By Jackson Swearer
We are covering the locally organized “No Kings Day” protest that occurred on Saturday.
You may have seen some other coverage, but you will read our version of the story Monday. That is intentional. Slower news means more time to digest information and provide quality journalism.
Our news staff is looking forward to having more and more capacity to dive deeper into local stories through the summer and into the fall.
If you had not noticed this past week, Adam Stewart is our first new full-time reporter. Michael Glenn returns from vacation next week, and we plan for more reporters as we ramp up to the weekly print edition in August.
Thank you to everyone who has already subscribed as one of our Founders, as you are helping to make that possible!
Incidentally, you still should not expect to read much in the way of national news in The Hutchinson Tribune. We do believe part of our role in the community is to provide the local context for major events. If we cover something, it will be because there is a local connection.
Fundamentally, I view the objective of the newspaper to be a neutral container that can connect people who have different opinions so they can discuss issues with good facts. When we are printing the weekly newspaper, we will be welcoming letters to the editor. We will also be looking for community columnists representing a wide variety of points of view.
Speaking of a wide variety of opinions, I have a lot of opinions. I am not shy, but you won’t read me offering my opinions on the national news very often. I will offer that, as a new member of the press, I am especially fond of the First Amendment.
Today, I wanted to share that Aristotle is one of my favorite philosophers. He wrote in Ancient Greece and was a student of Plato and Socrates.
One of Aristotle’s main ideas was that, in most moral situations, we need to find the right balance between competing virtues. For example, a significant part of the role of the publisher is to balance the financial aspects of business and the need for quality community journalism.
For a readable, modern take on Aristotle’s ethics, I recommend “Practical Wisdom” by Kenneth Sharpe and Barry Schwartz. Both were professors at Swarthmore, where I took a class on the subject from Professor Sharpe.
Part of what I bring from my point of view is a love of philosophy and the very fortunate experience of learning from great teachers.
As I have grown into an adult and especially now in this new role as publisher, balancing competing virtues and considering others’ points of view are key parts of my personal philosophy. I absolutely will not always get that right, but the goal is always to be better, not perfect.
As a company, we believe in high-quality journalism as our top priority. To us, that means providing the facts in as neutral and objective a manner as we can. It also means providing space for different points of view. The Hutchinson Tribune may not always be perfect, but we are committed to getting better.
Local journalism helps bring our community together to discuss our greatest challenges and make progress toward a brighter future.