News to Me

Karen Epp, 6th grade, Mrs. Friesen's class in Hillsboro Middle School

I became aware of current events in 6th grade. Mrs. Friesen would spend a good portion of every morning listening to our class report and discuss the news of the day. We could share something we heard on the radio for three points, or clip a newspaper article to bring in for five points. Since my family didn't subscribe to a daily newspaper, I would listen closely to Paul Harvey's newscast on the radio as we were quickly eating breakfast before rushing out the door to meet the bus. I would usually come away with a headline and a few supporting facts that I could contribute.

I have a feeling I'm not the only one in my class who remembers the events of 1980-81 more clearly than any other year. We followed the Iran Hostage Crisis daily, and were ecstatic when the 52 hostages were finally freed after 444 days in captivity. I remember the morning we talked about John Lennon being shot. I also remember other students telling me and a friend about the assassination attempt on  President Reagan when we came back into the classroom.

I don't know how many students had access to daily newspapers, but I remember feeling like I was in the minority. I suppose some might have brought articles from news magazines, or took notes during "World News Tonight," but it seemed like lots of people in lil' ol' Hillsboro received The Wichita Eagle.

Since I liked writing, I planned on being on the newspaper staff in high school, and was disappointed when Hillsboro High School cancelled The Oracle right before my freshman year. I wrote a lot of copy for the yearbook instead. 

Bob Woelk interviewed me for an article in the Hillsboro Star-Journal when I was named valedictorian of the class of 1987, so that gave me an early perspective of my name being in the article and not at the top in the byline. Getting to know Bob at that time and talking about my plans to attend Tabor also gave me a jump start on being on the staff of The Tabor College View, of which he was the sponsor. 

In the news- Being interviewed for the Hillsboro Star-Journal in 1987 confirmed to me that I wanted to pursue journalism

I traveled to Eastern Europe with the Tabor College Choir in January 1989. One of my strongest memories, which I wrote about later in journalism class (taught by Bob Woelk), was a Polish girl about my age telling me, "My country is a prison!" She explained how she and her friends wanted desparately to travel but weren't allowed to leave.

I remember Clarence Hiebert, a Tabor professor who was a guide on our trip, explaining that the Polish government (or one of the Eastern European countries we visited, I am not sure) printed newspapers that were filled with propaganda. Lies. I remember thinking, "Why would they bother printing things that aren't true?" and "Why would people even read those newspapers?" Maybe if the government said something, you would automatically believe the opposite. Innocently, I believed it would be fairly simple to figure out the truth.

Towards the end of my college career, I remember another journalism professor, Kent Gaston, saying that even though as journalists we were supposed to present all sides and not include our opinion in any story, in general, mainstream newspapers were slanted toward the left, or liberal, viewpoints. I honestly think this was the first time I had ever heard that, and at the time I wasn't even sure I believed it.

I know when I interviewed for an internship at The Wichita Eagle, the thought that they might be less than impressed with my brand-new undergraduate English degree from a small conservative Christian liberal arts college never occurred to me. 

I think it was during that internship interview (which I didn't get), that Fran Kentling from the Eagle suggested I take classes from Les Anderson, a well-respected journalism instructor at WSU and editor of the Ark Valley News. 

I landed in Les' journalism class in the fall of 1991, on the heels of the Summer of Mercy when Operation Rescue put abortion protests and Wichita, Kansas in the national spotlight. So Les had a great assignment for the class:  cover the protests over the coming weekend, and whatever position you personally take--whether pro-choice or pro-life--report the opposite.

I went to the Planned Parenthood headquarters on Central and interviewed a student outside holding a pro-choice sign and dutifully asked her a few questions and recorded her responses. I think there was a Catholic student in our class who also turned in a pro-choice article, but the remaining dozen or so journalism students had been "forced" to write from the pro-life perspective.

Les Anderson died in 2011 at the age of 62. I wonder if current journalism teachers are as careful to teach their students to leave personal bias out of their reporting.

In another class with Les (I think I took two) there was a pretty girl who always came to class with perfect makeup, styled hair, and business attire. She was interested in broadcast media. I remember Les having to give her separate instructions, because she would need to take a cameraman (or camera person) with her on location to film her final. 

We all knew (because it probably had been explained to us) that television and broadcast media were limited, and best for quick highlights. To really get in-depth stories that explored all angles, you needed print. And opinion was ONLY for page 2.

