Your ELi: One Veteran and The Value of a Free Press

On this day set aside to honor veterans, I am thinking about my father. He always said he had the “best tour of duty ever,” because his assignment during the Korean War was to live on a base in San Francisco and write for a military newspaper. He went on from there to get his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in U.S. History and accept a faculty position at MSU.

He didn’t live to see the birth of ELi, but I can tell you that he would have loved it—not only because he would have thought it was the best use of my talents, but because he believed in the power of the press. When I was growing up in East Lansing, we got the Detroit Free Press in the morning, the Lansing State Journal in the afternoon, and the New York Times on Sunday. There was “All Things Considered” at 5:00 p.m. every day, and then Walter Cronkite.

What was most important was not the deluge of news (although I must say I was a really well-informed elementary student) but the lessons from Dad about where it came from, and how to think about it. I vividly remember sitting with him at the breakfast table as he explained that we have to question everything given to us as “news.” Who wrote it? Is there, maybe, a reason that they wrote it? Do they have a horse in the race, do they get money from someone cast in a favorable light in the story, is there a personal enemy portrayed as a villain? Are there advertisers, and if so, are there signs that their products or industry gets more attention? Do negative stories about the advertiser go unreported or get buried in the back pages?

He taught me about John Peter Zenger, who had his newspaper shut down because he criticized a colonial governor. We watched Watergate unfold, and he explained the role of reporters in digging for, insisting on and risking everything for the truth.

When I was in high school moaning about how history seemed to be only about an endless parade of white men he gave me Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. He also told me that Zinn had his own bias, and that I should be aware of that as I read.

Although history is written by the victors, he explained, there are sometimes records from people who lacked power but took the time to write down what was happening. Their testimonies correct the impression that no women or African Americans did anything important for hundreds of years in this country. There’s also that whole problem with Christopher Columbus.

ELi serves this community as both a news source and as a record of our times at the most local level imaginable. We bring you stories about one city, with its Council, public schools, faith communities, crimes, tensions, financial struggles, developments, artistic expressions, tremendous sorrows and unbridled joy.

We have biases. I do, our Publisher Alice Dreger does, and so do all of our reporters. Because we’re human. Like my father before me, I tell you to question bias in ELi stories when you see it. Drop me a line at editor_ann@eastlansinginfo.org.  Tell me what you think, ask questions, be honest, express (constructive) outrage, help us be the best news source we can be, and to create an accurate record. If you tell us, we can respond and make necessary corrections.

In this new day of citizen journalism we open the doors to everyone living and observing in this community to share what they see, what they know, to dig deep and serve as a witness. Dad would have loved it (although he would have been worried about the ability of untrained reporters to write a strong lede).

If you, too, believe in the power of the press, you can be a part of reporting truth and informing your neighbors about all that is wonderful, difficult and essential in East Lansing. You can write for us to highlight issues that concern you and to shine a light on the unsung heroes who populate the City. (And it’s my job to help you write a lede worthy of my dad, which I will do with great pleasure). If you really don’t see yourself as a reporter you can provide financial support so we can continue to pay the reporters who dig deep to tell you about everything from school board candidates to the local indie music scene.

Question everything, accept nothing at face value, and participate. As Thomas Jefferson said (and Dad had on an ancient index card over his desk) “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”