In October 2014, I accepted the position of Publisher of the Falmouth Outlook. My wife Marilyn and I packed up our belongings, loaded up the moving van and relocated to Falmouth. From that day through today we have been proud Falmouth citizens. It took mere weeks to fall in love with our city, and our county. Much of our new-found love was because of the wonderful, welcoming people that we encountered. By 2016, we were ready to commit to Falmouth as our new lifetime home, and we purchased our home, investing thousands in our city and county.
The Outlook has grown in the past several years due to the hard work and dedication of an amazing staff. In the past few years, we have won well over 150 journalism and advertising awards through the Kentucky Press Association. Our staff has been committed to serving our readers, and our fellow citizens by doing the absolute best job we can of reporting the truth.
In late 2021, the previous owners of the company came to me with the news that they were no longer interested in continuing to own the Outlook. If I was unable to find suitable ownership, there could possibly no longer be an Outlook. After a long tough weekend of soul searching, Marilyn and I decided not to let that happen. We decided to do all we could to buy the paper and the building, investing thousands and thousands of hard-earned retirement money to proudly continue to employ 10 (and growing) Pendleton County area residents, dedicated to our mission of fair and truthful community journalism. Our editor, Carolyn Reid, painstakingly researches her stories as no one I have ever encountered. She gets it right. She knows my standard is that we’re going to print the truth, as long as we can verify it. We don’t print rumor, innuendo, falsehoods and lies. We hold ourselves to a much higher standard than social media. If we don’t have someone on the record, to confirm a story is true, the story doesn’t run. I don’t care how reliable the unnamed sources are, until we have on the record sources, the story is not running. Gossip is for social media. Not for your newspaper.
It is not a mistake that our nation’s founding fathers decided that the first amendment, the first of our Bill of Rights states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
There is practically universal agreement by constitution scholars (of all political persuasions) that a major purpose of the amendment was to protect the free discussion of government affairs, including discussions of candidates, structures and forms of government, the way government is operated, or should be operated, and all such matters related to the political process. The constitution specifically selected the press to serve and is designed to serve as a powerful antidote to any abuses of power by government officials, and as a constitutionally chosen means for keeping elected officials responsible to all the people they have been elected to serve. The courts have routinely found in favor of a free press to be allowed to do our job.
We, at The Outlook take this job seriously. The responsibility outlined by the Constitution guides us in our hourly, daily, and weekly decisions. It guides Carolyn. It guides us all. Being the newspaper of record for Pendleton County is a solemn responsibility that Marilyn and I, as owners, Carolyn Reid as editor, and our small but mighty little staff do not take lightly. And we will not be bullied, nor interfered with, nor prevented from doing our Divine-given obligation by any self-serving, elected officials, regardless of which side of Main Street you work.
During this past year, our community, that we had grown to love so much has, in many ways, turned ugly. Hateful. Divisive. Foul mouthed. Filled with gossip, lies and innuendo. Mean spirited. And less safe. There is no consensus building. No co-operation. No working together for the common good. It’s one argument after another. Showboating politician after showboating politician. Toxic social media post after toxic social media post.
Our community is divided. The hate- filled attitude increasingly manifesting itself is ruining our community. And then, if that’s not bad enough, outside TV stations are invited in to find a local to jump in front of the camera to embarrass themselves and the rest of us on Cincinnati TV.
Who does this hate benefit? Who is truly working to try to stop it? Who is showboating? Who has pulled out all the stops to divide us? To weaken us? And for what gain? Meanwhile, who is putting their heads down and just doing their best to block out the noise and make the right decisions for our community? And whose families, loved ones, and friends are being attacked and smeared and slandered in public, in meetings and on social media, while they attempt to do this work for us?
The Outlook owes it to each and every one of you, our readers and fellow citizens, friends and neighbors, to seek out the answers to each of these questions. It is our, constitutionally mandated solemn duty. It’s my promise to you. Why? Because I love my city.
Neil Belcher
Publisher and Owner
The Falmouth Outlook