Nellie Moore, who spent 44 years as an Alaska broadcaster, was no stranger to the microphone. The following commentary is adapted from remarks the author made at the memorial for pioneering Inupiaq journalist Nellie Moore, who died. Moore was recently recognized by the Alaska Press Club, which awarded her its First Amendment Award for her decades-long service to journalism and helping foster Alaska Native voices in news.
I know if the situation were reversed, Nellie would have been right here to honor and support my family, as she did in 2006 when my mom was dying. It was another time in my life when I felt, as I do today, hollowed out by grief. I was making trips back and forth to the Midwest, feeling guilty about how far away I lived when my beloved mom was fighting a losing battle with cancer in Wisconsin. Nellie asked for mom and dad’s address — I figured she was going to send a card.
She called one day to talk about the newscast and asked about tribal issues in the Midwest. She encouraged me to pitch stories to her as I traveled to tribal gatherings across Indian Country in the Lower 48.I was a bit uncomfortable telling her I was white, wondering if that would change the discussion. She assured me it did not, that she was confident I would do good, ethical work.
Nellie was the consummate professional, never trying to slant a story to favor the tribal perspective, as some other white editors had attempted in the opposite direction. She knew that trustworthy journalism is not advocacy, it’s contextualizing the truth so people can understand the issue, even if it’s not always comfortable or what you wish the facts were.
She repeatedly taught us that it wasn’t our job to make things look better than they were, even though the opposite had been too often true, such as the poor work of those small-town editors I mentioned earlier. She believed in the strength of honest reporting, and it was that conviction that led to us leaving Koahnic only months after my arrival in Alaska and starting Native Voice Communications.
One of the most important things I learned from Nellie and employ in the newsroom where I work today is that we should always take the responsibility of our work seriously, but we should never take ourselves too seriously. She taught me that humor and finding time to laugh with each other was a critical way to decompress from what can at times be traumatic work.
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