Opinion: Serving your right to know

OUR JOURNALISTS WORK FOR YOU
Here are  just a few of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s journalists who work on your behalf to follow the facts wherever they lead.

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Here are just a few of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s journalists who work on your behalf to follow the facts wherever they lead.

I remember the conversation like it was yesterday.

One of our top editors came into my office and said “we have to send everyone out of the office and have them work from home. Today.”

Maybe I was distracted. After all, I was making plans to attend NCAA basketball tournament games to support my alma mater with hopes of the team making the Final Four in Atlanta.

I hadn’t yet grasped the most important story in my career as a journalist.

Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Credit: AJC

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Credit: AJC

But my first impulse was to wait. It seemed like too big a decision to make so quickly. And I couldn’t imagine how I’d lead The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s newsroom without, well, being in the newsroom with our journalists.

But Managing Editor Shawn McIntosh was insistent. She told me the virus was taking hold. If someone who was infected walked into our newsroom, we’d all be exposed. That situation would keep us from doing our work because we’d all have to quarantine.

We knew we risked members of the staff falling ill.

And so we put out the word. Everyone needed to clear out. We were going to work remotely.

I knew it would be hard, and a big change. But it felt like a temporary measure. Surely we’d all be back soon.

But we haven’t been.

I’ve never been prouder to lead this newsroom than I have over the past year. And even though I haven’t seen most of our journalists in all that time, seeing their work constantly inspires me.

Journalism is fundamentally a human endeavor provided by people with a calling to do it. They are driven to follow the facts no matter where they lead, even when circumstances force them to improvise.

I miss terribly the people whose names you see on the stories you read and the photographs and videos you view. And I miss the people behind the website you visit and the pages you thumb through.

There’s nothing like the energy of a newsroom when a big story is breaking, or the spirited discussion of what the big headline should say on election night.

You’ll be hearing more from them -- not just through our journalism – but as we tell their stories. I want you to know what they really do, why it matters, and the role you play in making their work possible.

I miss and want you to know Carrie Teegardin, one of our investigative reporters. As the pandemic took hold, she tirelessly tracked the tragedies that unfolded in facilities where senior citizens live. Her previous reporting on poorly regulated senior-care homes alerted her to the story. She spends her days poring over troubling statistics and speaking with scared and grieving families. In a phone call, she talked to me about how difficult and sad it’s been for her, but she has dedicated herself to telling these stories because journalism is her calling.

I haven’t seen Washington Correspondent Tia Mitchell for months – except on video calls -- but she’s been tracking Georgia’s congressional delegation. And she was in the Capitol on Jan.6 when it was attacked. As one reader put it:

“I wanted to express my gratitude to Tia Mitchell for reporting live yesterday during the attack on the Capitol. I have never seen a daily newspaper provide such intimate and compelling coverage. She was very direct, unwilling to say more than could be confirmed, patient despite obviously being under stress. She shared she hadn’t even had time to eat yesterday.”

I haven’t even had the chance to shake the hand of Wilborn Nobles, a journalist we’ve hired since the pandemic began. He’s covering Atlanta government and politics, after starting out covering DeKalb County Schools and its efforts to get students back in classrooms.

“Our work requires us to repeatedly ensure our information is factual,” he said. “We often chase and debunk news tips to ensure we’re not spreading rumors that sow discord in our community. We do this because we care about you and society.”

We, like all of you, have adapted and put technology to use. For me, it’s been effective and I believe it’s improved the work we do for you.

But I crave the informal newsroom conversations about stories our journalists are pursuing.

I have the honor of leading our journalists, but they work for you. They serve the public and keep your right to know front and center.

I have a favorite example of how dedicated they are to their work.

A 30-foot obelisk Confederate monument, which stood for 112 years, was taken down in the downtown Decatur square late one night last summer. The monument had been controversial, and officials apparently hoped to remove it under cover of darkness.

Several of our journalists got word. They showed up to cover the story unprompted and unassigned. Their instincts took over. News was happening, and they knew you’d want to know.

To help keep our newsroom connected, I try to each day share a note with our journalists. It includes updates about basic matters and information they need as employees. But each day I also share thoughts from one of them. Sometimes they talk about how they got a big story, the special efforts they’ve been through to chase down crucial facts. Sometimes they talk about their personal struggles as they and their families adjust to the challenges of the pandemic.

Typical is what one of our editors shared:

“I am a father of four, and that has added a difficult complication to an already hard job, as they are all stuck together in a confined space.

There have been many tantrums, tears, stamping of feet. And that’s just me – it’s been hard on the kids too.

But I think that this is a time to take stock of our blessings.

Everyone is healthy. We are doing amazing work. We are helping the community come to terms with and understand what is happening to us all.

For all of that, I am thankful.”

At a divisive time when the role and value of the media receives constant scrutiny, I wanted you to know a little more about how we approach our work at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I hope you feel as strongly about the importance of your right to know as we feel about working for you. Whether in our daily reporting, a battle over a public record or in one of our investigations, we live on the front lines of the public’s right to know what’s really going on.

Our work depends on the support of people who believe it’s worth knowing what’s really going on. So thank you for subscribing. It’s an honor to do our work with your support.