Critical journalism is crucial to upholding the United States' ideals, Jason Whitlock, a columnist and sportswriter for The Kansas City Star and FoxSports.com, said.
"If there's nobody challenging the power structure, we don't have a democracy," he said.
Whitlock, who graduated from Ball State University in 1990, spoke about his personal experiences as a journalist to an audience of about 175 on Wednesday night as part of the Letterman Speaker Series.
At every publication he has worked at, Whitlock said, he strived to be fair by asking himself if he was reporting all sides of the story.
"People who just repeat what they're told aren't real journalists," Whitlock said. "It's a danger in this country to be without people questioning every story they are told."
Whitlock said he started to develop his critical eye as a child reading The Indianapolis Star. As an Indiana Pacers fan, he said he read about the basketball team and wondered why The Star never seemed to ask challenging questions about the Pacers' poor performance.
"They [The Star] were writing for their sources," Whitlock said. "I looked it up and The Star had a circulation of 300,000 people. They weren't writing for me [the general public], and my parents were paying for it. I had a love-hate relationship with The Indianapolis Star."
As Whitlock grew older, he started reading the work of the late Mike Royko, a columnist for The Chicago Daily News and The Chicago Tribune. Whitlock said Royko was "an old white dude with an attitude" who didn't care what people thought about his opinions, which is what inspired Whitlock to try to follow in Royko's footsteps.
While a student at Ball State, Whitlock said he witnessed a fight between two football players and how only one was kicked off the team. There was controversy about the situation because the black student was removed from the team and he said, eventually, the student was allowed back on the team.
"I was questioning authority," Whitlock, also a Ball State football player, said.
Since then, he said he has remained true to his outspoken personality, despite efforts to stifle his creativity.
"You have to keep someone like me under wraps," Whitlock said. "Some people would say that if I spent less time explaining myself to others, I'd have less problems. People need to know who you are, so I think you need to let people know that and where you're basing your opinions."
Freshman Sam Agee, a telecommunications major said Whitlock's speech was interesting because it was like a conversation.
"Some say that he is a racy, controversial writer and he admitted to that," Agee said. "I think that what he said had a lot of purpose. [What I got from Whitlock's speech is that] your style has to be what you want it to be, and you should do what you want to do and what you think is right."
Whitlock, who said he has never had a desire to join the U.S. military, said being a good journalist is how he serves his country.
"The sacrifice I'll make is that I'll never be rich," Whitlock said of his attitude as a young journalist. "I thought that this was really the most patriotic thing I could do: challenge the authority. Our country was built on that; America exists because some of us told England to go f--- themselves. We have to have people like that to take on that challenge."
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