesn’t mean we’re insensitive or uncaring. That means we have a job to do and a duty to you.
So, we work hard on gathering the facts and reporting them accurately – without sensationalizing – no matter what’s going on in front of us. We take into account everything and painstakingly put together factual accounts as given to us by trusted sources and our trained observations.
If you’re a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer or a sales clerk, you’re trained in your field. You have to be. As journalists, we’re trained in ours. We know our business, just like you know yours. We know the do’s and don’ts and the facts versus the opinions. We know our responsibilities – and the limits of them.
And we do ours to the best of our ability.
In doing that, in doing our jobs to the best of our ability, we unfortunately have to report the tragedies and the details that surround them.
Believe me, we don’t like writing these types of stories any more than you like reading them. But we have to. We simply have to.
In fact, we’re not doing our jobs when we don’t report on the tragedies. That’s extremely important to remember.
I’ve been in this profession for almost 40 years, and some stories never get any easier to write, edit and publish. But it’s my job, my responsibility, my commitment to you to do so.
Again, that certainly doesn’t make me a bad person, an uncaring person, an insensitive person or a disgusting person. And it certainly doesn’t make your Boerne Star any of those things, either.
We sincerely apologize if we’ve upset you by doing our job, but we stand behind what we do, how we do it and why we do it. After all, the basics of the reporting game are telling the who, what, where, when, why and how – no matter what those details entail. That’s Journalism 101.
Please think about that for a minute or two.
We’re proud to be your community newspaper, your community messenger. We’re proud to partner with you through the thick and thin. And we’re proud to be able to report on the news of the day to the best of our ability.
If anyone would like to talk to me about any of this in greater detail, my door is always open. I always welcome your thoughts and comments.
We’re The Boerne Star and our motto always rings true. We’re local yesterday, today and tomorrow.
And no one around these parts does it any better than we do.
And sincerely, and as always, thanks for reading.
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