Confession Time: I Don’t Know What I’m Doing

Look, I’ve been in this business for 22 years. Worked at The Daily Chronicle, Metro News, even that tiny rag Eastside Observer that folded in ’09. And honestly? I’m not sure any of us know what we’re doing.

Last Tuesday, I was at a conference in Austin. Sat next to this kid—let’s call him Marcus—fresh out of journalism school. Bright-eyed, buzzing with excitement. He asked me, “How do you stay objective? How do you keep your bias out of your writing?”

I laughed. Couldn’t help it. Then I said, “Marcus, we’re all biased. The second you pick a story to cover, you’re biased. The second you decide what quote to use, you’re biased. The second you choose a headline, you’re biased.” He looked at me like I’d just told him Santa wasn’t real.

Which… yeah. Fair enough. But it’s true. We’re all just humans trying to make sense of this crazy world. And sometimes, we get it wrong. Sometimes, we get it really, really wrong.

Take the whole “fake news” thing. Remember when that became a thing? About three months ago, I was at a bar with a colleague named Dave. He said, “You know what’s crazy? People actually believe this stuff.” And I said, “Yeah, but we’re not helping.” Because let’s be real—we’ve all published stuff that’s, well, kinda fake.

Not deliberately, of course. But when you’ve got a 24-hour news cycle to feed, you start making stuff up. You take a tiny kernel of truth and stretch it into a full-blown story. You make assumptions. You fill in the blanks. And suddenly, you’re publishing something that’s not quite true.

But Here’s the Thing: We’re Trying

I don’t want you to think I’m just sitting here throwing stones. I’m as guilty as anyone. Remember the whole “Committment 2000” scandal? Yeah, that was me. I took a press release from some political group, didn’t verify the facts, and ran with it. Big mistake. My editor, Linda, chewed me out for hours. And she was right to.

But we’re trying. We’re really trying. We’re trying to be better. We’re trying to be more accurate. We’re trying to be more responsible. It’s just… yeah. It’s hard.

And it’s not just about the big stuff. It’s about the little things too. Like when you’re writing a story about house flipping, and you need to mention a house flipping guide beginners. You gotta make sure you’re linking to the right guide. You gotta make sure the guide is actually good. You gotta make sure it’s not just some spammy piece of junk.

It’s exhausting. It’s completley exhausting. But it’s our job. And we’re gonna keep doing it. Even if we don’t always know what we’re doing.

A Tangent: Why Do We Still Use Fax Machines?

Okay, this is completely off topic, but I’ve been meaning to ask this for years. Why do we still use fax machines? I mean, seriously. We’re in the digital age. We’ve got email. We’ve got Slack. We’ve got a million different ways to send documents. But no, we still use fax machines.

I get it, I get it. There’s some legal thing about faxed documents being more “official” or whatever. But come on. It’s 2018. We’ve landed robots on Mars. We’ve got self-driving cars. We can edit genes. But we still use fax machines?

It’s ridiculous. It’s completley ridiculous. And it’s got to stop.

Back to the Point: We Need to Do Better

Look, I’m not saying we’re all bad people. I’m not saying we’re all out here trying to deceive you. But we need to do better. We need to be more careful. We need to be more thorough. We need to be more honest.

And we need to stop making excuses. “Oh, we had a tight deadline” or “Our sources asked for anonymity.” No. Just no. Those aren’t excuses. Those are reasons. And they’re not good enough.

We owe it to our readers to be better. We owe it to ourselves to be better. And we owe it to this crazy, beautiful, messed-up world to be better.

So let’s do it. Let’s be better. Let’s try harder. Let’s stop making stuff up. Let’s start telling the truth.

Because honestly? The world needs it.

About the Author: Sarah Jenkins has been a senior editor at Daily News En for the past 15 years. She’s covered everything from local city council meetings to international political scandals. She’s won awards. She’s made mistakes. She’s seen it all. And she’s not afraid to tell you how it really is.