Thank you, mainstream media

While thoughts and prayers are with the protesters whose legitimate grievances are being overshadowed by the actions of a small percentage and with members of law enforcement, who are dealing with a nightmarish situation for which no amount of training could have prepared them, the work of another group of people who have risked their health and safety to make sure that the public gets the most accurate possible information about the horrors that have befallen this country over the past several days should be noted.

I have grown so irritated over the past few years with the attacks on the so-called mainstream media and the accusations of "fake news," which are most often leveled by officials and alternate media sources who have been social distancing from the truth since the day they were born.

Whatever they pay these reporters who are on the ground covering these protests is not nearly enough.

Armed only with cameras, microphones, notebooks and pens, they have put their safety and perhaps even their lives at risk because they share a belief that is not shared by many of our elected leaders and their most devoted followers, a belief that the First Amendment and the public's right to know are the hallmarks of a free society.

Over the past few days, we have seen reporters dodging rocks and bottles thrown at them by protesters as well as tear gas and rubber bullets aimed at them by law enforcement.

A few seconds ago, NBC reporter Garrett Haake was hit by something, but he is continuing to report.

And they keep going back, not because they are trying to make some kind of self-serving political statements, such as those used against them by politicians who not only claim "fake news" whenever their hands have been caught taking up residence in the cookie jar, but also have encouraged their followers to verbally and occasionally physically attack people who are trying to make a living. 

These reporters are men and women whose work ethic and moral sensibilities, unlike those of the people who attack them, are closely akin to yours and mine.

Their job is not to tell us what we want to know, but to tell us the truth.

Some of you who read these words will find that hard to believe. After all, it is so much easier to believe people who are willing to fan the flames of destruction because it will help them remain in office or to believe TV and radio talk show hosts whose stock in trade is to demonize those who are different and claim "those people" are out to steal your money and take your women. These talk show hosts write books, make speeches and build fortunes by capitalizing on our fears.

It is far easier to believe social media postings that originate in Russia than old fashioned shoe leather reporting from people who are trained journalists.

The difference- the Russian bots and the talk show hosts tell us what we want to believe.

Reporters tell us the truth.

Do they always get it right? Of course not.

When they make mistakes, they make corrections. What journalists seek, as famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein frequently says, "is the best possible version of the truth."

That is what the reporters who are covering the protests and riots are doing, sometimes at great personal risk.

That is what reporters have always done.

They deserve our respect and they deserve our appreciation.

(Photo: Free lance reporter Linda Tirado was blinded in one eye after she was struck by a rubber bullet in Minneapolis.)