The 25th collaboration between Principia College and The Christian Science Monitor brought students, faculty, alumni, and over a thousand livestreamers together for the annual “Monitor Night Live.” During this event, four journalists discussed how they incorporate love into their reporting and focus on the light in situations where darkness seems to take over.
The editor of the Monitor, Christa Case Bryant, was joined on campus by Middle East Correspondent Taylor Luck, Stephanie Hanes, an environmental and climate change writer, and Chief Culture Writer Stephen Humphries. According to Case Bryant, all of these writers have reported on some of the most polarizing topics today. The four gathered on stage at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 in McVay Center of the Performing Arts to have a conversation about their work at the Monitor in relation to this year’s theme, “Above the Fray: To Think Critically, Heal the Divide, and Love the News.”
Case Bryant said the Monitor’s mission, “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” still leads the principle of their work today. “My goal, as editor of the Monitor, eight months in, is to make the Monitor a place that wherever you are on the political spectrum, if you are independent-minded and really want helpful, relevant information or things through these big issues of our time, that you will find the Monitor to be a valuable resource,” she said. Striving to be an impartial source, the Monitor journalists expressed that the news outlet holds values that reach above the division when they are reporting.
“I think so much of our approach is rooted in love,” Humphries said. This approach enables Monitor journalists to report from an angle unlike other news organizations, trusting readers to make their own decisions rather than analyzing the news for them.
“As a journalist, I never take a side, but I always take a stand for justice, for life, for fairness, and I think part of the love that we have for our sources and readers is the level of respect that readers can come up with their own conclusions,” Luck added. He told the audience that he viewed his job as a Monitor journalist to be a neutral referee who puts aside his personal beliefs.
Hanes agreed. “One of the reasons that I love what we do is that our role is to share a loving truth and that we are lucky enough to go out and find and connect to people.” She said intentionally connecting with the people she and her colleagues report on allows the journalists to gain a sense of their interviewees’ humanity, which enables them to share that humanity with their readers.
The Monitor journalists said they were intentional with the way they frame their questions in an effort to help readers understand an issue deeply. Rather than ask “why you think the other side is wrong,” they ask questions like, “What are you feeling torn about?” This brings a perspective that doesn’t villainize or create a side but encourages the interviewee to explain their point of view with reason.
Case Bryant said not taking a side doesn’t mean the Monitor would turn a blind eye to terrible situations or devastation, but rather, it helps fulfill the Monitor’s mission to injure no man. “My sense is that Mrs. Eddy expected the Monitor to look at those situations directly in the eye, and bring this leavening sense of journalism to those issues as well.”
Her colleagues indicated they found meaning in that method.
“A lot of times we put a spotlight on the light in the darkness, and of course, the darkness doesn’t mean the light is any less brilliant,” Luck said. “The light may not defeat the dark, but I don’t think that matters. I think it matters that we have both in the picture.”
They all emphasized that having a leavening sense of journalism allows humanity to be seen. “We’re on the side of humanity, we want to see peace in the world,” Humphries said.
The event, organized by the college president, also recognized two previous Monitor editors and the wife of the former college president, who began the collaboration 25 years ago.