Re: Ann Bridge’s May 27 Maine Sunday Telegram letter to the editor, “School issues too important to be belittled as ‘cage fight’ “:

As a close observer of the day-to-day events surrounding the affected Scarborough school board members, the superintendent and the high school principal, I wholeheartedly endorse her remarks. One of the many takeaways for me was the role of the media – primarily print but also television.

With the emergence of social media, where anyone, any time, can post a comment regardless of whether or not it is fact-based, I feel it is imperative for the mainstream media to be extremely responsible with their reporting and editing. The media must be cognizant of the choice of words or the editing of remarks and their impact. Most readers tend not to be intimately involved, never mind even aware of the complexity that drives many issues.

I find it irresponsible when reporters do not explain the context of particular statements and/or issues, especially online postings that go unchallenged. This is further exacerbated when reporters and editors use inflammatory words in headlines or in the text of their reports. It presents a biased view that bears a significant impact on the reader who may be someone not fully informed of the entirety of the issue(s).

As we witnessed in Scarborough, emotions can accelerate rapidly through the use of social media. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram and the weekly newspapers must be the safeguards to make sure readers are receiving researched and responsible reporting, providing a balanced analysis of a particular statement and/or event.

Leave the opinions to the editorial pages. Otherwise, the mainstream media reporting will be no different from social media postings. That does not bode well for an informed public.

Roger Beeley

Scarborough


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