Sunday's 30-Second Read: Like a pedophile
Random thoughts, anecdotes and specks of whimsy from Jeff Gauger
Jeff GaugerWhen did "journalist" become a word folks spit out? And journalists people to spit at?
For so many, journalist equals liberal, and a liberal is no better than a pedophile.
"Your paper is the most liberal paper around and we are very conservative and proud to be so," a Shreveport man wrote to me last week. "We will never again pay for your biased paper!!!"
"All you liberals" is how another recent letter put it.
Yes, I s'pose I'm more liberal than some readers. I'm also less liberal and more conservative, based on conventional orthodoxies, than many suppose.
It's hardly relevant. We journalists bring our brains to work. We also bring empathy, discernment, a sense of fairness and an awareness of the consequences of publication. And sensitivity to the fact — the honest-to-goodness fact — that opinions and beliefs abound and deserve respect.
We don't bring an ideology. Any ideology.
Folks once welcomed diverse viewpoints. Now, it seems, they want an ideological ghetto where the other guy's opinion never sullies a page or punctures our cocoons of angry, swaddled certainty.
Got an idea or anecdote for “30-Second Read”? Send it to jeff.gauger@shreveporttimes.com.
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