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The right, and the responsibility, to tell the truth

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A few weeks ago, I headed to the nation's capital with four close friends from high school. None of us are particularly adept at staying still for too long, so we decided to head to Washington to watch our favorite team, the Islanders, play a road game, and to take in the sites and sounds of a city we had all been to before, but not since our younger days of high school field trips and family vacations.

Our first stop, thanks in part to a bit of prodding by yours truly, was the Newseum. Located just blocks from the national mall, it celebrates the history of the news media and journalism not just in the United States, but from around the world. Long before ever becoming a working reporter, I was first and foremost a news junkie, constantly checking my phone as it gave me constant updates from the world around me, so I was thrilled to take sometime and surround myself in the world of news.

As we began our visit to the museum, a small plaque welcomed us, and the rest of the museum's visitors, and reminded us all just why a six-story museum to the free press is necessary.

“The free press is a cornerstone of democracy,” it read. “People have a right to know. Journalists have a right to tell. Finding the facts can be difficult. Reporting the story can be dangerous. Freedom includes the right to be outrageous. Responsibility includes the duty to be fair. News is history in the making. Journalists provide the first draft of that history. A free press, at its best, reveals the truth.”

The words struck me immediately. In my personal life, I tend not to snap countless photos of my days. My work requires me to be meticulous in recording the details of an event in order to depict it for readers, so when I don’t have that responsibility, I prefer to let myself stay in the moment rather than record everything for future reference. But I took a photo of that plaque immediately.

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