Article of the day: UPMC hospitals ban sale of Post-Gazette from their gift shops (taken from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Before I go further in this post, it would be helpful if you read this article to understand what I'm talking about:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/pittsburgh-company-news/2015/06/24/UPMC-hospitals-ban-sale-of-Post-Gazette-from-their-gift-shops/stories/201506240066

Of course, I know your time is valuable, so if you don't want to read it, here's a brief overview. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) officials are banning the sale of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers in medical center facilities because the officials don't approve of the way journalists are covering the hospital.

I love this article so much. I love it NOT for the fact that I agree with big corporations and the way the United States's capitalism has gone. Rather, I love this article for the fact that journalists are standing up to big business.

When I was in university for my journalism training, one of the key things my professor pounded into our heads over and over again was that we weren't to take bribes from anyone. Don't take any free vacations, free hotel stays, free dinners. Don't take anything, because then the companies will come back at you if you don't portray them in the best light possible and attack you. That then sets you up for the possibility of a bias, because let's face it: no one likes getting yelled at.

Many people like to think that journalists are just out to cater to big business and aren't looking out for the little guys, in this case the American public. That isn't the case for paper journalists, not a lot of them anyway. In some cases, it is true, but that's more so in TV news media.

No one says it better like Post-Gazette publisher John Robinson Block:

"The Post-Gazette is edited without regard to any special interest, and our news columns are not for sale, at any price...we have been here since 1786, and have as our purpose the same goal that UPMC was established for -- to serve the public's interest, not a narrow purpose."

"...To serve the public's interest, not a narrow purpose." A lot more people need to keep this in mind, journalists, corporate heads and the American public alike."