New site favors the right

One of the first things I was taught in journalism class was the media should be fair and balanced.

Yes, I know, that doesn’t happen in real life. See Fox News, for instance. But a news organization should strive to present both sides of the story in a fair and balanced way.

Yesterday, a friend asked if I had seen The LeFlore County Guardian. No, I had not. So I decided to check it out.

The Guardian is a new web site which proclaims: in the defense of constitutional liberty, common sense and civic virtue.

That sounded great. I explored the site for a few minutes. First off, anything that promotes LeFlore County and its citizens, or helps make the county better is welcome.

As I checked out the site, there were a few things that troubled me. It looked like the site was more to promote Republicans than a true news site.

In one of the articles, it implies that the Poteau Daily News & Sun leans way to the left in support of Democrats. I am not affiliated with or a supporter of the PDN&S. I also do not agree with that statement. I have never seen the paper criticize one political party or openly support one over the other.

The Guardian does have the usual blame Obama and his cronies for all the bad stuff. The Guardian can state that all it wants. Free Speech still exists. But if the Guardian wants to be a true news organization, the stories should be balanced. If they want to state their opinions, it should be under commentary.

I hope the Guardian does well. Like I mentioned earlier, anything that is good for the county is great. Hopefully you will check out the site and share it.

And no, I am not trying to criticize the Guardian. My political views do not lean to the left or the right although I tend to vote with the Republicans more than Democrats.

In the end, I support the person who I believe can do the job the best, it does not matter which political party the person represents. If I had my way, there would not be political parties. A person would run for office and not have to do what his party told him to do. He (or she) could do what is best for everybody, not a select group.