The true journalistic spirit is plain. It is not sensationalism, nor is it avoidance. It is not polarization, nor is it unity. There are many things we might want journalism to be, the primary being a confirmation of what we are motivated to believe. But that is what great journalism can never be. It must be singular in its purpose, which is to pursue truth. I have learned that during my time here as the Editor-in-Chief of The Communicator.

Bob Woodward, a plain and simple embodiment of the journalistic spirit, has been one of my great inspirations for quality reporting. Over the course of his career, he has written books on every president since Richard Nixon. Woodward dedicated himself to truth, and with that comes the reality that stories do not always go the way we would like them to go, they can only go where events take them.

“The central dilemma in journalism is that you don’t know what you don’t know,” Woodward said.

We have spent so much time as Americans worrying about what others have to say about us, but Bob Woodward never cared about those things. He has made both friends and enemies with his objective reporting but it never hindered him from doing his job. To him, reporting did not need to hide behind the mask of friendliness or likability, it needed, and still needs, to stand in the open with a boldness to tell the truth.

“The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup,” Woodward said. “But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.”

I think often of the name of our school newspaper, The Communicator. I believe this name encapsulates the most important part of journalism. We, as journalists, must always come back to the fundamental value of reporting, which is to communicate information. Everything else is needless bantering without heed for the needless hatred and anger it might cause. I believe that the staff here have done an incredible job of dedicating themselves to this principle over the course of these last few quarters.

While I haven’t made this a letter discussing our paper’s accomplishments during my time here, I would like to say how grateful I am to have been given the opportunity to work with such incredible people, top to bottom, dedicated to pursuing truth. Their hard work and unwavering pursuit of quality reporting will be something I always remember and value. 

While, in the full scope of things, I haven’t contributed all that much to the distribution of truth, I do believe that together we will only accomplish a more reliable and objective press by focusing our efforts on elevating truth over falsity in our own lives. 

Thank you all for the opportunity to contribute to that journalistic spirit in a meaningful way. Signing off.