A long time ago, a man from my old neighborhood was indicted in a nursing-home scandal. I’d known him since childhood. We attended the same synagogue, where he was a major contributor. I’d been to his home several times. He’d been very kind to my father. And now he was an accused felon. And he was in the news.

Decades later, a young doctor walked into the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and started shooting. Dozens of people were killed while they prayed. The doctor and I were college classmates. Our senior class had presented him with an award for character. And now I had to write about him as a mass murderer.

Sooner or later, anybody who writes news will come up against a story that pushes emotional buttons, raises questions of ethics or threatens to expose the writer’s personal views or biases. How do we treat a story fairly, when our own strong feelings pull us in one direction or another?

Different stories affect us in different ways. Our moral outrage may be triggered when we hear about a gunman accused of shooting his way through a community center and wounding small children. A politician we despise (or admire!) may be on his way toward a key nomination, and we’re disgusted (or thrilled!). A country we care about may be in the middle of some turmoil, and we favor one side over the other. Someone we know may be indicted and we’re positive he’s innocent (or guilty!).

Pretending to have no preferences about any story, anytime, is not only a lie, it’s silly. We’re human beings, and we care. Sometimes we care a great deal, and there’s no getting around that. Still, we have to write fairly and objectively. But we can’t do that while we’re lying to ourselves. Only after you recognize your feelings can you take the professional steps necessary to put them in their proper place.

Many journalists proudly tell declare they never vote in an election, never join political parties, never go to rallies, and never contribute money to candidates. Perhaps they’re striving to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, and the motive is admirable. But don’t think for a moment those steps actually help you become truly objective in your writing. How far do you go? Do you never own stock, in case you have to write a business story? Do you never have children, lest you someday get assigned a story about parenting?

I would much rather hear the news from someone who has strong opinions, expresses them in his daily life, fully participates in the political process, but on the job, he wrestles with those feelings every day on every story, and doesn’t end the struggle until he’s absolutely certain he’s presented the facts accurately, in spite of his particular biases. That’s a person connected to the world and serious about his profession.

But oh, that wrestling match! It can be one of the toughest things any writer ever has to do. It may help to keep a few questions in mind, whenever you run a story that stirs your emotions:

Am I telling the truth?
Am I telling the whole truth?
Am I telling both sides? Equally? (Not necessarily a line-by-line, word-by-word count, but are both viewpoints represented clearly and as completely as possible, without favoring one side or the other?)
Am I “bending over backwards”, either to overcompensate for my bias, or to cater to it?
Am I trying to “get” somebody?
Am I trying to “help” somebody?
Am I using personal knowledge or memory of a person, place or event, which is not accurate?
I’ve admitted my feelings. Have I allowed them to creep into my story?

Don’t rush the answers. When you’re done, if you’re still not sure, you may want to show the story you’ve written, and the questions, to someone else.

One more thing. Trust your skills. If you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ve most likely written thousands of stories on every conceivable subject. You know how to do this the right way, and you’re unlikely to irresponsibly throw away all your experience, just because you have a personal preference here and there. More likely, you’ll write that story in the same solid professional manner you’ve written all the others. Be confident in that.

But it never hurts to check!

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