Blame it on the news

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — So I’ve had a few months to settle in here, in Vicksburg. What I’ve found is that a lot of people want to blame things on the news. Like what?

Sure it is the job of the media to literally go where everyone else can’t. We make ourselves available to cover stories, whether those be boring board meetings, a house engulfed in flames, a wreck on the interstate or a celebration at a birthday.

Why do we do it? Well, it’s because that is where our hearts are. We believe that we should live in an informed society. We also want to be reliable. Our readers, and honestly, our friends, can hold us accountable.

On your way to work and see traffic slowing up ahead? Pull up your phone and check out VDN’s Facebook feed. More than likely we are on scene and trying to let you know what is going on.

Looking for something to do on a random Friday? Pull up our page and check out the events section. We try to maintain a robust events calendar for happenings in our community.

Wondering how your high school alma mater is doing in football, basketball, soccer, or baseball? Check us out because we have a dedicated team going to the games and getting to know these athletes in person.

Wondering why we wrote a story about an ordinance that was passed three years ago? Maybe, just maybe, it was in reference to a recent occurrence and we are trying to help people who may not know. Maybe we are trying to help save time and energy from our law enforcement officers and want the public to know there are other avenues to achieve desired results.

I recently had a conversation with an elected official in the community who called VDN “ambulance chasers.” Really? That’s all we are? We are at the board meetings, we are at the local games, we support community development, we tackle the questions and concerns that our readers send us anonymously, we support our county, city and state, we are there when anyone asks questions…but we are just “ambulance chasers”? But I get it, VDN doesn’t have a history of playing nice with elected officials, bless their hearts. Last year, we had 119,642,339 views of the ambulances we chased; we’ll survive the blame.

“Anyone with a smartphone and a Facebook feed can do what you do?” Whoa now. Hold up. Is that really true? I have an iPhone, but so does the majority of the population. But I also have integrity. I believe in only conveying honest to God facts. I also believe in producing the documents to backup whatever I say. Does everyone have that ability? Also, elected official, I understand why you don’t want people to get involved in keeping an eye on you. Everyone has a smartphone; you may want to use it to search for the word “obsolete.” It represents your dated point of view about modern media.

With the implementation of Artificial Intelligence our society now faces not only humans who can bend the truth, but computers with absolutely no holds on morality. Our social media feeds are inundated with “fake” truths and lying videos. My kids have had to inform me countless times that a “cool” video I watched was AI generated. Huh? You mean there are computers out there generating a video of a polar bear saving its cub from an avalanche? Yeah. There are.

Look I know I can’t change everyone’s perception of who we are, but I can keep doing what I do with all my teammates at VDN. We aren’t going anywhere. We are here for you, our readers, our neighbors, our friends, the random couples we meet at the bar, the polite people we see in church. We strive to make your lives better because at the end of the day, an informed person makes better decisions.

Anyway, the next time you see the image of a police car in the background of a taped off crime scene, take a moment and think, someone who cares about you is on scene. And if you get annoyed about seeing those images and information? I guess, just blame it on the news. Blame it on us because we can take the heat when others can’t.