Once upon a time journalism was a craft and a profession simultaneously. Through time, the generations have changed the idea of what journalistic integrity is. The 'old timers' remember and know that the news is about informing the people of what is going on in the world, government and community. My parents generation has turned it more into a race to get the story first, not necessarily right. Make the most money doing it and refuse to take any responsibility for what they are reporting.

Journalism is supposed to be a craft, that also happens to be a profession. News people are supposed to have the highest integrity considering that so many rely on them to received their information. With such a lack of integrity in writing these days, people are not given the whole picture or all the applicable information. Part of this is due to the owners of news agencies, with their irresponsible practices. Such as, don't write anything negative about that person because we may loose their advertising dollars. Or, We are a republican paper so we don't have anything good to say about the democrat party members. With these issues leading the news writing, how could anyone possibly get an accurate story. You can't.

I am a journalist. I work for a small news paper in my home town and i don't make a great living doing it but i can stand behind my work. I do the leg work for my stories and make sure I've investigated all avenues. But what truly allows me to write the truth is my editorial and management staff. They may give me topics they want me to research and write about, but they never edit my story more then for grammatical errors. We are not censored by them. Sure they survive on advertising too, but they will not refuse to share the truth with their readers for fear of loosing an ad. That is real journalism integrity and allows me to practice my craft. Yes, it is my profession and i love my job. But for me it is more then a job, it is my dream.

Learn more about this author, Nickoel Santiago.
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