Meet RMI: John Moore
By John Moore 
| July 1, 2009 | 9:02 PM
RMI co-founder and editor John Moore is a former Rocky Mountain News copy editor. (Photo by Joe Mahoney)
When I was a kid, my father would take my brother and me out to the flight line at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, to show us the airplanes. He would explain how those big hunks of metal flew, patiently answering his wide-eyed sons’ questions about each F-4 fighter jet, T-38 trainer or B-52 bomber we saw.
We wanted to know more about every strange piece of equipment we could spot sticking out of, hanging off or sitting atop those planes, and Dad was happy to share his knowledge with us. He was a military aircraft mechanic who took pride in his work and in his service to our country. And he always would remind us about the people he ultimately worked for: the air crews who flew the planes and the countless people they protected on the ground.
I’ve tried to keep my late father’s sense of duty and commitment to others in mind throughout my career as a journalist. For the past 16 years, I have worked as a reporter or copy editor at the Rocky Mountain News, the Omaha World-Herald and the Wichita Falls, Texas, Times Record News. As an editor, I see my role as providing a service — for the reporters who write the news and for the countless people who read it. From fact checking and legal issues to grammar and spelling, my goal is to make each piece of writing that passes through my hands or across my computer screen better and stronger — like my Dad did with each plane that came through his repair hangar.
And just as he served a greater good with each turn of the wrench or gallon of jet fuel that he pumped, I strive to help produce the kind of journalism that can keep America strong and free.
Launching the Rocky Mountain Independent isn’t just another stage of my career — it’s about trying to come up with a way to save print-style journalism and a profession that is essential for democracy. Sure, journalists provide entertainment, too, but our primary job is to share knowledge and information that citizens need to be informed participants in their communities and government. I hope journalists never lose sight of that, no matter how news ends up being delivered in the future.
In this time of war and economic crisis, we can’t afford to lose in-depth, insightful reporting. Traditionally, newspapers provided these stories, but now we must evolve for the digital age, and we must do it quickly.
We face growing threats to our way of life, and not just from abroad. Inside our country, the enemies include corporate greed; political corruption; and the erosion of our societal institutions (our families, schools, churches, government and, yes, our media). But perhaps the biggest danger we face is the growing belief, within America, that any person or group we disagree with should be silenced.
The enemies of democracy are gaining strength. Let’s spread our wings and rise to challenge them while there is still time.
air force, America, democracy, journalism, newspapers, rocky mountain news
