Often the phone will ring in the newsroom with someone offering information about an event or initiative in the community. At the conclusion of a recent call of that nature the caller sought to give weight to his pitch by saying, "this is some positive news about the community. There is always so much focus on the negative."
The "always" reference got my back up and I told the caller as much. He sputtered a little and didn't really try to back up his statement, but the comment still left me in a rankled state.
On the one hand we are criticized for painting too negative a picture of the community. On the other hand, groups such as North Battleford Victims of Crime chastise us for not telling it like it is.
In reality we believe we do a rather fine job of providing a balance of feel good reporting and reality. Those who say there is nothing but negativity in our reporting are looking strictly for the negative and bypassing the positive.
Those who chastise us for not telling the whole story, should be aware of the amazing amount of time John Cairns devotes to covering court cases of interest, while still managing to complete work he needs to devote to his other beats.
In this edition you can read about a man sentenced for drug possession and an alleged drunk-driving incident causing death. And, if you choose to look deeper, you can enjoy the anecdotes of Les Guthrie, who delivered newspapers throughout the Northwest for 36 years or about how Living Sky School Division is getting innovative in finding ways to get their students more physically active. All positive, no, but not all negative either.
