Small-town newspapers

By Jesse Roman
I love the fact that I get to explore every day. I talk to interesting and motivated people, I attend important events and I have the privilege of sharing the information I glean from these experiences with everyone in the community.

I have fun, but also take my job very seriously. Credibility is really all you have in this business. If the public can’t trust what you write, there is no reason for you to be writing.

I think the majority of people who read the Stowe Reporter understand that, and understand the function of a newspaper. Most know a newspaper is not a means for the writers to pick on people we don’t like; our objective is not to plug businesses or promote agendas. As reporters, we’re not here to persuade and we’re not trying to portray the towns we cover as anything more or anything less than what they are. The idea is to gather accurate information, and lay it all out there so that individuals can make up their own minds about what’s going on. It’s an essential function for the community because informed citizens are empowered citizens.

Not everyone sees the newspaper this way. Some people don’t understand its function and don’t grasp the rationale of showing both sides of an argument. For some, any negative press is seen as an attack, even if they are given a substantial and adequate voice in the story. As reporters, we are not supposed to criticize, we don’t state opinions and we don’t judge. What we write, and what some see as “negative press,” ultimately comes directly from the mouths of the people we interview and the opinions they convey. We are simply giving people a voice, like all newspapers are supposed to do.

In the process, however, there are bound to be some people who don’t agree with everything we write or everything we do. Just read the letters to the editor. In that section — but much more often behind closed doors — I have been called a sensationalist, too young, and even empty below the brain. And I think that’s great. When people stop caring about what I write, then I’ll worry.