It is not a journalists job to protect us from the ugly facts. Neither is it his job to protect the sensitive from the painful truth or anyone, really, from anything. In fact, speaking more broadly, it is not a journalists job to make the world a better place, to ensure our right thinking, or to defend the virtuous politicians that sophisticates like himself voted for while excoriating the evildoers elected by those country rubes on the other side. It is not his job to do good or be kind or be wise. The idea that any of this is a journalist’s job is a fallacy that seems to have infected the trade in the 1970s, when idealistic highbrows began to replace the Janes and Joes who knew a good story when they heard one. Because thats the journalists job: the story. His only job: to tell the whole story straight. In the greater scheme of things, Williams suicide is a small story, but it is part of a bigger story: the story of our country and our world. That story unfolds only slowly, and no one knows what wisdom it will ultimately reveal. The best we can do is tell each chapter whole and true, without piety or fear or favor. Carve it in granite.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 21:56:06 +0000
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