When I used to hear people complaining about “the media” and saying they don’t trust “the media,” I used to let it slide. But now, I don’t. I believe it’s time to defend the media, to discuss that mainstream media reports have been proven highly accurate overall and to point out that journalists have very stressful jobs. It’s also worth mentioning that for this high-stress job, journalists receive low pay, crappy benefits and public hatred to boot.
Not only is it time to stick up for journalists, it’s time to celebrate them, so that’s what we did last week in honor of World Press Freedom Day. Our Arizona chapter of PEN America hosted Reporters Take Up the Pen to celebrate Arizona reporters who have written books. We co-hosted with the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and held our event at a decades-old and much-loved bookstore, the Poisoned Pen. The bookstore was packed for the event – standing room only – and the audience was lively, if not downright rowdy.
For this event, the audience had a chance to meet “the media” and to see that they are indeed human beings, with personalities, feelings and dreams. The panelists included:
Leo W. Banks a former Arizona Star reporter and author of Double Wide
Christina Estes, Emmy Award-winning reporter and author of Off the Air and The Story That Wouldn’t Die
Pam Hait, reporter and author of more than a dozen nonfiction and children’s books
John Washington, reporter at Arizona Luminaria and author of The Case for Open Borders, and The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum and the US-Mexican Border and Beyond.
The evening started with SPJ’s Arizona secretary Mark Scarp cracking everyone up when he mentioned that, like our panelists, he’s also a journalist who is writing a book – he said it’s about beer, he’s dedicated to research and is on his fourth draft. Eh hem.
Next, I gave a speech about the importance of journalism in a functional democracy and the panelists talked about books they wrote, ranging from suspense novels, to mysteries, travel guides, children’s books and an immigration thought piece. The event was streamed to several countries and audience members peppered the panel with questions, in person and through the stream. Moderator Tim Eigo, SPJ’s Arizona president, kept the crowd laughing and elicited insightful responses from each of the panelists.
Press freedom is near and dear to me, to our panelists, and hopefully to all of you as well, but let’s face it, a disturbing percentage of people in this country don’t agree.
I’m sick of the systematic attacks on journalism from our very government, and of people blaming “the media” for practically every problem we face. The architects of these smear campaigns were and are extremely clever and know that if you can get Americans to distrust basic reality, you can get them to believe propaganda. All these people who complain about reporters, do they really want a country that doesn’t have a free press?
After hearing from real journalists who cover their beats with smarts and good old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting, I’m hoping that those who attended our event left empowered to stick up for “the media” too.
