Policy Corner: The importance of an open mind

Perhaps it's because we at the Daily Herald have been programmed to keep an open mind that we are more adept than many non-journalists at seeing both - or in many cases - many sides of a story.

If you generally agree with the positions we take on the editorial page, you're likely to agree with me.

If you generally take exception to the positions we take on the editorial page, you're more likely to be thinking, "You're full of beans."

Allow me to explain.

A good reporter goes into a story with an open mind. A good reporter doesn't decide who wears the black hat and who wears the white hat before setting out to do the reporting. In most cases, I would argue, a good reporter provides evidence on both sides of an argument and lets the reader decide for himself how to think about the people, the situation, the conflict, with the evidence provided.

Determining the conclusion of the story before the reporting even begins leads to blind spots in how the story is reported. It leads to imbalance, to unfairness.

We try to avoid these blind spots as much as possible. The most important role of an editor is to ensure that we're providing balance, that we are being fair.

It's our job to be skeptical.

We don't write to conform to an ideology. We let the chips fall where they may.

Our strength is also our weakness. We're not blank slates. We have life experiences. We all have a history reporting stories. We all have opinions. We all vote.

As humans, we have hunches about things. We use those things not to define stories but to launch story ideas.

The fun part of the job, I've found, is when good reporting turns a hunch on its head.

That reminds me that facts are always more important than opinions.