A press release is not the whole story. In fact, it’s clearly only one side. And that’s why it should never be taken as the gospel, shared as if it were on socials and accepted as the entire story.
Most of the time, it’s not. It’s one of the reasons the media, especially local media, are so important in a community. We ask the questions the public would like the opportunity to know, going beyond the release to delve into all the facts.
As journalists, it’s our job to dig into not-always-pleasant situations and report all of the facts in any given article you read within these pages, whether it’s a town board meeting, the latest ag spill, a violent crime or an impending winter storm.
Oftentimes, we rely on organizations and government entities to provide us this information, and more often than not lately, they will email us the proverbial spin document, or refer us to a Facebook post, and sometimes, they decline comment, telling us, “It’s all in the press release.”
While we’re not faulting any public information officers for doing their job, we are pointing fingers at the government leaders who allow this to be their mantra, ignoring phone calls or refusing to answer questions person to person versus keyboard to keyboard.
That presents obstacles for reporters trying to give the reading public the full story. Anyone can go to an organization’s website or Facebook page and read the one-sided spin offered there. But, if you want all sides of a story, unbiased reporting and more in-depth information, your local newspaper should be the place you turn. Our only bias is toward the citizens who have a right to know.
What our staff has been trained to do is to gather all of the facts. That means, for example, if there’s an ag spill in the community, we try to get comments from law enforcement, emergency services, and, if possible, the person who was driving during the incident. A press release doesn’t answer all the questions, only the one an agency wants you to know. And that presents a problem for us, because we’re bound by ethics and our unspoken creed as journalists to get the full story fairly — every time.
Imagine if county commissioners sent out a press release, detailing their budgeting process, declining further comment. This, thankfully, hasn’t happened here, but if commissioners were not transparent, residents would have to attend hours and hours of budget workshops, or watch hours and hours of budget talks on YouTube to have an idea of how their tax dollars were being spent. Because we attend those meetings, condense them into a legible report and print those articles for you, readers are more aware of what exactly is being decided on their behalf.
Occassionally, we admit, a press release is necessary. Fatal accidents are a good example. Highway Patrol officers, busy on the roads, may not have time to talk to reporters, thus they issue a release giving all the details they can provide of how the accident happened, who died, and any charges that might be filed. Yet, if we were going to talk about an upcoming drunk driving campaign, we would want to talk to someone at the Patrol versus just using a release.
We rarely regurgitate a press release in our newspaper. There are Facebook pages that do that, and that’s not what you read a newspaper for. You read your newspaper for the details, the nitty-gritty, all sides, in terms you can easily understand. If The Sampson Independent merely reposted press releases on its Facebook page, how would you ever know all sides of a story?
We use our social media to enhance our news coverage, to report news instantly, not to tell you the whole story. For that, you need to pick up the paper, or go to clintonnc.com and get a digital copy.
We don’t accept — nor do we recommend others accept — a one-sided release as all there is to any story. Most likely it’s not.
The very definition of journalism is “writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation,” per Merriam-Webster.
Anyone these days can claim to be a journalist or a media company. However, the real journalists are the ones who gather the facts, report them to the public with no spin or bias, and do all they can do to find the truth.
So, the next time you read a press release, remember: that information was put out by one organization, one candidate for office, one marketing professional, all designed to make the people who released it look good.
The articles you read in these pages? Just the facts, plain and simple.