Working in the Newsroom at a community Newspaper can often be a thankless job.
Complaints usually far outnumber compliments in this industry, which since its inception has also been characterized as requiring irregular and long hours for what some might consider meagre financial compensation.
But most of us know all of this going in – journalism professors have been known to tell students if they want to get rich they’ll have to switch majors – and yet we stay in the business anyway, because we love the job.
It doesn’t take us long to learn that complaints are simply par for the course. In fact, after a while, very little surprises us about what will generate complaints.
So it really was not a shocker when the Advertiser received several complaints about two photos we ran on page 19 of last week’s paper depicting several young boys holding a snake at an event at the Harriston library.
The complainants, of course, questioned why the Advertiser would run the photos, considering that earlier last week two young boys – Noah Barthe, 4, and his brother Connor, 6 – were killed by a python in Campbellton, New Brunswick.
We understand how tragic and preventable those deaths were and in no way were we trying to “glorify” them, as one complainant suggested. And we certainly did not callously run the photos without careful consideration.
We actually had several discussions about whether or not to run the photos, with members of our editorial team questioning the move, but in the end we decided to go ahead for a number of reasons, including:
– the geographical divide between Wellington County and where the tragic asphyxiation of the young boys occurred;
– the completely unrelated scenarios (the Harriston library event had trained professional animal handlers on scene);
– the timing of the two events (the Harriston library event took place several days before the new Brunswick tragedy);
– a Newspaper’s duty is to report the News, not censor it;
– the Harriston reptile show was an interesting summer event worthy of photo coverage; and
– local children should not lose out on the opportunity to have their photo in the Newspaper (which many consider a thrill) due to an accident, however unfortunate, in another province.
Perhaps the one thing the Advertiser could have done is delay printing the photos for one week, but considering we are in the business of providing timely News and we try at all costs not to delay coverage, we decided to print the photos last week.
And we stand by that decision.
While some might lament the current state of hypersensitivity that seems to cause so much distress for some in our society, we realize it’s part of the world in which we now live. We understand one person may be badly offended by something the next person finds completely inconsequential.
As always, we invite any and all readers who have an issue with our coverage to contact us about it. But there remains no better way to have your voice heard than by submitting a letter to the editor.
We believe our Letters to the Editor section is the finest of its kind in Wellington County, thanks solely to our dedicated readers, who take the time to offer their thoughts on countless topics throughout the year.
Our paper wouldn’t be the same without them.
Mental health feature
Starting this week, the Advertiser is running a four-part mental health feature focusing on depression, self harm and suicide.
This year alone, several suicides have rocked various towns within Wellington County.
Given that the victims were of both sexes, with a wide range in age and backgrounds, it’s clear that many of us – and often the ones we least expect – can be susceptible to serious depression or other mental health issues.
While we acknowledge a four-part series will barely scratch the surface of the topic, it is our hope this feature will encourage anyone suffering with mental health issues to realize they are not alone and to reach out for help before it is too late. We also hope to encourage everyone to change their way of thinking about mental health issues.
Keeping quiet and applying one-size-fits-all labels to those affected clearly isn’t working.
It’s time to end the silence and remove the stigma. It’s time to talk about it.
