An editorial from the Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Journalists appreciate the concerns of several new and experienced delegates who introduced House Bill 2081.
Kanawha County Democrats Nancy Guthrie and Larry Rowe, and new delegates Andrew Byrd, Mike Pushkin and Cabell County’s Sean Hornbuckle, introduced the bill to give news reporters special protection under the law.
Thanks to them for realizing the risks and occasional hardships journalists face in their daily struggle to bring the news to the public.
As the Daily Mail motto from Lord Byron’s poem Don Juan goes: “Without or with, offense to friends or foes, I sketch your world exactly as it goes.”
Daily Mail reporters try to uphold that motto with every news story. And even though most news assignments in West Virginia don’t bring the level of danger that, say a national war correspondent does, bringing the daily news to readers across the state does sometimes bring additional hazards for the men and women gathering and reporting the news.
They might be among the first on the scene of a chemical spill, a mine explosion, a vehicle accident – putting themselves at greater risk than the readers who comfortably read the report on the printed page in the safety of their own home. They might be on the scene of a story and face the wrath of an angry member of the public, as WCHS-TV8’s Bob Aaron did in July…