National news, local heartburn

A newspaper is a jigsaw puzzle of different pieces and perspectives, fit together each day to create what we call the news. And that news comes from a lot of different places.

A lot of what you read in The Sheridan Press on a daily basis is generated right here in house with our team of eight talented journalists. Still more is written by journalists throughout the state and shared with us through the Wyoming News Exchange.

And then there is national content — news from the Associated Press, political columns from the Washington Post and other sources and political cartoons published by national outlet Cagle Cartoons — which we have absolutely no hand in creating. But we do curate that content for our readers, choosing the news and opinion pieces we think our readers need to read.

That’s a big task for a small journalistic team, especially when there are more local stories taking up the majority of our time and attention.

That national content, which takes just a small fraction of our work week to curate, is often what gets us in hot water with our readers. It is rare for a week to go by without receiving at least one email from an incensed reader, complaining our cartoon choices are too liberal or too conservative, or wondering why we give a platform to national stories they read as “Pro-Trump” or “Pro-Kamala.”

And yes, the critiques come in from both sides, in equal volumes. And they all wonder, “Why do you publish what you do?”

There’s a lot of different answers to that question — Obviously, we want to pick content on stories of widespread interest. We also want to, when possible, reflect our community in its belief systems and political opinions.

But while our community skews heavily Republican — as the 73% of Sheridan County voters who cast a vote for Donald Trump in this general election can testify to — that’s not the only opinion in our community.

So we work hard to balance the perspectives in the paper, even as political power in this community leans heavily in one direction. We do this for two reasons: First, that all our readers can feel represented and seen in this newspaper and secondly, to challenge the perceptions of readers on both sides of the political aisle and to make them think deeply about — maybe even challenge and expand — their own long-held beliefs.

It seems our steady stream of angry emails indicates we’re doing an OK job balancing content most weeks. Our intent is not to anger, but to encourage thought and dialogue in the community.

Admittedly, we don’t always get these choices right. Every person at The Sheridan Press is a flawed human being who comes to work with their own beliefs and biases, and sometimes that seeps into the content on the pages of your paper. And for that, we apologize.

Despite our biases, we strive every day to provide fair and balanced perspectives on every page of the paper.

And if we don’t get it right, we want to know. What content in our paper — national or otherwise — made you angry? What made you think? What made you want to learn more and do your own research? We value all this feedback and encourage you to send it to editor@thesheridanpress.com or write it in a letter to the editor.