Dealing with A Different Kind of Writer’s Block
#We’ve tried to start writing this week more times than we can count. It isn’t like there is a lack of things to write about in the television business. But every time we get about a paragraph in, we start to veer off course.
Because what’s happening outside our door and across the Twin Cities here in Minnesota is more chilling than the -18 degree temperature we woke up to this morning. (And for you weather purists, that was the actual air temperature, not the oft-maligned wind chill reading. At this point, we refuse to even look at the wind chill figure.)
It’s hard to write about what’s happening here without quickly descending into the kind of rhetoric that we spent an entire career trying to parse through and report on--without the bias that many people now assume pervades anyone with the arrogance to call themselves “a journalist.” As a society, we have systematically devalued this once-noble profession, making it less respected than the personal injury lawyers whose commercials dominate our local news.
You can watch this drama unfold through the lens of whichever outlet you prefer to bring you the news. But it is imperative to remember that what you are seeing is limited by the inherent constraints of any lens used to document what is happening on the ground.
As it is in any news story.
The lens sees only what its focal length allows. A number measured in millimeters, the focal length determines the width and focus of the picture passing through the lens. It determines the limit of what the camera attached to the lens can “see” and record. The human eye always sees so much more than a lens, no matter how skillfully used by the person holding the camera.
And there has been so much skill and professionalism on display from all the local journalists who are working this story. Not those who have parachuted in from wherever to cover the story for newsrooms based far from here. Even worse? The rush of “influencers” who have descended on Minneapolis and St. Paul, looking to find something to go viral and pump up their social media follower count.
In the midst of what can only be called something resembling an occupation of a major American metropolis by thousands of federal agents in paramilitary gear and unmarked vehicles, the daily documentation of their “targeted raids” that often lead to the detainment, arrest, and ultimate release of both U.S. citizens and those legally permitted to be in this country continues to dominate the headlines. In turn, the daily maneuvers of “Operation Metro Surge” are themselves the focus of determined citizen groups, who warn their neighbors of the actions while protesting, mostly peacefully though always loudly at each scene.
It would be hard enough to report on this in a factual, unbiased way in normal times. This is a human tragedy playing out on the streets of our home. The feelings are all too familiar. Not just from the events of 2020 but from so many points in the history of what we call the North Star state, and as it has been for every other of the 49 states and countless territories that make up the union of our states, it has rarely felt less united.
We know our colleagues and friends who are working in newsrooms across "the Cities” (as we refer to it in local shorthand) have been working long hours and in challenging conditions, trying to cover what each new day brings. Their work has never been more essential, and they keep rising to the challenge, even as the rest of the news that will normally fill each day’s agenda tries to proceed as it normally would.
Somewhere along the way that has led us to this moment in history, the disregard and denial of simple facts documented by pictures and video captured by the countless cameras at every scene has become the most disheartening development for those of us who watch the coverage with a critical eye. Even when a lens captures a moment of reality of what is happening here, the official denials of what is clearly visible to the viewer are breathtaking in their audacity.
The use of one seminal quote from George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 has appeared in so many places that it feels too easy to paste it here. But the relevance of the words is too crucial to omit them. "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
That is the backdrop against which local journalists are working to go out and do the work they are expected to do.
Today in Minnesota, a general strike has been called for to protest the Federal Government’s actions on the streets of our cities. Many businesses are closed, schools are shut down, and signs ranging from handwritten scrawled notes to professionally printed placards are all displaying the same simple two-word message: ICE Out
That message has a bit of typical Minnesota irony to it. It is the same thing said when the typically harsh winter conditions are finally over for another year and the frozen surfaces across “the land of 10,000 lakes” have turned fully liquid once again. For anyone who has ever called this place that experiences all four seasons every twelve months, the official word of the day when “ICE Out” is declared is always greeted with a sense of relief and pride that another winter has been survived and the promise of rebirth in a new spring has arrived.
One group that will not be on strike today is the local journalists who will be covering the news stories here. Not just the ones you’ll see on the national news outlets tonight, but the many other ones that will also matter to the people who are proud to call this place home. We urge you to support their work by visiting their websites to see the truly local coverage of what is happening here.
Because, for better or worse, that’s still the job we need them to do.
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