By Nick Buglione
I went to a Herald reunion at Garden Social, in East Meadow, a few weeks ago. It’s been 20 years since I worked at the newspaper as an editor, and I got to see some faces I thought I might never see again.
The five years I spent as a journalist were some of the best years of my life. I met so many interesting people, and most of them were the reporters, editors and photographers I worked with.
It was great to see everyone. We talked about the old times and drank ourselves some beers. The conversation was light. What have you been up to? Where do you live now? How many kids do you have? That sort of thing.
I wish we’d spent some time talking about how drastically different the media, and indeed our world, is nowadays.
When we all worked together, we were dedicated to informing, educating and, at times, entertaining our readership. Today it seems the media’s job is to do nothing but incite, prod and provoke.
John O’Connell, who was the executive editor of the Herald when I left in 2005, was at the reunion. John’s a teddy bear of a guy — a great journalist, photographer and person. Our viewpoints didn’t always align when we worked together. John’s were mostly on the right, while mine leaned left. He supported the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003. I didn’t. There were spirited debates in our office. But those differences never cost us our mutual respect for each other, or our ultimate goal to report what was true.
Today we live in nasty, divisive, misinformed times, and I hold the media, in its current incarnation, squarely responsible. There aren’t many places people can turn to for honest, objective news. The Herald, and other publications like it, are thankfully still there. But increasingly, people get their information from cable news talking heads who present opinions as facts. Even worse, people shape their realities on posts they see on Facebook and Instagram, or in videos on TikTok, with little to no regard for their validity. And it has eroded our society’s common sense and civility.
A year or two ago, my daughter Adriana came home and informed me that Woodland Middle School had placed a litter box in a bathroom for a student who identified as a cat. I knew it was utter nonsense, but I pressed my daughter for more information.
Have you seen the litter box? I asked. No, she replied. And who is this child who identifies as a cat? I don’t know, I think some sixth-grader, she said. Though she was sure it was true, I assured her it was likely just a rumor. I explained the danger of believing anything without evidence, and left it at that.
A few weeks later, my friend Tim exasperatedly texted me that his daughter had told him her school had placed a litter box in the bathroom for a student who identified as a cat. I chuckled to myself, and replied that my daughter had told me the same thing, and that it was hogwash. He swore it wasn’t.
Not long after that, my colleague Erin and I were grabbing lunch when she told me that a friend of hers who worked in security at a local school said they had put a litter box in the bathroom. She was apoplectic, and sure it was true. It was only after I told her of my two previous encounters with this legend that she accepted that it might be false.
Apparently, several politicians and media personalities perpetuated this hoax on posts and podcasts in 2022. It’s not that we didn’t have urban legends back in my Herald days; it’s just that the media didn’t spread them. What’s more, they didn’t incite such vitriol.
I wish I could turn the clock back to the early 2000s, when I used to see those familiar faces every morning in the Herald offices. I wish I could get rid of the talking heads, the social media posts and the viral videos that dominate the media landscape, but I can’t.
The best I can do is implore people to think critically, and not take anything they see and hear at face value. Chances are if you’re reading this, you already do. Encourage others to do so. Politely.
Nick Buglione, who lives in East Meadow, is a teacher, freelance journalist and former editor of the East Meadow Herald.
