AskDallas

Thanks for the question! It's a good one. Around here, we're always saying it's more important to be right than to be first. I don't think the audience is giving us much credit for having a story 90 seconds before the competition. I think the media organizations that endure will be the ones people can trust.

It's a huge responsibility. That night was really challenging because there was so much confusion and so little was clear. We tried to be open about what we knew and didn't know at any given time. We were very, very careful not to announce deaths or injuries until they were confirmed. Your first responsibility is always to the audience, but you can't forget about the families of the people involved.

There are a couple of things going on right now. There's a trend toward people just wanting to see news that justifies or supports their worldview. Others are demanding honest, in-depth reporting from journalists because they distrust the government's or establishment's view of things. I believe the need for objective truth will always win out in the end.

I had a publicist for a well known musician scream at me because she resented something we wrote in advance of his Dallas concert. Her problem was she thought we were exploiting him. I was thinking -- Wait, I thought you said you were a publicist.

Great question, and thanks for being a social studies teacher. You are doing hugely important work.

I consider myself lucky that I don't live with the cable TV news imperative to always say SOMETHING about politics even when there's nothing to say. I like print/digital journalism because we can be a little more careful about choosing which stories to do. We try to stay away from stuff that's purely political and report on the implications of what's happening in politics and government. Todd Gillman in Washington and Brandi Grissom in Austin lead teams that do this pretty well.