Shame on you 19!

You deal with a lot of stereotypes when you are a member of the press. One of the most particularly galling ones is that people assume you want to sensationalize a story.

The story about state Rep. Matt Barrett, D-Amherst, and the photo of a topless woman that popped up during a PowerPoint presentation at Norwalk High School is a great example of how a story can be skewered by those who want to do so.

Here, we ran the story on the front page. It wasn’t our lead story, and it didn’t have a giant “THE WORLD IS ENDING” headline. In our story – which we published courtesy of our friends at The Sandusky Register -- we detailed that Barrett got the portable hard drive from somebody else, and that he requested an investigation from the Ohio Highway Patrol.

It was pretty much textbook coverage -- tell the story in a fair, unbiased way. The fact that it was such an odd story, and one involving a representative from our coverage area, made it worth the front page.

However…..

If you were watching Channel 19 News on Wednesday night, I’d say you saw a perfect example of what NOT to do.

Now Channel 19 isn’t exactly known for unbiased coverage. Its reporters use loaded words -- adjectives that we are all taught in journalism school to stay away from – and if what they are saying isn’t opinion, (again, which we aren’t supposed to interject) then I don’t know what is.

But truly, the channel’s coverage of the Barrett story was shameful and embarrassing to our profession.

As a journalist, there is nothing more frightening than seeing a reporter take a story and fabricate by omission. Sure the facts they put out were true, but leaving out the rest of the story to create a false impression is just as bad as lying in my book.

So -- to use the immortal words of one of the channel’s own promotions -- Shame on you, 19 News.