Not without bias

On April 11, I was sitting in a car on Hunter Street when sirens began wailing in the distance. Through a glimpse in the side-view mirror, I saw a man staggering through the street. When the sirens grew closer, I noticed him running faster and peering over his shoulder. I assumed he was another drunk kid running from the cops; after all, it was the week of Little 500.\nBut being the cop-crazy journalist I am, the sirens sparked my curiosity. I looked over at the man for a little bit, I saw him pause, look over his shoulder again and never look back. \nSo I set out to follow the noise, expecting to see a party being broken up, but I was unprepared for what I saw. Flashing lights of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars filled Third Street, and I was asked to make a detour by police.\nI made a call into the newsroom. Something bad had happened, that much I knew. But I had no idea at that time how much I had actually just witnessed.\nIt wasn't until the next day when things started to come together. I was told there was a two-car accident and a student was fatally wounded. The driver of the second car had run from the scene of the accident.\nThat day, a press release in my e-mail inbox from IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger listed a description: "Mr. DeJesus is a Hispanic male non-IU student and was last seen wearing a tan shirt." A snapshot of the night before appeared in my head, and I realized I had witnessed the suspect running away. I went to IUPD and helped put together a composite sketch. \nAs a journalist, I always felt I was supposed to do everything in my power to stay out of the news, but now I was smack dab in the middle of it. \nWhen police arrested the suspect, I attended the press conference as an observer. I didn't realize at the time reporters were listening in on my conversation. They picked up on the fact that I was a witness and instantaneously stuck microphones, cameras and tape recorders in my face.\nOne question posed by a reporter stuck with me for a while: "How does it feel to be on the other side of the news, and does this concern you?"\nWhen I enter the doors of the newsroom each day, I assume my role as a journalist. I ask the questions, and sources give the answers. But now, the roles were flipped. \nThere's always been a debate about objectivity in journalism. As a reporter, can you really be objective? Can you remain totally unbiased? Prior to going live with my comments on TV, I always thought it was possible. \nAs a journalist, I've been bred to keep myself out of the news. But once I completed the composite sketch, everything changed. I was biased, personally involved and I wanted the guy to be caught. \nThere is no absolute objectivity. Journalists cannot completely dehumanize themselves from these types of encounters, but we can keep our ethics intact by removing ourselves from editing, writing and reporting events and issues in which we are involved. \nEven as the Indiana Daily Student campus editor, I didn't write the stories, and I didn't edit them. \nWhile we never reach true objectivity as journalists, it is a goal we strive toward. We may not be able to pacify our biases, but we have the option to remove ourselves when we can acknowledge we have them. The true test of a journalist is knowing when to make the right decisions and when to concede your duties.