For months, I attempted to get Moses Todd, a regular commenter on The Augusta Press articles, to agree to an interview, and he finally did.
As a former county commissioner, I thought Todd might be an interesting subject to talk politics with, and I also wanted to see if I could discover the motivations behind a guy who constantly accuses me publicly of “yellow journalism.”
Todd and I had a nice hour long conversation, but I ultimately shelved the idea of printing the contents because he really didn’t offer anything new.
I did learn from Todd that the legends of him chasing thugs out of his neighborhood with a baseball bat was mostly a myth.
The interview was really a let down, and, while he never backed away from his yellow journalism claims against me, he couldn’t cite any one instance where I, as a journalist, ever published something I knew to be false. In Todd’s mind, I simply write what Publisher Joe Edge tells me to write; that is a claim that is simply not true as Edge doesn’t need me to be his mouthpiece. He can write a column on anything that he fancies without signing my name to it.
So, dear reader, you’re welcome for me deciding not to litter the metaverse with yesterday’s rubbish and keep the Todd interview in cold storage..
Todd is not the only one who has publicly called me a yellow journalist.
Columbia County Commission candidate Rickey Merideth went on the radio shortly after an article with my byline ran about his failure to pay his bills and garnishments that were made on his wages.
Rather than own up to his mistakes, he blamed me for spreading misinformation about him; only, he never pointed out any mistakes in the copy that was published, saying he couldn’t comment on the advice of his lawyer. Merideth also said that The Augusta Press would be hearing from his attorney.
We are still waiting for that call.
The accusation of yellow journalism alleges that I am being paid to disseminate information that I personally know is false, and I use sensational headlines to lure in readers for my company’s bottom line and my own personal monetary gain.
“Furnish me pictures, and I will furnish a war.” That is said to be the mantra of yellow journalists, though scholars have debunked that myth with compelling evidence.
The fact is I am not allowed to practice yellow journalism.
Every last word I write is subject to at least two and sometimes three editors. One of those editors is my former college professor, Debbie van Tuyll, in whose classes I only earned a B. So, you can trust me when I say that I do not get a special pass from her when it comes to being truthful and unbiased.
In fact, Debbie is probably harder on me because I should know better than to make an assumption in a news article.
Now, I am different from most reporters who work for The Augusta Press because, as a founding member of the newspaper, I have three distinct roles in the institution, rather than a simple news beat to cover.
I am a news reporter, and if the headline of an article has my byline but does not say “column,” then it is a news story, and Debbie’s rule is that any article to be published must have human as well as documentary sources cited within and cited often.
Our original managing editor, Charmain Brackett wanted a citation on virtually every sentence. That has been relaxed just a bit for redundancy sake, but every story has to have the appropriate human and documentary sources or it stays in the same desk drawer as the Todd interview.
You might notice I very rarely cite “protected” or anonymous sources, and that is because I normally do not have to. Protected sources give me leads in my searches for documentable evidence that is irrefutable; so, while protected sources are necessary in knowing where to look for the information, they are not necessary in proving anything.
A court document can definitely prove or disprove what an anonymous source tells me.
Every news report goes through two editors before publication. Managing Editor Stephanie Hill constantly asks me if I attempted to contact every person, business or government institution named in the story. If contact wasn’t attempted, the story is shelved until an attempt is made.
This style of publication is one of the reasons TAP won the Freedom of Information award by Georgia Press Association after the first year in publication.
My second role at TAP is that of a columnist where I am given more latitude to express my opinion on matters I feel are in the public interest; but like every other columnist, I am expressly forbidden from endorsing candidates. I can put up a sign in my yard like everyone else.
My weekly column is every bit as heavily edited as my articles, but in a different way. I am allowed to state my personal feelings and opinions, but my editor’s role is more to stylistically polish a rough gem into something that shines.
Mark Twain once advised: “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable.”
A writer such as myself might agree with Twain, but we don’t always follow his advice. We want the reader to envision the room we are describing, so we can go overboard in describing the color and nape of the carpet and the editor’s job is to chisel down the cacophony of creative words into a hummable tune.
Keep in mind that the Beatles likely would never had a hit song if it wasn’t for Sir George Martin.
Editors don’t take the wind out of the sails. They position the sails more economically to catch the most momentum.
The hardest part of my job and my third role at TAP is writing editorials.
In that capacity, I am writing at the pleasure of four people, myself included. Those pieces are under the byline of the Editorial Board, which consists of Publisher Joe Edge, Chief Financial Officer Connie Wilson, Executive Editor Debbie van Tuyll and little ‘ole me.
Our rules state that the board must be unanimous on all editorially branded pieces.
As the primary editorial writer, I have learned quite a bit about my colleagues on the board, and it forces me, when I am writing, to account for other points of view that might be present. I believe that in three and a half years, less than five of the editorials I penned have been deep-sixed.
Honest debate leads to a consensus, and, generally speaking, we reach consensus.
So, as you should be able to tell, TAP is not the “trashy little blog” as former Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. claimed, and if you read a comment claiming yellow journalism, it is really someone yelping because I tossed a bucket of water on their machinations with indisputable facts.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
