Bonnie Stewart is one of the best journalists and teachers I’ve had the privilege to work with during my 30 years in academics. We worked together at West Virginia University from 2005 to 2008, when I moved to central Nebraska. She has worked as an investigative reporter for the IndyStar, projects reporter for the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, and written a book about the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster in West Virginia. Most recently she has been the faculty adviser for the Cal State Fullerton‘s Daily Titan.
This is what I wrote and read to my students before the last election minus the last sentence, which I added for this fall semester.
Journalist & Cal State Fullerton Daily Titan adviser Bonnie Stewart
You need to understand something about me.
I am the media — mainstream media.
I am tired of the cheap shots and threats from the truly biased, politically motivated commentators and elected officials. The media work tirelessly to find and tell the truth.
I have spent my career telling stories that had to be told…stories of priests who abuse little boys, stories of nursing homes that allow maggots to crawl on human beings, stories of hundreds and thousands of dogs and cats euthanized because people won’t take care of them, stories of elderly black people removed from their homes via eminent domain because powerful business people wanted their prime city property, stories of teachers who bring food to school to feed their hungry students, stories of the mentally ill who kill themselves because there is no help, stories of 78 men who died because a coal company was greedy, stories of people who pollute our rivers, land and ocean because they can get away with it and save a little money, stories of nurses who steal drugs from handicapped children, stories of men and women who lie, cheat and steal.
I am the media.
Every day I rededicate myself to finding and telling the truth and helping my students do the same. The work is hard. The work is stressful. I am proud of it. I teach my students that every story they do is at that moment the most important story they will ever do, so they must take it seriously.
The media have a huge responsibility. The Constitution gives the media that responsibility. I do not take it lightly nor do I take attacks on my profession lightly. I am the media. I stand with journalists here and around the world as they seek the truth and report it.
-Bonnie Stewart