PressEthic

On Tuesday evening's broadcast of "On The Record With Greta Van Susteren," during an interview with a previous member of the Amish community, Ms. Van Susteren asked for an example of a typical day, "if such a thing exists" in an Amish community. In her blog, using this story as an example of how competing new organizations tend to cooperate in the field, she states that "on these remote locations people from different news organizations are very helpful to each other." Remote locations? This is Pennsylvania, not Uruguay. Nickel Mines is a little over two hours drive from New York City. However, Ms. Van Susteren is not alone in her perplexing muse regarding the Amish.

Several news accounts deemed it necessary to point out the specifics which set the Amish apart from the modern world, perhaps with good reason. There is validity in giving details which provide context. The nuances in which those details are provided, however, can also be distorting and maligning.

As a note of transparancy, I grew up in the farmlands of southern Michigan. I would tag along with my father to livestock auctions and farmer's markets. Many Amish would buy hardware from my father and we would elbow in among them to bid on goats, chickens or miscellaneous junk brought for sale - another man's treasure - and I can honestly say I never thought of the Amish as secretive or outlandish. We would look forward to buying bread and baked goods from the Amish women - even now I can almost taste the peach strudel bread - and every Saturday at the county fairgrounds in Hillsdale, Michigan we would laugh, share a joke and shake hands to greet and say goodbye. Those are my memories, however. Perhaps it is a bit unreasonable for me to expect intelligent, thoughtful journalists to anticipate seeing a bit of themselves in everyone they meet.