If news is the unusual, a Florida sheriff makes news with a message for the local news media

The news media can be a pain in the ass. I’ve known that for a long time. Any of you who have read my critiques in recent years (including one yesterday) know I’m particularly hard on what passes for news today. Plus, if you ever get me started on the low standards used by most of the cable networks as they bring us breaking news, I may not shut up for a while.

The pressures of competing with social media have reduced the quality of some, once trustworthy, news organizations. Being a good consumer of news in the social media age means taking little at face value and searching for other credible sources to verify what you just read, heard or saw.

But while it may not be the free press we want, it’s the free press we have. Trying to legislate changes or regulate it means putting government controls on something that, despite it’s ugly warts, is really precious.

Thanks to today’s partisanship and polarization, many of you seem too ready to jettison the news media when they publish a story critical of an organization you hold dear. Or you’re disgusted because a reporter dared to demand specifics from Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or any one of the 2000 people running for President who is your personal favorite.

We’re so blinded by such outrage we fail to understand that good reporting has shined light on extremely important subjects and forced accountability at all levels of government. Solid journalism often gets lost in the mountain of useless information we receive today, but it still happens.

All of this is why it’s important to share the video below sent to me by my friend Chief Glenn Usdin. It’s from Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd.

Yesterday (Wednesday), after the killings, live on TV, of a Virginia reporter and videographer, Sheriff Judd had a message for the local press. While I’m certain there are plenty in public safety who feel they way Sheriff Judd does (and many who don’t), it’s rare to hear the defense of a free press articulated so well and so directly by someone in law enforcement. Sheriff Judd made clear that he takes his oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States very seriously. Please take a moment to listen.