Journalists don’t give people a voice, they give those that want to be a heard an outlet to share their stories. Though I can’t remember the event, or even the person that said it, what was said stuck with me. Our role as journalists is to simply seek out the truth and those voices that want to be heard from different backgrounds. You are not “giving” anyone anything, for people already have a voice of their own. Up until that point, everyone’s cliché response to why they wanted to be a journalist was that they wanted to “give people a voice.” The speaker explained why they disagreed with that statement. Was it a class, a meeting, a mandatory event? Brain fart… I just remember what I took away from the presentation. I forget who was even talking, what the meeting was for, or why I had to be there. I remember going to some journalism meeting, or event, or I don’t even remember what. I wanted to write with a purpose, make people feel things, and shed light on topics I thought were important. I originally wanted to write fiction, but I found myself wanting to write about real people, real experiences, real stories. What I wanted to write about quickly changed as I started to go through with the journalism courses at my community college. But I quickly started to identify as a journalist. Journalism wasn’t love at first class, since I originally wanted to do Creative Writing. I’ll be a writer with more credibility under my belt. In my head I was like, fuck it, yeah, journalism. I declared journalism as my major kind of on a whim, not even really knowing what the job and role entailed. I felt like my heart was in Creative Writing, but thought declaring Journalism as my major would give me more to work with in the “real world.” I spent years as “undeclared.” Before that, I dipped my feet into Early Childhood Education, Criminology, and even Psychology. I declared my major so I could finally transfer to SF State in 2016. When I first declared my major as “Journalism,” in 2015, I felt relieved. In fact, I started this blog post way before Somerville’s recent statements: But before I jump into his recent fall from grace, I want to share a little back story as to why I originally wrote this blog post in the first place. Recently, Somerville posted on Facebook explaining his DUI in 2021. I would often find myself wondering if he was back on Facebook, as he posted frequently in the past. After that incident, any news of Somerville went radio silent. ![]() The video of the DUI incident was floating around the internet, and it made me so sad to see someone I respected and watched for so many years hit rock bottom. And I was even more shocked a few months later to learn that he received a DUI days before Christmas. I was shocked to learn that he would no longer be their news anchor. Like many others, I waited for the news of his return back on the screen. ![]() Now, real Bay Area folks know that Frank Somerville was the face of KTVU. Towards the end of 2021, KTVU cut ties with Somerville over a disagreement. He was the definition of a traditional journalist in the actual sense, given his position at KTVU news, but at the same time, how he went about being a journalist was pretty progressive. It wasn’t until I went to school for journalism did I realize how controversial and bold he was as a journalist. He would share little tidbits about his life during his segments, and throughout the years, it made me feel like I knew him personally. I grew up on KTVU news, and Somerville was a familiar face that I saw everyday at 5 PM. I’ve always been a fan of KTVU, but more so because of Frank Somerville.
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