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EDITORIAL A shooting that hit home for us

3 min read
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It’s become all too customary for news outlets to report on individual lives lost in mass shootings – their accomplishments, their devotion to family and friends, their ambitions, their plans – and the stories of the five people gunned down at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., Thursday hit close to home for us, and for anyone else who works at a newspaper.

There was Gerald Fischman, the editorial writer with a quiet demeanor, cutting wit and knowledge about a vast array of subjects.

Then there was Rob Hiaasen, a columnist and journalism instructor who, his brother told The Washington Post, “dedicated his whole life to journalism.”

John McNamara, a two-decade veteran of the newsroom whose range included coverage of local politics and professional sports.

Wendi Winters, a community reporter and editor who wrote local features, including a “Teen of the Week” column.

Rebecca Smith, a sales assistant who recently started at the newspaper and was said to be cheerful and a hard worker.

These weren’t people working in some far-flung failed state, hot on the trail of a despot’s corruption. They were most assuredly not “the enemy of the people.” They were people who attended and reported on municipal meetings, who sat in the stands at local sporting events, who did the sometimes unglamorous work of informing a community about itself.

And yet they were killed because of who they were and the institution for which they worked.

They were among the journalists who were murdered in 2018, joining the likes of Paul Rivas Bravo, who was killed in Colombia, and Abdul Manan Arghand, who died in Afghanistan, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

People regularly complain about the media, for its sins of commission and omission and, to be sure, the media is not perfect. It is staffed by hundreds of human beings, and since human beings are not perfect, they make mistakes, have flaws, foibles and blind spots. But setting aside the publishers of supermarket tabloids or the proprietors of dubious websites, the American media is not in the business of peddling “fake news” or making up stories out of whole cloth. Its reporters, writers and editors work hard to uncover facts, hold elected officials to account and inform readers, viewers and listeners so they can be wiser participants in our democracy.

Complaints about the media are commonplace, and that comes with the territory. But precious few of us would want to live in a country where journalists have to fear for their lives to report the news.

The unfortunate reality, of course, is the Capital Gazette is not the only place in recent years where Americans who were going about their daily lives have been senselessly gunned down. Classrooms, night spots, churches, concerts, movie theaters and workplaces of all kinds have been visited with madness and violence. Yes, it’s true, that we need to do more to reach those grappling with mental illness. It’s also true that the gunman in Annapolis used a rifle to carry out his deeds. Still, it remains an imperative mission for America to enact commonsense gun laws and take weapons meant for the battlefield off our streets.

The Capital Gazette’s editorial page Friday made a straightforward declaration: “Today, we are speechless.”

So are we.

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