Publishers Perspective: Balanced, not Biased

Publishers Perspective: Balanced, not Biased

– By Josh Warburton –

“Shut up and play” or maybe more like “shut up and show us events info” is basically a rephrasing of a comment we at The Independent continue to hear after nearly 27 years of publishing. It seems that we get a new set of comments expressing this sentiment every time we publish a satirical cartoon or maybe post more consistently on one social media channel or another. “Stay in your lane” is another retort we hear from either the right or the left, generally based on someone viewing a single piece of content on suindependent.com. I wrote about this in a Publisher’s Perspective earlier this year after another one of our long-time advertisers opted to pull their advertising with us over our perceived “slant” going too far to the right (in this case) for this particular customer. And more recently, we got a comment on Instagram from a former contributor who posted, “When did the SU Independent become a conservative rag? How the mighty have fallen.” The answer is that we’ve always been a conservative AND a liberal “rag,” although I prefer the word publication.

It seems we are an anomaly in the world of publishing these days as we are willing and frankly want to publish content from the widest swath of political opinions that exist within the bounds of civility. When I started publishing back in 1996, I always thought publishing varied opinions were what most newspapers did, big and small. From my perspective as a 19-year-old high school dropout, the best we could hope for was to be a neutral medium that offered a platform for all to express their thoughts on any topic of import. That concept seems to have gone the way of the Dodo in recent years, or at the very least, the idea that a publication might purposely publish “liberal” and “conservative” opinion pieces, letters, and satirical cartoons seems to be foreign to so many. Instead, the loudest voices seem to prefer we only publish content that agrees with their own particular views on whatever topic of the day.

But honestly, I have never considered The Independent either a “liberal rag” or a “conservative rag.” Instead, it has served as an outlet for all conversations and ideas to be discussed. It’s been something like a neutral platform way before social media ever existed. But that’s not the environment we live in anymore. We’ve become so splintered in our media consumption, and most people choose to consume media that they mostly agree with. Social media platforms were supposed to give equal opportunity for any individual to express their opinions, whatever their political flavor, but many questions if that is the case. Instead, some platforms, such as Twitter, seem to have taken active steps to minimize some voices while amplifying others. And while each social network is a private business that can decide that that’s what they’d like to do rather than be the truly impartial conduit that they publicly attest they are, the evidence that they are not objective is the proliferation of many new and openly biased alternatives.

I’ve stated before a hundred times, and I will say it again, The Independent is a place for all opinions. And while it seems hard for many to understand why we would publish political or opinion sentiments that I personally disagree with, that’s always been the point. It’s not about me or my own opinions, and to that end, we’ve always had an editor who makes the decisions as to what we publish and what we don’t. I’m counting six editors off the top of my head in our nearly three-decade history, and I believe half of those were of the dominant faith here in southern Utah, each of whom I have given the same directive. And that is to procure and publish voices of all backgrounds and angles of and for southern Utah. Some of our editors have adhered to this better than others, and some have all but ignored it to the detriment of themselves and to The Independent.

In a world where nearly all media seems to be either “left” or “right,” we are proud to continue to be a “safe space” where all ideas can be discussed, and all voices can be heard. As I wrote earlier this year, it would probably be easier on me and maybe even better for business if we just didn’t publish any opinion or political content at all, but then I would have let those loudest voices on the fringe win. And southern Utah and our broader audience outside of it would have one less place willing to host such a broad list of topics and subjects. I do realize that we could simply “shut up and just publish events info,” but that’s not who we are, and that’s not who we’ve ever been. So the next time you see a cartoon or opinion piece on suindependent.com or in our print edition that ruffles your feathers, please consider looking at the next piece of content, knowing that it may align more with you and that it is likely ruffling someone else’s feathers! And that’s how we all expand our minds, consider new ideas, and begin conversations. It’s not easy being “independent,” but it is who we are and who we will continue to be. And while it may be a “rag” to some, to us, it’s what it was always intended to be, “A voice for southern Utah.” Have a happy and prosperous new year.

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