News value drives decisions, not our endorsement

Hey you? Over there. Let me get up on my soapbox, grab my bullhorn and tell you how to think. The way you view a core piece of the world is wrong, and I'm here to set you straight. If I said that on the main corner downtown, what do you think a person's reaction would be. Would he turn the other way? Run? Stick out a finger? Throw a stone? Me and our newspapers trying to correct how you think is similarly done in vain. Maybe there was a time where newspapers saw themselves in this light — town crier whose views you probably should take as your own. No, we're not here to tell you how to think, but I do think our role is to inform, and also to clarify. A big area of clarification comes in the realm of media literacy. An area of explanation is due when it comes to protests. Believe it or not, we train our teams to notice things when they drive around town. If something makes you curious, it's probably worth looking into. That was exactly what was going through my head driving home on a March day. I noticed about 50 or so protestors outside the Hancock County Fairgrounds. As I drove by, I vaguely remembered an event about Jan. 6, 2021, but couldn't put my finger completely on what the hub-bub was about. As I often do when I see or think of something, I called our editor and explained the scene, leaving him to make a decision as what to do with the information. Seeing that there was a large number of protestors, he sent someone to take photos of the protest, which was the right move, in my mind. We printed three in the following day's edition, with this caption: "Protestors gathered along East Sandusky Street and Fishlock Avenue in protest of the Hancock County Republican Party's Jan. 6 Commission event at The Old Millstream Center Tuesday." Mind you, the event protested featured a pair of out-of-town speakers and sold tickets for attendance, meaning it wasn't open to the public. Political groups hold local fundraisers all the time, and paid fundraising events aren't usually in our lane of coverage. No matter one's view, here's what went into our decision making: Something interesting was happening on public property (the sidewalk), and we took pictures. Our attention does not equal our endorsement. A similar situation took place at a protest in Tiffin a few weeks later. On April 5, more than 1,000 locations in the United States saw "Hands Off" protests related to frustration with actions happening in the White House. On Saturday, while I was sitting at my daughter's rain-soaked game, I received a text from one of our reporters. They told me about the Tiffin protest, and shared a short video. Because they didn't have access to post on our Facebook page, I was asked to. Knowing it would be of interest, I posted the video with the following caption: "This is the Hands Off protest taking place in downtown Tiffin. Hands Off is part of a national effort protesting recent actions by the Trump administration." Forgive me for breaking my own personal rule of not caring about Facebook comments, but what happened next amazed me. The video garnered an incredible 916 comments, many pointing their fingers directly at the paper. My favorite: "The Advertiser-Tribune is mentally ill liberal propaganda." I'm no psychiatrist, but posting a video that has minimal context and is not taking sides is less mentally ill than spending one's Saturday afternoon calling names at those you don't either understand or agree with. On second hand, this does seem to make me a little ill. Just because we write about something, doesn't mean we agree with it. My dad, who sat in a seat similar to mine for much longer than mine, gave me some great advice: "You're not the judge. You're not the jury. You're not God." With our opinion page, we are trying to select a variety of viewpoints, with more emphasis being given to those local in nature. We run syndicate columns and cartoons from authors/illustrators who have different views. How could we agree with them all? That amount of waffling would make us seem like … wait for it … a politician! I'm a Michigan fan, but we run a weekly Ohio State football page in our paper each week during the season. Does that mean I agree the Scarlet and Gray should be America's team? I'd ask that you all take a deep dive into our content. We're really just trying to write about our communities and show what life is like in 2025 in our part of the world. On the opinion page, we are trying to craft a balance, which is incredibly hard, but worth the effort. OK, now that I've got that off my chest, I'll get off my soapbox, and drop my bullhorn. But rest assured, if you or anyone else picks up yours on the main corner downtown, we'll likely be there to record it. Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier, Findlay, the Sandusky Register, The Advertiser-Tribune, Tiffin, the Norwalk Reflector and Review Times, Fostoria. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.