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Published on 05/15/1996 All articles from this issue

Columnist talks importance of being truthful to readers

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

When you're a columnist like Loretta Green, you get a glimpseof life at its extremes. You talk to people in their euphoricglory and you see them when they're hiding behind the bleachersin defeat.

Green conveys some of her varied experience during her thirdappearance at the Los Altos Morning Forum lectures May 7.

"I'm always amazed to be here because I am a print journalist,"said Green, speaking from the pulpit of the United Methodist Churchin Los Altos. "Writers aren't supposed to think well on theirfeet. Yet, I enjoy being a journalist. It's not a job, becauseits so fulfilling when you like people."

Green's column appears in the San Jose Mercury every Monday,Wednesday and Friday. It's been published there since 1993, butGreen is best known for her column, "Common Ground,"published for 21 years at the defunct Peninsula Times Tribune.

During that time, she received awards from the Associated Press,the Association of California Newspaper Editors, the PeninsulaPress Club and the National Black Writer's Association.

"It's an impossible task to present what I see through mypen and what is true and what is fair," she said. "Iworry about people when they are wrong, so I talk to them withsensitivity. It's hard to walk up to a strange door and intrude.But I remember, I am in pursuit of a human interest story, a storythe public can gain strength by reading."

Reading excepts from different columns kept the audience in alistening mood. She paid high acclaim to Erma Bombeck when shesaid, "I tried to claim Erma Bombeck for myself. One thingI am certain of, Erma Bombeck lived in my house. Unfortunately,she lived in many other houses, too. I try to write like Erma,but comedy is hard to write."

Green addressed the ethical problems confronting everyday journalists."You can't be taught certain things like ethics. That comesfrom inside. "My question to any journalist is, does thereporter value truth?

"There is a corny little thing I learned in high schooljournalism class that I still use as my guide," Green said."When I write, I consider the three gates to any human intereststory. They are: Is it true, is it kind and is it necessary? Thatlast one we all have trouble with."

Another problem that arises in journalism, according to Green,is the question, "Am I being used? Is the story I am writingfor their publicity?

"I always question the validity of any story because I don'twant to lose my credibility to the readers," Green said."As a community response, people are basically good. Theyjust need to be shown how to be helpful to others."

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