You’re right. We’re not neutral.
In the days immediately following the Parkland shooting, the community was sad, angry, bewildered, and drowning in information. So were we.
We thought about and asked you how we could help cut through the noise for all of our readers, many of whom were desperate to see this time be different — for it to not be yet another mass shooting immediately followed by rallying cries, but, ultimately, no change.
There was one thing different this time: Unlike the Pulse shooting, the Florida legislature was in session when Parkland happened, which provided an opening for action and real conversation on gun laws.
In the past few weeks, hundreds of you have written to us to share your thoughts and give us feedback on our coverage and our gun legislation tracker — and we’re enormously grateful for that.
Some think our standard for defining “progress” on gun reform is too low. Some think we shouldn’t have an opinion on what is considered “progress” — that we should be objective and just stick with the facts. Some shared that you’d prefer The New Tropic stick to local events, and avoid political topics altogether, because the world has enough politics already (and man, are there days we feel you on that). Let’s talk about all that a bit.
As we debated how we could help people feel less overwhelmed and more empowered in the days after Parkland, we zeroed in on helping readers stay on top of what was happening in Tallahassee.
The legislative process, especially at the state level, is opaque and often hard to follow. It makes voters feel powerless because, despite the fact that this is our government, often it seems like there’s no place for us in it.
So we set out, at least for the remaining two weeks of the session, to help change that. That’s where our daily legislative tracker came from, led by our storytelling producer Lance Dixon.
As you probably noticed, we didn’t attempt neutrality on gun control. We heard an overwhelming call for changes to state gun laws, so we tried to help you track that as best we could. Every day for the last couple weeks, we asked, “Did we make any meaningful progress on gun control in the last 24 hours?”
We rarely play it down the middle. While we don’t align ourselves with political parties because that’s an inherently exclusive act, we do have certain values that we think are important to the city — and we won’t shy away from reflecting those values in our coverage.
We care first and foremost about the future of Miami, and helping it move toward being a safe, inclusive, welcoming place for all of us. That means being unapologetic about things like furthering diversity, talking about climate change as a fact, supporting equality for LGBT members of the community, and responding to evidence about what keeps our communities safe. We think it’s more important to be upfront about our values — and how conversations with you have shaped them — than to try and maintain a false sense of neutrality.
We know that everyone here wants a safer, better city. So whether you identify as liberal or conservative or something in between, we want to hear your ideas on how to build that, together.
The criticism of how we framed “progress” on gun control didn’t just come from gun rights advocates. It also came from strong gun control advocates, for declaring what happened in the legislature as progress. The final bill didn’t include a ban on assault weapons, but it did include a plan for placing guns in schools — two major strikes for that group.
We get that frustration. But you can’t deny that this legislature surprised us with the changes it did make happen, such as raising the age to buy a gun, imposing a waiting period, and banning the sale and possession of bump stocks. Want the short and sweet rundown of what they accomplished? Find it here.
It’s most important to us that despite our different political stances, we can agree on facts. So if you feel that we’ve misunderstood or misrepresented the facts, we want to know.
Where we go from here
We’re going to keep covering politics, as well as events, freakshakes, transit, and Dwyane Wade memes. And we’re going to keep listening to you about what we should be covering and what questions you have about it. And we’re probably going to take a stance, because that’s one of the ways that we #livelikeyoulivehere — being open and transparent about our values and inviting everyone into respectful, thoughtful discussion and debate.
Got questions? Want to talk more about it? Shoot me an email at ariel@thenewtropic.com.
