This week, local radio station CHIP FM released a statement saying it had been under political pressure as a result of a story it published.
“CHIP has faced a lot of pressure from politicians recently that no media should ever have to face,” station manager François Carrier said.
It’s unclear who Carrier was referring to, but the fact that a politician was pressuring a media outlet to take down or change a story is unacceptable.
“Our duty is to publish facts,” Carrier added.
As a journalist, I’ve had my integrity attacked several times. I’ve been accused of publishing “FAKE NEWS” on a couple of occasions.

In one case, by writing a story and giving both sides of a dispute, I was accused of being biased.
Kind of ironic, that. Since I didn’t write a one-sided story this person liked, I was accused of one of the worst things a journalist could be accused of — making something up.
Do we have biases? Of course we do, we’re human, after all. But does that mean that we’re biased? Not at all.
We take great care to present the facts as they are. It’s literally our job. We know where our biases are, and we check them at the door.
If we get something wrong, we’ll own it and won’t hesitate to make a correction.
I understand that citizens are passionate about their communities and want them to be portrayed in the best possible light.
Our job is to hold those in power to account so that those same citizens get the best out of their elected officials.
It’s somewhat understandable when a citizen calls us out for being biased or publishing FAKE NEWS.
But when a politician is the one who is pressuring a media outlet about its stories, that’s just unacceptable.
I understand that, as a journalist who is in a public role, I’m going to write some things that people disagree with. This means I’m going to take some criticism, fair or not.
I’m okay with that.
I am heartened when we get a letter criticizing a story, it shows that people care. Most of all, it shows that people are actually reading.
But politicians, unlike a journalist at a local paper, are public figures who hold actual positions of power. They oversee multi-million dollar budgets and dictate policies that have an impact on the daily lives of citizens.
As such, they and their actions need to be scrutinized. And they need to be aware of that.
Since nobody is perfect, politicians will inevitably make a mistake. It’s our job as journalists to make sure residents know when this happens.
When the media expose our politicians’ missteps, it’s not a matter of us giddily throwing mud, it’s us doing our job for our readers.
“As media it is unacceptable that we have to deal with any type of political pressure,” Carrier said. “I really hope that this is the last time we have to deal with this.”
Here’s to hoping.

Chris Lowrey