Handshake Drugs

One of the things about working for a small town newspaper is that you have to be versatile. There are few defined beats, often general things that a reporter covers quite a bit. This includes editors contributing content, often in the form of columns.

That's what Athens News Editor Terry Smith (full disclosure: my former news writing teacher and a man with great taste in music) does every week in his newspaper. Normally these op/ed pieces are on basic topics, one running topic is his neighbor's bothersome "devil cat" by the name of Diego. True story: That cat once wrote a letter to the A-News calling Smith out.

But for the first time since he heavily criticized Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer for not providing enough details on the death of two students at a nearby apartment complex (it turned out to be overdose), Smith surprised me with his assertiveness of an important local topic.

Long story short, an Ohio University student took illegal mushrooms and fatally jumped off of a balcony a few months back. Recently, the county prosecutor, a man who is essentially a rock star going after drugs in a very rural and addicted county, charged that student's dealer with involuntary manslaughter. Obviously, that's a pretty controversial and bold move done by someone who likes grandstanding a bit and I believe is genuinely sick of all the drugs in his county.

Smith clearly disagreed with that move, and wrote an extensive column claiming the manslaughter charge was too much. But it raises a big question, should the person who decides the direction of a region's major newspaper weigh in on a very controversial local topic?

In this specific case, I don't think it was the right thing to do. That paper, as well as ours, writes a lot of stories on the prosecutor's office. The most obvious factor is that, much as it pains me to acknowledge, source relations are so hugely important. When Smith writes that "(County Prosecutor C. David) Warren appears intent on destroying a second young life," I don't understand the purpose of weighing in so strongly on such a gray area. If the goal is to right a wrong in Smith's eyes, that's quite noble, but I don't think this topic is nearly cut and dry enough to do so.

It's also important the person who edits the stories and ultimately lays out the newspaper stays objective publicly. Smith claiming that one of the most powerful men in the county has gone too far while his newspaper covers this very newsworthy event is far from staying objective. Keeping that distance from the top is what gives a newspaper credibility, and without that, it's got nothing.

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Terry Smith weighs in on the indictment