For 467 words, I actually found myself in agreement with Jonathan Lange. 

This is surprising because I typically don’t find myself in agreement with much of what Lange shares in his weekly column, “Only Human.” 

This week, however, Lange opens his column with some thoughts on partisan news reporting, particularly on cable news networks. He claims this partisanship in news media is a bad thing, and I wholeheartedly agree. 

When “news” stations focus primarily on catering their message to those with one ideology or another, it does have the effect of worsening our partisan divides in the nation as a whole. It’s one thing to have programs that look at events or legislation from varying viewpoints. After all, it is possible to have different perspectives on events or laws. The same bill can be viewed completely differently by people with different priorities. 

Lange proves this himself in his weekly column when he examines events and interprets them through his conservative perspective. His perspective isn’t necessarily the only one, or the right one. It’s just the way he views it. 

Where this trend of examining issues through the lens of one bias or another becomes really problematic is when those doing the examining begin to demonize anyone who disagrees. Agreeing to disagree is no longer an option. Instead, we have to insist that those who don’t share our views are heartless, unpatriotic, evil people. They must not believe in God, they want to destroy America, they lie, they have no ethics or they’re Nazis. 

Any number of tactics can be used to discredit those who don’t view things as we do. Instead of engaging in productive civil discourse we completely tune out those with conflicting views or actively work to shut down their very expression. 

This is, indeed, a problem, one that greatly concerns me as a journalist and as a citizen of the United States and of the world.  

Where Lange lost me, however, was when he brought local newspapers into his argument. He seems to be suggesting journalists everywhere have lost the ethics displayed by those of yesteryear. He points to two pieces in the Casper Star-Tribune as evidence to back up his assertions that journalistic integrity is dead. 

My problem with this is twofold. 

First, I read both pieces Lange refers to in his opinion piece. They do indeed focus on the Facebook page of a county chair of the Republican party. They’re not critiquing her entire page or calling into question private photos or posts. It’s calling her out for publicly sharing a story that compares LGBTQ activists to Nazis.

Lange claims this woman is a housewife and seems to question the validity of the Casper Star-Tribune claiming this woman is a public figure (as evidenced by his use of quotations around the words public figure). 

In reality, this woman is indeed a public figure. She is the chair of the local political party — which happens to also be the dominant one in the state — and is posting things on her public Facebook page that equate people fighting for minority rights with those who rounded up and slaughtered millions of human beings. 

Contrary to what Lange claims, what public officials post on their public Facebook feeds is actually of public concern. 

Lange then uses me personally as an example, positing a scenario in which my personal Facebook page is critiqued because of my leadership position with the Uinta County Democrats. I can’t help but think that this reference to me personally is a deliberate attempt to cast doubt on my news reporting due to my affiliation with the local Democrats.

I will readily admit that I am a public figure due to my work with the Democratic party, my heavy involvement with the local AYSO region, my position as president of the Wyoming state PTA, my volunteer work and my work as a reporter.

I am keenly aware of my status every single time I post on Facebook. I carefully review posts and shares to see if they’re set to “public” or “friends” only. I stop and think before I hit “Post.” Always. The woman being called out by the Star-Tribune for her public posts demonizing activists as Nazis would be wise to do the same.

The larger problem, however, is with Lange questioning the ethics and integrity of journalists in general. This is part of a greater national problem with casting doubt on the entire journalism profession, which goes hand-in-hand with the problem of demonizing the opposition perpetuated by the very same partisan 24-hour cable TV news networks that Lange begins his piece railing against.

Is partisan news reporting a problem? Yes. Does that mean that all, or even most, journalists everywhere lack ethics and have ulterior motives when reporting the news? Absolutely not. 

Just because Lange, or Republicans or Democrats, or even President Trump may not like what’s being reported, doesn’t mean it’s not factual or that journalists are part of some broader plot to sway public opinion. It more likely means journalists are doing their jobs. 

I never set out to be a journalist. It’s not the field in which I studied or earned my degree. It is, however, a profession I love and take very seriously. 

It’s hard work. I give up time with my family on evenings, weekends and holidays. I rarely get full days off because people regularly text or email or phone asking if I can cover something or take some photos. Hundreds of people have my personal email address and cellphone number. 

Nobody gets into journalism to get wealthy. Newspapers everywhere struggle to stay afloat, not because they’ve become partisan, as Lange claims, but because people consume their news differently these days. 

Newspapers do serve an invaluable public purpose. When I first interviewed for my position at the Herald, publisher Mark Tesoro asked me my thoughts on that purpose. For him, local newspapers are the historical record of what has happened in a community. The copies of old papers in our office are a testament to that. 

Newspapers also work to provide information to the public and to ensure government agencies are being transparent and held accountable. 

It’s no easy task to sit through four-hour meetings of public officials and then translate that information into a story of about a thousand words that gives the public the meat of what they need to know. What I perceive to be the most important information to come out of that meeting may not be what someone else perceives to be the most important. 

It’s a painstaking process that regularly means that one four-hour meeting results in another day’s work sifting through quotes and organizing thoughts. Sometimes it’s completely obvious and other times it’s agonizing to decide what to include and what to emphasize. But, whether people like the stories or not, or whether they appeal to the 70 to 90 percent of the public that are of one political persuasion or another, facts are facts. 

Lange regularly turns issues on their heads in his column. Stories about discrimination of minorities somehow become discrimination against religious groups, stories about letting students express themselves through art become stories of schools promoting homosexuality, and pretty much anything can be turned into an anti-abortion piece. I vehemently disagree with almost every opinion he expresses.

But I don’t question his ethics or imply he lacks integrity. I have never met nor spoken to Jonathan Lange. I have met and worked with his wife and children, and they are fine people — smart, articulate and kind. I assume the character of his family reflects on his character as well. 

Although we may see the world differently, I have no doubt that he is a man of values. 

I don’t claim to be infallible. I am, after all, only human. But for Lange to imply that I, or any other journalist for that matter, write without regard to ethics or lack integrity is just plain insulting and flat-out wrong.