Colleen Conant, publisher
of the Boulder Daily Camera, delivered the graduation speech
at the May 13 commencement ceremony for the School in Macky
Auditorium. Here are some excerpts from her address.
Everything else
you hear me say today can flow in one ear and out the other.
After all, it's a day for festivity, not speeches. But please
hear this.
You are entering a noble and honorable profession. The work
we do, when we do it well, is important. It is at the very foundation
of a civilized society. It is protected in our country's founding
document. Our ability to practice our craft is guaranteed by
the First Amendment to the Constitution. Not the Second or the
Third, but the First.
...
That nobility was demonstrated vividly last month much closer
to home. The journalists I sent to cover the Columbine High
School shooting story are not average any sense of the word.
They did what average people cannot do, what average people
choose not to do. Yet what these journalists did is what our
customers expect from those of us who practice this honorable
craft. I know that some of you were among that group.
These editors, reporters and photographers are the best of what
journalism is. They went to Columbine scared, on many different
levels. It was a big story. They were going into a potentially
dangerous crime scene; many of them would confront horror and
misery and grief beyond anything they had experienced up to
this point in their careers. The editors and designers who stayed
behind were equally important to the way this story was handled.
The tone of the story had to be just right.
Each of them understood the mission. This is the job they chose.
This is professional journalism. It is noble work, and they
performed nobly. And thank God, they did. For this was a story
that demanded the best of us. Our reporting skills were put
to the test, as well as our compassion and sensitivity. The
world had gone crazy for the moment, and it was our job to bring
some sense to it all. That's what journalists do.
...
Most credibility issues are borne of poor journalism or bad judgment,
not a vast conspiracy or lack of intelligence.
When we spell names incorrectly, or misuse punctuation, readers
notice. When we get common street names wrong, we give readers
reason to doubt us. When we fail to get comment from all points
of view in a controversy, we weaken our argument that we are balanced.
When we focus on the extremes of an issue, and ignore those in
the center, we give rise to accusations of bias.
When TV commentators become talking heads on Sunday morning programs,
or accept big fees for speaking to special interest groups, we
send a message that the news is for sale. Anytime those of us
in the business of journalism or mass communications become the
story, we have blurred the lines between what is news and what
is someone's agenda.
...
Failing to uphold the honor of our profession has extreme consequences.
It spawns surveys, which spawn focus groups, which spawn consultants
who send marketing gurus into a frenzy of positioning campaigns
and still more surveys. All this keeps editors so busy reacting
and responding to the "next best thing" that they scarcely have
time to exercise the oversight that ensures we are living up to
core journalistic values.
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