A Journalist

Who? What? Where? Why? When? How?

These are the questions that a journalist asks. A journalist is our eyes and ears, ferreting out facts to keep us informed. A journalist is fair and objective. A journalist asks the questions that need to be asked, and asks the questions the audience wants answered. A journalist checks the facts. A journalist reports the news rather than make news.

Journalism is a vital element in our society. It is how we stay current with the events that affect our lives now and in the future. Journalists act as a check on the machinations of government, shining a light to expose the secrets that wrongdoers wish to keep in the dark. Journalists do more than get the facts; journalists get the story. A good journalist finds the relationship between events, and finds the human element in a story. A journalist is not just a detective; a journalist is a writer, framing facts so that they can be absorbed, understood and used to make sense of the world. A journalist gets the human reaction, so we know how others feel about a situation.

Peter Jennings, an ABC newsman for four decades, died today at 67 from lung cancer. Jennings was no "talking head," he was a journalist who could do his own reporting, who ventured into the world at great personal risk to get the stories that we needed to know. The world will always need professional journalists of authority we can rely on to get the story and present it well. The world is poorer for the loss of Peter Jennings. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and colleagues. He was a great journalist, and he will be missed.

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Blog Tag: News