Rude Questions

Never assume -- Pug Mahoney

   Journalism's duty is to report what government officials say and do. Part of the oath that politicians take when they assume office is to protect and serve the people. Members of the public assume that elected officials will do their best to live up to that oath and not use their positions to benefit themselves at public expense.
   Sadly, that is too often a heroic assumption, and things don't always work out that way, so when government officials say and do things that harm others and enrich themselves, journalists step in.
   In order to do their job, journalists must ask questions. Pointed questions. Questions designed to elicit answers that are relevant to the issue at hand. It's not being rude. It's doing the job.
   But rather than answer a question, no matter how straightforward and courteously it is presented, government officials instead attack the questioner, calling him or her "rude," or "nasty," or other terms in the lexicon of abuse, displaying an attitude that says, "How dare you ask me that question. Anyone who asks me a question that I don't like is a mean, horrible, nasty person."
   Implicit in that attitude is the idea that journalists should be team players, and report only things that support and praise whatever the politician says or does in an particular situation.

   Get over it, big guy. Reporters ask questions because they need to be asked, based on the classic Five Ws of journalism -- Who, What, Where, When and Why.
   Government officials can easily answer the first four, but sometimes the most difficult to deal with is the final W -- Why.
   To attack the questioner when you don't have an answer does not make the question go away. Instead, abusive behavior displays insecurity. Too often, insecure people overcompensate for their lack of knowledge or ability by being overly aggressive, sometimes to the point of being obnoxious.
   Moreover, obnoxious behavior toward journalists is pointless. Most have heard all those insults before, and learned early in their careers to ignore them. Abusive behavior toward the news media may work well on television when speaking to a crowd of supporters, but that has no effect on how reporters will write the story and how producers will select the footage for broadcast.
   They will, of course, be straightforward in their presentation of the story. But they will also cover both sides, and include reaction from the political opposition.
   Professional journalists are not propagandists for political leaders or candidates. If that ever comes to be, the American democratic republic will be in deep trouble.