Orlando editor pushes back on media bashing by writing about reporter who covers small towns and local wildlife

Sentinel reporter Steve Hudak

President Trump and some of his supporters have made bashing the news media a more popular sport, and Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel writes (as we have noted for almost a year) that the "let’s-kill-all-the-reporters jokes have started affecting some people’s views of all media, including local newspapers."

That's why Maxwell wants to introduce us to Steve Hudak, a 58-year-old Sentinel reporter who has covered small towns, local wildlife and human interest stories for more than three decades. He's a father and grandfather, raised in a conservative Catholic home, who doesn't care about the minutiae of national politics. Maxwell writes:

What Steve really likes to do, though, is meet the people of Central Florida … and tell their stories. About forgotten veterans and rising water bills. About grieving parents and neighborhoods dealing with wild bears.

Steve attends the planning and zoning meetings that most media ignore. He lets you know when your garbage-pickup days change. And when residents of neglected communities have dirty water or crumbling apartments, Steve asks the tough questions of public officials and company execs.

This is the vast majority of what local newspapers do. Steve loves to do it.
And there ain’t a damn thing “fake” about him.

Read the rest of Maxwell's column for a moving and funny tribute to a reporter who just wants to tell people's stories, no matter what goes on in Washington.