It's National Newspaper Week: Why I report with fact, fairness

I was a freshman in high school when I decided I hated journalists.

What a way to start off a column celebrating National Newspaper Week, right?

Bear with me.

One of my teachers at the time told us to pick a current event from the news and write about it. Long story short, my teacher ended up reading a news article with the class that hit too close to home for me. It was riddled with adjectives and lacked objective reporting but, of course, had a headline that made you want to read more.

And with that, my 14-year-old mind conjured a blanket statement: all news stories are written for flair over fact.

Yet, a decade later, I’m sitting here in the Lexington County Chronicle’s office as its editor with a wealth of impactful yet fair reporting behind me and before me, knowing well the value behind my job, that there is a truthful and fair way to go about informing the community.

You’ve heard the trite expression, “I want to be the [X] I never had.” Well, I’m in this job to be the community reporter I wish the community I grew up in had. One who’s fearless but fair. An excellent writer but never at the cost of accuracy.

That trite expression and that scary moment from my first year of high school was in my mind as I picked my college major, only I decided I wanted to study to become the teacher I never had.

An English education major still with a distaste for journalists, I reluctantly joined the student newspaper just to make new friends. I was hoping to be a copy editor so all I had to do was edit for grammar, but I was assigned to be the news editor.

I soon fell in love with storytelling. With interviewing people. With making connections. With reporting fact. I then took as many journalism classes as I could while keeping my English major and was even editor-in-chief of the student newspaper my senior year. Not long before graduating, I decided I was better suited to be the community reporter I wish I had over becoming the teacher I wish I had, so I quickly garnered some job offers from South Carolina news organizations.

Since graduating, I’ve written stories under every beat there is, except sports; you don’t want me covering sports. I’ve written stories about murder, menstruation, pigeons, poets, ghost hunters, government, veterans, violence, clarinets, coast guards and alligators. Lots of alligators.

A decade after my sudden distaste for journalists was formed, I sit here and write this column for National Newspaper Week as the editor of my local paper, and I couldn’t be more convinced I have the coolest job in the world.

At the intersection of creativity and public service, I write. I write stories I hope matter to my readers, that put my community in the know, promote the “knowledge is power” mantra and, most of all, exude fact and fairness.