Before I was an editor of a newspaper, I was a grunt reporter, just like all journalists at one point or another in their career. Nobody ascends to Ben Bradley status without working their asses off for it.

There were times when I didn't like the assignment I was given or my heart just wasn't in the story. But I still did the work and I wrote it unbiased as humanly possible.

Now there is an obvious dividing line between television journalism and print journalism. But when reporting the news, you're always supposed to be unbiased. And a journalists job is not to create news, but simply to relay it to the public.

So about two weeks ago, I stumbled onto a story where the television show Dateline planted muslim looking men in a NASCAR event hoping to provoke a reaction from NASCAR fans. In a sense, they were trying to portray NASCAR fans as mindless, racist rednecks.

I'll admit, I'm a redneck. I'll admit, there are a lot of black and mexican people that I do not like. But I'm not going to go out of my way and shout racist slurs against them. And above all that, I'm a NASCAR fan.

So as a journalist and as a NASCAR fan, I am truly offended by this. A journalist's job first and foremost is to soley report the news. But Dateline tried making the news. Now there are investigative reporting instances where a journalist may act like a cop to get a story. But that's not provoking a news story. The story is already there, it just takes some digging to get to it.

When has anybody ever said something like that at a NASCAR event? Was there even a reason for this? The answer to both of those questions is no. Simply because there was no reason for this other than the stereotypical view that most Americans have of NASCAR fans. There are people I talk to who think NASCAR fans are a bunch of pot bellied rednecks with a beer in one hand and a spit can in the other who sit in front of their antique television watching the race.

When, in fact, NASCAR fans are some of the most civilized fans around. You never see stampedes at races like you do at soccer games. You never see them all rushing out onto the track like you'll see fans do at football games. You never see fights starting like you do in basketball games.

The only time fans were "out of line" was when they threw trash onto the track at Talladega when NASCAR screwed Dale Earnhardt, Jr and gave Jeff Gordon the win. But there has never been any fights started in the stands or anything of the sorts. So what was the point of this? You tell me.