Annapolis Strong ~ echo from Dallas opinion news

Maryland in mourning "Annapolis Strong" ~ all gun violence is preventable ~ every story is personal.

In an era where the media is cast as "fake news," a very real news story has just come to the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. As Dallas Morning News writes, it's being reported that at least five people have been killed and others are 

wounded.

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Mourning ~ a Maryland newspaper's losses ~  as newspapers unflinchingly vow to continue to serve the public and report "facts"!

The shooter is said to be in custody, so we'll learn more details with time. But if there's any wonder out there about why journalists — both print and broadcast — take each mass shooting seriously, let's dispel it here and now. (Cliche, "There but for the grace of God...")

As journalists, we delve deep into the stories we cover. That means we grapple with something some may not fully appreciate. We look into the eyes of the people involved in our stories, we hear what they have to say, and we see the human cost involved in issues that seem abstract to casual observers.

If this sounds a little personal, it is. Every story is personal to someone. And every story, at least the ones worth telling, draws deep into the humanity of those asked to tell it. So another mass shooting touches our humanity, stirs compassion for the people senselessly killed. We've looked into the eyes of too many victims not to be moved by what we are seeing.

That this particular tragedy was deliberately carried out in a newsroom strikes even deeper into our hearts. There are few institutions that take more verbal lances than the media. And truth be told, we can roll with the jabs and jeers. We know it goes with the territory and that no matter what we report there will always be someone who wishes we did it differently. It has always been this way.

What is too often lost, however, is the important role that the free press plays in a free society. We could quote the Founders on the role of the press. But we'll note something else. Few other countries have a media that is as free or as unfettered as the United States. We aren't going to pretend that every story has panned out or that media coverage is always perfect. 

We will, however, take this moment to say, whatever the motivations of the shooter, the free press is an institution that will continue to serve the United States, by producing independent news. 

Frankly, we will not shrink from that task or flinch from the need to report the facts, even as we now mourn our compatriots in at the newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.