Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Students: How do papers guard against bias?

By ERIC MILLSAPS

Published: October 13, 2009

Newspaper reporters and politicians are human.

Teachers and publishers are, too.

I made those declarations as I visited with Laura Sigmon's Advanced Placement class on government.

The class at St. Stephens High School is studying politics and the role of the media. I was glad to be part of the talks. I majored in journalism at UNC with a concentration in Political Science. These are my kind of students.

They were bright, to boot. I offer up three questions we covered.

1. How much difficulty do you have maintaining neutrality throughout an article?

We discussed how every individual (even a reporter) comes to an assignment with a unique set of experiences and beliefs. So do the people they cover, including politicians and teachers. That makes us nothing more than human.

It is impossible for those prior experiences to be completely set aside, but we do believe every reporter can be fair, accurate and thorough.

2. Have you ever altered a quote or interview to suit your article?

"No," was my immediate one-word answer. But we shared many more words on the subject. We talked about how every journalist at the Hickory Daily Record signs a document annually that reinforces a zero-tolerance policy for fabrication, plagiarism or other unethical behavior in conjunction with production of a news story. I said people in our industry have ruined careers and lost livelihoods due to such errors in judgment.

There is nothing a newspaper guards more fiercely than its reputation for being truthful.

3. Why doesn't the Hickory Daily Record have foreign news?

We do try to put a page of national and international news in the paper every day . But world news will never be our focus. We aim to provide news you cannot get elsewhere about the schools, sports, crime, business and politics in our region. We help people here celebrate weddings, honor the departed and salute life . Nothing is more important than the interests of our readers.

The 90 minutes were over so quickly.

Call me cheesy, but I couldn't remember when I had so much fun at work. I pulled out of the parking lot with a big smile on my face and my day off to a great start.

I guess that makes my point. Even publishers are human, although you might get some argument from the staffers here at the paper.

Sometimes all it takes is a roomful of smart kids and a discussion of two of my passions to prove it.

Eric Millsaps is the publisher of the Hickory Daily Record. Write to him at emillsaps@hickoryrecord.com.

Do you have questions about the paper you would like answered?
Send them to me at
emillsaps@hickoryrecord.com.
I will select some with broad appeal and answer them here.