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Petula Dvorak: Journalists are not the enemy of the people; we are the people

“We won’t forget being called an enemy of the people. No, we won’t forget that. Because exposing evil, shining light on wrongs and fighting injustice is what we do.”

The moment of silence held Friday to mark the first anniversary of America’s deadliest media massacre — the killing of five people inside the Capital Gazette offices in Annapolis, Maryland — should weigh on us heavily.

First, there are the people who were killed — the fathers, sons, daughters, mother, journalists, people.

Gerald Fischman, 61, editorial page editor; Rob Hiaasen, 59, editor and features columnist; John McNamara, 56, sports writer, news reporter and editor; Rebecca Smith, 34, sales assistant; and Wendi Winters, 65, the news reporter and community columnist who charged the gunman and tried to save her colleagues.