Caller shares his thoughts on judge’s ruling and The Oklahoman’s responsibility
The phone rang today.
It was a subscriber to The Oklahoman. The fact that he was using the phone to contact me is a good indication that he prefers our print product. Most feedback I get about NewsOK.com comes in the form of email.
But this man was quick to point out that he was a subscriber. He said it with pride.
(And just as an aside — we get these calls quite often, but usually they are received by my colleague, managing editor Mike Shannon. His title resonates with our print subscribers, and he is very good at talking to our readers.)
He wanted to share his opinion about our article on the Metro/State cover this morning about cameras not being allowed in the Jerome Ersland murder trial. I realized quickly that he didn’t really want to discuss this decision as much as he wanted to share his opinion.
But as the caller concluded his passionate monologue about how the public should be allowed to see what’s going on in the courtroom, he said something that really struck me.
There are so doggone many things wrong with the government these days — all because people just don’t care.
If the public doesn’t oversee what’s going on, then we’re bound to have scallywags taking over.
And it’s your job as the fourth estate — isn’t that what they call it? — to stay on top of them and let us know what’s going on.
OK – so I don’t know how this caller defined ‘scallywags’ and whether he meant it as an offensive term (or, better put, I’m unsure the level of offense he intended). I don’t believe he was referring to pirates, though. And he never even told me if he was supporting Ersland’s defense or his prosecution.
But his thoughts on our news operation resonated with me, as did the the fact that he noticed that much of the public is apathetic about important topics that do indeed have an effect on their lives.
I can tell you this, though. We consider it our responsibility to keep people informed about things that matter to the community — whether it’s a football game, a murder trial, a car wreck or a city council meeting.
We take that responsibility seriously.
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