Don't worry, I'm a journalist

Courtney West

Personally, I find it really interesting to write about highly polarized issues, especially when on a college campus. Most of the time, everyone is going to have an opinion, or they will at least have heard of the issue you’re writing on. So I figured that writing about the pro-life vs pro-choice debate when it came to campus would make a great depth story. I still think it will, I just didn’t stop to consider the difficulty of getting fair and balanced sources. Members of the pro-choice camp seem very willing to talk to me about what they are doing and their organization, but I have had quite a bit of difficulty getting the same information from the pro-life camp.  First let me just say that I don’t openly express allegiance to the pro-choice camp. I wasn’t wearing pink or a Planned Parenthood t-shirt, and didn’t openly express any sort of negative feeling for the pro-life debate. In fact, I worked very hard on maintaining a neutral demeanor in the face of the gigantic posters with pictures of dead fetuses planted in the middle of the plaza. People associated with Justice For All seemed willing enough to talk to me, but since it was the last day they’d be on campus, I expressed interest in talking to them for a story. Something about that seemed to set off alarms in their heads, and they all made excuses about why they couldn’t talk to me, or wouldn’t give me their names. I got one name only, from a man who admitted that he was a newer recruit. It’s difficult to present a fair and balanced story on a highly polarized issue when sources from one camp seem incredibly wary of talking to you.