Over the years, I’ve come to realize most of the vitriol directed toward newspapers comes from an inherent lack of understanding — or misunderstanding — about what we do and how and why we do it.

Here are 10 things you should know and do before you call me names:

1.) We are a business.

Journalists perform a public service, but we, like everyone else, don’t work for free.

I’ve got a wife, a son, a dog, and a cat to take care of. I’ve got a mortgage and car payments.

And I am just one tiny cog in a great machine of advertising sales representatives, press operators, carriers, mail room employees, ad designers, classified department workers, equipment, and technology it takes to perform this service.

That is why you can only click on five online headlines a month before we ask to subscribe.

2.) We can only report what we know — and can prove.

You may have heard it was Jimmy Johnson that robbed that bank or Tommy Thompson involved in that crash or that Sally Samuels sold her business and wonder why you’re not reading it in the paper.

It’s because we can only report what we know and have verified by someone with firsthand knowledge or someone in a position to know willing to go on the record (we don’t use anonymous sources).

Also, we are a mighty team, but small, and we can’t be everywhere at once.

If no one calls or emails to let us know about an event or news item, we may miss it.

3.) Our stories are not endorsements.

Just because something appears on our front page (or any other page) does not mean we endorse or condemn whatever or whomever we’re writing about. It just means we think it’s important enough you ought to know about it.

4.) We’re not biased.

The tired refrain from Donald Trump supporters that “no other president was treated like this by the press” is flat wrong.

Ask Barack Obama how much he enjoyed coverage of Fast and Furious, Benghazi, drone executions, the widespread collection of Americans’ phone data, or his administration’s inability to negotiate with the Republicans in Congress.

Ask Bill Clinton how much he enjoyed coverage of the Monica Lewinski scandal, Whitewater, Travelgate, or the death of Vince Foster.

Heck, ask LBJ how much he liked the coverage of the Vietnam War.

5.) Read the whole story before calling.

I wouldn’t have to worry so much about No. 1 if I had a nickel for every time a reader complained that I hadn’t written something and I answered by sending them back a link to the very story they’d accused me of not writing.

I’d be even richer if I earned royalties every time a reader yelled at me when it was obvious they’d only read the headline.

6.) We’re not heartless.

We care very deeply about the potential collateral damage from our stories and debate on every story whether the public’s need to know outweighs any hurt we might cause.

7.) If you call, leave your phone number.

I get a lot of angry cursing on my voicemail from people asking why I did this or didn’t do that. I usually have a good answer, or at least an answer. But I can’t answer your question if you don’t let me know how to reach you.

8.) We don’t need your permission.

A lot of people mad about something we wrote about them will say we didn’t have their permission to publish the piece. We don’t need it.

We prefer to have cooperative sources and are always willing to listen to folks’ concerns about why we shouldn’t publish something (see No. 6), but we can write anything we can prove that serves the public interest.

9.) Your story won’t get told if you don’t talk.

Conversely, we have deadlines and news holes to fill every single day, and, sometimes, we must run a story with or without a source’s participation.

Ignoring us or refusing to answer our questions may mean your side of the story doesn’t get told.

And we want to tell every side of every story.

10.) ‘We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow.’

Those were the words of Chase Cook, a reporter at the Annapolis (Maryland) Capital Gazette, shortly after Jarrod Ramos opened fire in the newsroom, slaughtering five.

In the harried months since then, the words have become a rallying cry for journalists everywhere, a mantra meaning that attacks and financial struggles won’t stop us from publishing the truth.

If we have to scrawl it on sheets of toilet paper and deliver it by carrier pigeon, we will put out a paper tomorrow.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.