Kevin Hensley, Editor
I am a huge fan of The Andy Griffith Show.
From Barney's mannerisms and facial expressions, to Goober, Gomer, Aunt Bea, Opie (a nickname I still use for one of my best friends to this day) and, of course, Sheriff Andy Taylor. I still enjoy sitting down and getting a good laugh out of one of the most wholesome shows ever broadcast on television.
One of my favorite episodes is when Ronny Howard (forget that; he'll always be Opie to me) starts his own newspaper, The Mayberry Sun. Plagued by slow sales, he resorts to penning more of a "tabloid" product, unintentionally smearing the town by transcribing overheard gossip around the quiet town.
After all the heat simmers down, Opie goes back to covering more of his peers' shenanigans, which paves the way to one of my favorite lines in the history of the show: "Betty Parker lets Bobby Thompson carry her books, but does he know that she writes sugar notes to Hector Stiles?" That one quote just perfectly captures the magic that the show was.
Look, I get it. Gossip sells. People would much rather read about what one person is saying about another because, for some reason, that’s the way of the world in 2019. As it apparently was in the 1960s, too.
It's everywhere you look. Television. Social media. I don't have the data to back this up, but it feels like the amount of news you hear nowadays that is someone encouraging someone else is around 0.0000000000001 percent.
How did we get here?
In my brief time as editor, there has been a forum for everything from grievances against towns to what really caused an eatery just a stone's throw from the The Graham Star's office to shut down in a rather swift manner. For all the flack this newspaper has caught for daring to cross into the "he said" territory, no one has really noticed that once the "she said" side is presented, that's it. Show's over.
I believe it's only fair that in the case of the aforementioned scenarios, both sides get a chance to speak up. Just know that once we have presented the opposing views, we will wash our hands of it.
If someone is suing an entire township, that's news. If a restaurant shuts down and the owner tells us what happened, that's news. If a general manager who worked under that owner wants to present what it was like on the other side of things (as you will find within this week's edition), say it with me … that's news.
But the buck stops there. The very core of journalism is presenting both sides so the listener/reader can draw their own conclusions. I believe we have done that. And we will continue to, on a case-by-case basis.
In the meantime, just pause for a moment the next time you want to post or comment something cynical, unfounded and absolutely uncalled for on social media. That may be what the world wants, but we do not have to make it part of the world.
We will continue to deliver quality news to you each week, even if we charge 72 cents more than The Mayberry Sun. Thanks for reading.
Kevin Hensley is the editor of The Graham Star. He can be reached by phone, 479-3383; email, editor @grahamstar.com; or Twitter, @KevinHensleyCNI.