How to Report the Truth When No One Wants to Hear It

What I’ve learned as a journalist in hostile, high-stakes places — when power lies, and people still need the truth.

Journalism is too opaque and misunderstood. Chills gives a behind-the-scenes look at how dangerous investigative journalism gets made.

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(marrio31/Getty Images)

I’m posting a series of threads on Twitter this week and next and wanted to share them with you. Here’s one.

What I’ve learned as a journalist in hostile, high-stakes places — when power lies, and people still need the truth.

1. Truth-telling is rarely glamorous. It’s often lonely, slow, and met with silence or rage.

2. Being neutral isn’t always noble. Sometimes, it’s complicity dressed up in politeness.

3. “Both sides” coverage doesn’t always mean balance. Sometimes one side is wrong, and the other is just quieter.

4. People with power know how to hide. They bank on distraction. Your job isn’t to look where they point. It’s to look where they don’t.

5. Get comfortable not being liked. You’re not writing for praise. You’re writing for clarity — and sometimes for history.

6. If you want approval, journalism will break your heart. But if you want to bear witness, it will fill your soul.

7. Keep asking the questions they avoid. Keep pressing on the answers that wobble. And keep showing up when the noise fades.

The truth doesn’t always win. But it’s still worth telling. Every time.

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