Appreciation for Reporters

This post is going to be short because I think I can express this relatively quickly.  

I am incredibly grateful for the American media.  

Yes, the media.  I know it is easy to criticize whichever side of the spectrum you don't like.  I know it is easy to go online and talk about how you think "they" lie all of the time.  I know it is easy to think of them as the enemy of whichever politician you like and too friendly to the ones you don't like.  

But as the situation in Ukraine unfolds, I am so grateful to the men and women who are willing to put themselves on the ground in harm's way in order to bring us the story would could not otherwise know.  They are meeting and interviewing refugees so that we can understand more than their numbers, but hear their stories and motivations.  They are seeing things they will never be able to unsee.  And, it isn't just the "famous faces" we see on TV.  For each of them, there is a camera operator and likely a producer.  All of them are in danger of shelling and missile strikes as they do their jobs (and some have been killed already).

The people who criticize can do so from the safety of their laptops as they blog (yes, I get the irony).  They can scream about people they have never met into a podcast microphone from the inside of a secure, soundproof room.  They can write their script from their own thoughts without having the truth of their opinions challenged by seeing what is actually happening.  The journalists that are on the ground are seeing things that the podcaster/blogger doesn't have to traumatize himself with.

It's okay that you think the media is too . . . fill in whichever side of the spectrum you don't like.  As Putin has made it a crime for the Russian media to say the words "war" and "invasion" or really to say anything he doesn't like, be glad that the American media is allowed to say things you don't like.  Celebrate that when you celebrate the first amendment.  I am in awe of the woman who had the courage to hold a sign up on Russian state media to inform people that they were being lied to.  I'm sure there are many in Russia who think she was too . . . something as well.  Last week, she did an interview with American media, and each time she does, she puts her life at risk.    

It's okay for you to disagree with members of the media.  But just remember, the next time you are criticizing them, that they are willing to do something you aren't.  Appreciate that.  Celebrate that.