Editorializing concerns

Editor,

I am writing in reference to the first paragraph of the article by Mallory Panuska in the Nov. 11, 2021 edition of your paper, titled “WCPS mask mandate slated to remain until at least Dec.”

That paragraph reads as follows: “Students and staff inside Worcester County Public Schools building will not be given the same air-breathing privileges as those in most other local indoor settings….”

Characterizing the decision from the state board of education as restricting “air-breathing privileges,” in my view is editorializing the news, not reporting the news. There are many ways one may characterize the decision, including to say the students and staff were given a greater degree of protection rather than a greater degree of restriction.

The job of the reporter is not to characterize the information, but to report it. Just the facts. Over the past year or more I have noticed an increasing number of articles in your paper in which the author characterized the facts rather than simply reporting them. I’m no journalist, but I believe this violates some standard within your profession to maintain the integrity of the information being reported by letting the facts speak for themselves.

I hate to see the integrity of your paper’s reporting slip in this way. Your readers deserve better.

Colette Horn
Ocean Pines