I’m going to say a few things from my vantage point. These are purely my thoughts and are derived my professional experiences working in media & PR for a combined decade-plus.

Since February 2010, I have always passionately cared about every government I am a constituent of and the way these governments behave.

I have always believed in transparency in ways some struggle to comprehend.

The New York Times, an outlet I’ve revered since reading it while studying journalism at Hofstra, published a mistake today regarding York County’s election process.

It was a relatively big one, entirely wrong and caused roughly an hour of shock as York County absorbed other outlets asking about this. It disrupted my work flow, but it wasn’t irreparable.

I had to use this medium to get the reporter’s attention and request a correction. NYT fixed it and acknowledged the correction in their story.

Problem solved. I knew why the mistake was made and where it came from. And I knew NYT did not intentionally mislead or seek to cause confusion. That is why they quickly ran a correction.

Things are uneasy right now. America is at a cross roads with uncertainties ahead that make me shudder. Information is moving faster than many can comprehend, myself included.

But listen to me. The New York Times is not artificial. It’s not an enemy of anyone. The people employed there work hard and have families, kids and rent due and they attend church and they vote and they walk through parks and patronize businesses.

The NYT & other legitimately sourced news outlets who reliably inform people have been doing so since before this country declared its independence.

Sure, it annoyed me in the moment, but instead of whining about unfairness, launching a tirade on Twitter or screaming foul over spilled milk, I just reached out & NYT rectified it.

Journalists really are quite pleasant to talk to when you treat them like the civically engaged, community oriented and truth-seeking human beings they are.

They are also Americans practicing the first amendment to the document that we hold in such high esteem. And we should. So there’s that.

Journalists are working hard right now, just as local elections boards, county departments, poll workers, even volunteers, are. We’re all exhausted. So please, before calling “the media” anything other than a convenient means of informing people, consider not doing it. –30–