A journalist's take on how news can't be fake

Journalism is critiqued—a lot. But rarely openly and publicly by someone actively working in the field. Not very many people are excited to talk to me when I call and say, “Good morning! My name is Zoey Fields and I am a reporter trying to get ahold of ____.”

There are three types of responses that I generally get from people:

1. Annoyed or dismissive

2. Genuinely willing to help or eager to talk (think informative v.s. gossip)

3. Confused or scared

The truth is, when I chose journalism as my college major, I was almost fully ignorant to the actual job description.

I knew that I didn’t want to sit in an office all day, that I wanted to regularly meet new people and that I never wanted to feel like I was done learning about the world around me. I never expected people to hate me or be mad at me for it.

The problem with journalism, now, is that everyone is quick to call us “the media.” And it’s true, we are. But there are so many differences between your local news reporter and the anchor you hate on CNN or FOX News—the first one being we don’t have our own team of makeup artists and camera crews.

The truth is, most of us joined the field for the same reasons I described. Some will tell you stories about a tragic event that happened to their family, and the reporter who came knocking on the door wanting to acknowledge their pain and raise their voices—I know so many journalists who joined the field to be that person to someone else. They felt heard, empowered, acknowledged. I had the experience of doing that here.

Other classmates I had in college told me they joined because they want to eventually go to law school; that’s a common one actually. The attention to detail, passion for equality, and the need to hold people accountable are a lot of traits you see in journalism students and, in turn, you also see a lot of lawyers leave the profession upon retirement and become newsroom editors or government reporter.

I agree the major news stations can be hard to watch, on both ends. There is a reason Democrats choose CNN and Republicans choose FOX and that should never be the case to begin with. Please hear me when I tell you, that your local journalists are just as aware and just as fed up with it.

CNN targets their main audience (and funding) by excluding, or cushioning, the details that would make their viewers go “hmm?”

FOX targets their main audience (and funding) by excluding, or cushioning the details that would make their viewers go “hmm?”

They both do it.

This type of scenario where you are fed information in a politically energized way where the plain facts get overlooked or thrown out completely is the closest thing to “fake news” that there is and, I would argue that it is less “fake” and more “withholding information”—but we won’t go there right now.

The most recent Roe v. Wade incident proves my point. One side is making it seem like it would be a national ban on abortion, while the other side is saying “it’s up to the state” without acknowledging how many states have publicly expressed interest in banning—26 states, more than half the country.

“Fake news” is an oxymoron and a ridiculous one at that. And, hopefully, I can lay this out in a way that will leave you feeling the same way.

News, by definition, is “newly received or noteworthy information.”

Information, by definition, is “facts provided or learned about something or someone.”

So, tell me, how can facts be fake?

News cannot be fake because of the way reporters must find sources in order to complete a story (whether you wanna talk to us or not, we can’t quote you if we don’t talk to you.)

For example:

Let’s say I go to a county commissioner's meeting. County commissioners are, typically, appointed by citizens in the community as a board of members who oversee government decisions and approvals in the county. They are responsible for decisions like law enforcement pay structure, grant applications for a city, county policies, approval of money transfers from one department to another, and other logistical duties for a city or town.

A board of commissioners is usually made up of about five people (dependent on the state and county size) with one “chair” and one “vice-chair” and they all swear under oath to serve with the county's best interest in mind.

While attending the meeting journalists (and any members of the public who wish to attend) are given the agenda the commissioners follow. The agenda is usually broken down into “old business” and “new business” sections—so typically, one can get an idea of what is going to be the “newsworthy” subjects, by analyzing the agenda.

As the meeting progresses and the commissioners work through the agenda, all of the words they say are now considered “public record.” This means that anyone—yes, anyone—can pull up the minutes from the meeting and have direct access to everything the commissioners said throughout the meeting. This is news because, legally, they are appointed and it is assumed they are speaking to the general public because of the topic and “elected” status to the county.

Now, this is the fun part!

Let’s say I stay after the meeting to talk to the board members about more specific information on something they discussed during the meeting—they are now a “direct source” to me. They talk to me, tell me their thoughts, and explain any questions I need to be clarified.

Later, when I go to write the article, I can use the information I received during my conversation, but I must tell the reader who I got it from.

For example:

We will say there is a Curly County commissioner named Bob Glob and I am asking him about an upcoming event they discussed during their meeting. The event was the ribbon cutting of a new park specifically designed for people with poodles. Bob tells me during our conversation that there are over 700 citizens with pet poodles, including himself, so he is very excited about the new park and plans to bring his dog, Rascal, with him to the event.

When I go to write the story, it would look something like this:

Curly County commissioners announced the ribbon-cutting event for Poodle Park during their Thursday night meeting. The park will serve all citizens of Curly County, including the four-legged ones.

Over 700 citizens in Curly County have pet poodles, Commissioner Bob Glob said. Glob is excited about the new park and plans to take his dog, Rascal, with him to the ribbon-cutting event.

That’s it.

That’s the news. It can’t be fake because Bob Glob said it, and I credited him for doing that. It really is that simple.

Bob Glob has an obligation as a county commissioner to not lie under his oath to serve the county and I have a legal right, according to the first amendment, to only document what I know is accurate. It is a mutual understanding between Bob and myself (and you will find that most local reporters, nor commissioners have no personal qualms against the other regarding how the “press” system must work).

It is not rocket science, report the truth.

Our government has laws set in stone that prohibit anything other than the truth being reported by journalists. Defamation, obstruction of justice, libel, invasion of privacy. Seriously, Google it. They sound like big fancy words, but they are simple concepts stating what we can and cannot do as reporters, to avoid the risk of being sued or even arrested.

So, with that, all I ask is the next time you want to call something “fake news” please stop and ask yourself if you are watching a national broadcast, or reading the local coverage of something. We shouldn’t have to keep feeling like the enemy in our neighborhood simply because of what a select few of the (much) higher-paid ones do on television.