近距离内射合集

I spoke to New Mexico Humanists on Saturday morning at the Albuquerque Museum about journalism, truth, the role of the media and how it is changing.

Humanists generally emphasize reason, ethics and compassion and believe people have a responsibility to solve human problems through human effort.

So perhaps it was no surprise that they were interested in hearing from an optimist who has spent nearly 50 years asking questions for a living.

I told the group of about 75 people that sometimes sources were happy to answer my questions. Sometimes, not so much.

Now, as managing editor of the 近距离内射合集, I am part of an institution that has been asking questions about New Mexico for more than 100 years.

Through political upheaval, economic booms and busts, natural disasters, healthcare challenges and water shortages, the Journal has tried to make sense of what is happening around us.

The technology has changed. The people in the newsroom have changed. The way readers receive news has changed.

But the fundamental mission has not.

Ask questions.

Look for facts.

Talk to people who know.

Confirm what you are told.

And, perhaps most importantly, be willing to turn on a dime. Admit when your original assumptions were wrong and the facts lead somewhere else entirely.

When that happens, we have a choice: Force the facts to fit our assumptions or follow the trail where the truth leads.

Journalism, at its best, requires the latter.

Of course, journalism is not perfect. The Journal isn't perfect. No newspaper is. No journalist is.

But the answer to those imperfections is not to give up on the search for truth. It is to keep searching, acknowledge mistakes and correct them, and keep asking questions even when the answers are inconvenient.

We live in a time when almost everyone agrees misinformation on social media is a serious problem. But almost everyone tends to believe the misinformation is coming from the other side.

We increasingly choose information sources the way we choose sports teams. We find people who see the world as we do and cheer when they tell us we are right.

But journalism is supposed to work differently.

The question isn't: Do I like this information?

The question is: How do we know it's true?

That requires humility, something increasingly rare in public conversation.

Everyone seems to have an opinion. Social media gives everyone a platform. Increasingly, opinions are presented with the same confidence as facts.

But skepticism and cynicism are not the same thing.

Skepticism says: 鈥淪how me the evidence.鈥�

Cynicism says: 鈥淓verybody is lying, so there is no point in looking.鈥�

I think skepticism is healthy. Journalists depend on it. I like it when readers question us. And when we make a mistake, we should acknowledge it and correct it.

But cynicism can be dangerous.

If we decide everybody is lying, every institution is corrupt and facts are nothing more than opinions, those who benefit are often the people with the most power and the loudest voices.

That is where local journalism becomes especially important.

Democracy does not survive on national news alone. It depends on somebody showing up at the meetings nobody else wants to attend.

Somebody has to ask how your tax dollars are being spent. Somebody has to sit through the City Council meeting or legislative committee hearing. Somebody has to read the police report, examine court records, call the second source and ask: 鈥淲ait a minute. How do we know that?鈥�

That work can be tedious. It can be frustrating. And it rarely goes viral.

But it matters.

New Mexico still needs reporters willing to knock on the door, make the phone call, read the document and challenge the powerful.

And it needs citizens who care enough about the truth to ask not simply, 鈥淒o I agree with this?鈥�

But: 鈥淗ow do we know?鈥�

I've spent nearly 50 years trying to answer that question. The Journal has been trying to answer it for more than 100 years. And despite the disinformation and distrust around us, I remain optimistic that it can still be done.

The search for truth is, to me, something close to sacred. New Mexico Humanists might choose a different word.

That's OK.

Whatever journalism looks like in another 10 or 20 or 100 years, I hope we can agree on this: The truth is worth finding.

James Bennett is managing editor of the Journal. Reach him at jbennett@abqjournal.com.