When Marianas Variety cranked out its first mimeographed weekly issue on March 16, 1972, the printed word was still the first and last word about the news. You could also learn the news from the radio or TV, but to know more about an important news story, you had to read the frontpage of a newspaper, and then you had to go to the opinion pages to learn what the thinking class had to say about it.
In a world where most everything traveled slowly, including and especially the news, newspaper publishing was a serious — and costly — undertaking. Its responsibilities were considered important to a functioning democratic society. A newspaper must obtain facts, and it must report them clearly, accurately, timely. It must also provide a forum for various, usually conflicting, opinions.
And a newspaper, above all, must be held accountable for its contents. Otherwise it’s just a gossip sheet. (Or what is known today as an “online comment” or a “Facebook post” or a “tweet.”)
Like the Northern Marianas, Variety has been through a lot in the past 50 years. The changes have been tremendous and ongoing, but a newspaper’s duties have not changed. Today when anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can also be a “reporter” or a “commentator,” a newspaper must remain true to its main reason for existing: to be a reliable source of factual information.
<em>…we do know that to remain in this enterprise, Marianas Variety must report news stories in a fair and balanced manner. It must adhere to journalism’s ethical standards: accuracy, objectivity, and “respect for the dignity, privacy, rights and well-being of people encountered in the course of gathering and presenting the news.”</em>
Considering that we’ve been in this ever demanding and highly competitive biz for half a century now, we’re probably doing something right.
As the Society of Professional Journalists once put it, “journalism sometimes involves intruding upon people’s solitude, or pulling news from reluctant sources, or sharing distressing news with a community that would rather not learn it.” Worse, reporting the news and airing truly independent opinions are not always appreciated by those in power or those who hold or aspire for political office whatever their political leanings are.
Tough. But someone has to do this job especially in this day and age when anonymous opinions, misinformation, rumor, innuendo or slander can be packaged as “news.”
We’re not politicians so we won’t make promises. But we do know that to remain in this enterprise, Marianas Variety must report news stories in a fair and balanced manner. It must adhere to journalism’s ethical standards: accuracy, objectivity, and “respect for the dignity, privacy, rights and well-being of people encountered in the course of gathering and presenting the news.”
Those remain our goals — our fixed stars. Meanwhile, in other news…
