I don’t know many journalists who can’t take criticism — it comes with the territory. We learn to let it roll off, and we have learned that we can never please everyone so we do our best to stay focused on the story.

Do we make mistakes or sometimes miss information? Of course we do. Is getting a story out in a timely manner important to us? Absolutely. Some stories can wait, others either have an immediate impact on the public, such as an accident closing roads, or people are asking before we even get to a scene, such as a fire.

But the days of competing with other news outlets to be first is not so much a part of what we do anymore.

Yes, it is still nice to break a story. But what is far more important is that we get it right the first time out.

Why? Because with the advent of the internet, every edition of the story now stays online, and if we don’t get it right the first time, we have no control over which version of the story you read.

If you come directly to our website, you will always get the most updated edition.

But if you read a version someone shared or another site copied, and we didn’t get it right the first time, you may be reading an incorrect version.

Which is why, on breaking news stories, especially if we are going live on Facebook, you may hear us say or read that we don’t have all the information yet.

Because our job is to keep the public correctly informed.

All this is on my mind after covering a fatal accident on July 4.

It was a day of parades and celebrations, of cookouts and families and friends gathering. There were celebrations of veterans, celebrations of America’s gaining our independence from England. It was, for many at least, a day off of work.

And it was a beautiful, sunny day.

There were smiles and laughter and funny stories.

And then there was the text message that there was a bad accident involving a motorcycle on Stokes Ferry Road by High Rock Road. The message I got said it was potentially a double fatal.

I got in my car and headed that way.

I always dread these moments. I have covered crime for 26 of my 34 years in journalism, and in some ways, I have had to toughen up to cover that beat.

But this mother’s heart still knows that if someone dies, it is someone’s family member, and I know the pain that is coming for them.

On arrival, I can clearly see what’s happened and my heart breaks.

But I cannot say what I know, because I need to have official confirmation from a police officer, a firefighter or an emergency services person in order to give out that information to the public. Because there are families to be notified. There is an investigation they must complete. And right now, I am not a priority for them, and wouldn’t ask to be.

I don’t approach emergency crews at scenes while they are working. I don’t get in the way, and though photographs or videos may appear to be close, that is the benefit of a zoom lens. I stay clear and give them their space to work.

And I’m not alone in that.

Our staff has a good, solid relationship with other area media, a necessary thing since we cover the same stories.

I was standing at the accident scene with a television reporter everyone knows and loves, and neither one of us tried approaching the scene to talk to any of the state troopers or firefighters there. We reached out to other spokespeople and asked them to advise us when they could release information, but we didn’t intrude.

And as the tow trucks were leaving, I got photos of both the truck and the motorcycle. But we did not publish pictures of the bike, because I didn’t want family to see that. Didn’t want them to recognize the bike or to see the damage.

I got the face of the driver of the truck, but didn’t publish that, either, because he will have enough to deal with in his future.

I am saying all this because there was some criticism online that we didn’t give enough information to start with, just that the road was blocked. But at the time, that was the most important information to get out — if you were coming down Stokes Ferry, go elsewhere because this will be closed for a while. We also got some criticism that family might discover their loved ones had died because of our reporting. But we didn’t release confirmation that anyone had died for several hours, and we never released photos that would have been identifiable.

We release names when police release them, which is only after family notification.

So. It’s more than just getting it first. It’s getting it right, and remembering that who we are writing about deserves consideration.

Elisabeth Strillacci is editor of the Salisbury Post.