Newspapers

"The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state" --John Adams

I've only been in the newspaper business for a little over a year and a full-time reporter for only five months and I am already asking "why am I doing this?"
It is just amazing when I hear feedback from the public from an article I wrote. They claim I "misquoted them" after I tape record almost every interview/meeting I attend.
I have sat at a council meeting and listened to a citizen say they read something in the Press And Journal [something I had written] and when they make their claim they miss entire point of the article.
Maybe my writing is too complicated and I am not writing at an elementary school level.
The Middletown borough manager wrote a letter to my editor stating that my article about his suggestion of licensing landlords was completely wrong [the letter was published in the P&J]. Even though that same borough manager said I wrote a good article but he was unhappy with the headline, which I do not write.
Naturally my editor was pissed off wondering how I could make such a mistake until she went back read my article, then re-read the borough manager's letter. Her conclusion -- I did nothing wrong because everything the manager's letter "corrected" was already in my article.
I just do not understand people. We are continuously ripped apart on local forums and the P&J's "Sound Off" feature.
Our staff [which consists of three people and a handful of freelancers] bust our asses week after week to put out a quality publication. [some would dispute that]
I truly think there is a love hate relationship between people and their newspapers. They hate the newspaper when they don't see something they like, but if the newspaper did not exist people would not know what to do.
I guess all I can do is just keep on doing my job.