Is it positive or negative

Call me a romantic but I like to think of journalism as something that can make a difference in people's lives.

But sour economic stories have inundated our area; sometimes I want to read good news.

Since questions can be molded to fit a story, it is important to recognize the difference between bumping a quote about the crappy economy to the top of a story and having something optimistic about the future as the lede quote. While I'm not advocating rose colored glasses, we should be weary of the impact poor economy stories have on the readers.

At the newspaper, we were begging for good news stories. It was a brutal day when some other local company had bad news to announce (that might be one of the most selfish things I have ever written). But we didn't seek out good news; we didn't have the staff to seek anything out.

Since when do journalist not care about where they live? I have never found that to be true. But I have found handcuffs placed on local staff that restricted their ability to write about what they care about.

We need to be able to seek out the good stories.

Some places need a cheerleader; we live in one of those places.