One of my most vivid memories of junior high school involves a big kid in the cafeteria stealing the tater tots off of my lunch tray. He plucked them one by one, smiling smugly, until I stabbed him on the back of the hand with my fork. I can’t remember if I drew blood, but I do know that I got to enjoy my own tots from then on out. 

So, yeah, it was dog eat dog when I was in junior high. Fortunately, I didn’t get the same vibe when I walked into the Horizon Middle School earlier this month.

Teacher Starla Fey had invited parents and others to evaluate students’ media presentations, in which groups of four to six seventh graders simulated a newscast. Each newscast had an anchor and reporters “in the field” reporting on a specific topic. 

The topics ended up being serious world issues—ocean waste and fake news, among others—and the kids proved to be up to the task. Some were earnest. Some were effervescent. Some were kids being kids.

One could argue that it mirrored the media industry in many ways. Some reporters did a better job of citing sources than others. Some had balanced reports that gave both sides of the story. Some unabashedly advocated for one point of view with no regard for the other side of the story. 

My ears perked especially during the “media blitz” presentation that addressed fake news, first because my daughter Ellie worked in that group and second because it’s in my professional wheelhouse. Ellie and her team members did a great job, as did another group of kids who took on the same topic. 

But as I listened, it brought up my lament, one I’ve had for years and years now: Media isn’t synonymous with journalism, yet journalists get painted with the same broad brush as less savory members of the media who have no obligation or desire to report the truth, much less both sides of a story. In other words, they talk about the Washington Post in the same breath as the guy in Macedonia writing about Hillary Clinton’s alien baby. 

It’s not those kids’ fault. I’ve talked many times about my informal poll of Facebook friends when President Obama was elected to his first term—when those seventh graders were in kindergarten. I asked what they thought was the best source of objective news. Most left-leaning friends said NPR. Many right-leaning friends said The O’Reilly Factor. I was shocked, because I didn’t consider either a news source, much less an objective one. 

Of course, some of the fake news that is out there now make NPR and O’Reilly look like pillars of journalism. 

But I digress. It energized me to witness the reports from Fey’s seventh graders and to see the enthusiasm—and in some cases, passion—with which they reported, with no visible fork stab wounds in sight.