I was working a day job, but still tried to get my foot in the door at the Eagle. I free-lanced a few pieces for an advertising section that they published. A reporting position opened up, so I expressed interest. I remember the Eagle calling me back and me having to take the call in the warehouse where I was working. I mentioned to the woman that I had done several articles for the Eagle's advertising section. That gave her pause. She said she was concerned that readers would be used to seeing my name in the advertising section, where truth is sometimes sacrificed for marketing purposes. News reporters were held to higher standards, so I would need to choose which area I wanted to work in. I never wrote for the advertising section again. But I didn't write for the newspaper either. I don't remember what happened on that one. I had a hard time hearing her in the noisy warehouse.

Eventually Dave and I started our family so I quit my job. Over the next few years I submitted a few human interest pieces, and was happy that they chose to place one in the Thanksgiving issue.

Thanksgiving 1996- Published!

 I was thrilled to have a piece I'd written about memories of my Grandma Epp baking bread published in the Wichita Eagle's Thanksgiving edition. I was less thrilled that they said they couldn't pay anything (not an account for it, or something like that). I titled it "The bread of life," but they needed a longer title so they added "A thread to the bread of life." THREAD? That made me think of my grandma telling me to wear a ponytail so my long hair wouldn't get in the dough and wrap around Grandpa's tongue. Why in the world didn't "A SLICE of the bread of life" occur to them? Oh well.

 Even though money was tight, we always subscribed to the newspaper. I loved reading it in the mornings with my coffee, and I kept up with local issues, feeling it was my civic duty to at least glance at what the city council was up to. I loved the "Wichitalk" special section, and even got to be on the cover once. 

Wichitalk- The special magazine section in the newspaper that I had volunteered to model for. They called me one day, I had an hour to get to the Panera by Wesley Medical Center for a section they said was to be about healthy restaurant eating. I cringed when the issue showed up on my doorstep with my face next to "Dining out on a diet." Oh well. I got to take home the Panera soup and salad used for the photo shoot. It was delicious.

But newspapers across the country were in hard times. Budgets shrank, reporters were fired, and the Eagle became an eaglet. We kept subscribing, mainly because I'd taught our dog, Odie, to fetch the newspaper, and he looked forward to this ritual (and getting a treat). Except for Sunday. The Sunday edition with its extra advertising was still large enough that Odie would take one look at it, decide it was above his pay grade, and walk off.

Odie bringing me the newspaper, a chore he enjoyed as long as it wasn't the big Sunday edition.

But newspaper delivery kept getting worse and worse, and once Dave and I both had smart phones, we considered stopping service. When Dave was in surgery early one morning in December 2015, I settled in to my seat in the waiting room and opened the newspaper I'd grabbed as I ran out the door, then looked around the room. Every single person was on their phones. I posted a comment on Facebook about feeling retro. Soon after that, I cancelled service.

I've tried to get into the habit of reading the newspaper digitally, but haven't been successful.

So I have relied more on radio and television news. While working on our lawn business, I'll sometimes have my headset on National Public Radio to catch up on current events. Then when we are finished with the lawn and I get in the truck (where my husband, Dave, controls the dial) KNSS will say something completely different. "They can't BOTH be right!" I would think, and this would bother me quite a bit. Then, I realized, that although they couldn't both be right, they could very easily both be WRONG. This actually bothers me even more, but I feel less compulsion to listen to either.

As all Americans know, the election of 2020 caused the two sides to diverge even farther. I remember talking to my friend (who also dabbled in journalism and worked for the Wichita Eagle advertising section around the time that I did) about how we honestly had no clue what was truth. 

After January 6, I talked to a friend who had been in the crowd listening to President Trump in Washington D.C. that day, and she said what actually happened wasn't reported correctly by any news source. What's more, some things were reported hours before they occurred. I believe her, and it scares me.

The information about Covid-19 and the vaccines have varied widely, and opinion is rarely left out. A "rogue" scientist in a video sent to me explained how big pharmaceutical companies control which research projects are funded, so independent scientists and researchers are at a huge disadvantage. Ones who disagree with the "mainstream" line of thinking are afraid to speak up, for fear of losing funding.

Last year NPR did a whole segment on the difference between "misinformation" and "disinformation" that left me more confused than ever. 

The whole Afghanistan debacle is exposing lies of the current administration. "No we haven't hear of anyone having trouble getting to the airport," he said, as both right and left-leaning medias showed hours of footage to the contrary.

Having a free press is important to our democratic republic. With media conglomerates owned by only a few super-wealthy, influential individuals, "truth" seems to become what they say it is.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 18:31-32.