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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable

Today's Washington Post reminded me of an old saying from my high school journalism teacher and faculty advisor at the Francis Lewis High School Patriot.  I had him for three semesters.  Lucky me.

He remarked frequently about folks putting the accent on the wrong syl-la-ble, emphasizing the "la".  it was his way of saying you failed to capture what is important.

In this morning's Washington Post, Paul Farhi wrote about an incident at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, where the school newspaper was pulled because of concern over an article about a reporter who did a story on drinking among high school kids.  You can find the article here.  Story from the Post?  The reporter on the original series about underage drinking at the school raised a concern about a story in the school newspaper, and the principal pulled the student paper.  Takeaway from the Post?  A reporter's concern about a story triggered an act of censorship by the principal.

Hate to say it, Mr. Farhi, but you got the story wrong. 

Responsibility for the action lies squarely with the principal, Karen Lockard, and not the reporter.

Why the principal?

The time to set the standards and  review the print edition of the paper is prior to publication.  Once a story is in print or online, calling it back is like putting a cloud in a box.  Can't be done.

And, the story misses the point completely.  The real issue and message that needs to be sent to the students concerns drinking and other illegal behaviors. 

The meat of the story is underage drinking.  It's wrong, and dangerous.

Pointing fingers at the reporter and the side story of her concern about the content of the student newspaper is tangential to the issue of student behaviors at BCC.  Its blaming the messenger for delivering the message. 

And what about the drinking and other undesirable behaviors at BCC?  The problems remain.

Or, to quote Mr. Fredericks, faculty advisor to the Francis Lewis HS Patriot, you're putting the accent on the wrong syl-la-ble.

2 comments:

  1. Hate to say it, but your post about the Post utterly misunderstands the issues involved. There's no question that drinking and other illegal behaviors are an issue for high school students. But those weren't the issues in this instance. The reason BCC's principal pulled the paper (or tried to, after it was published and distributed) was not because of concern about underage drinking; it was because a BCC parent, TV news reporter Andrea McCarren, had complained that the story in the BCC student newspaper might lead students to harrass her children, both BCC students. No doubt that the responsibility for seeking to recall the student newspaper lies with Ms. Lockard, and no doubt her reaction to Ms. McCarren's complaint was like "putting a cloud in a box." But all that was spelled out in the Post article. There's also no doubt that the Post article was correct in stating that a TV reporter's complaint triggered this act of after-the-fact censorship (or perhaps would-be censorship). Fyi, I'm fairly conversant on this topic, as I reported and wrote the Post story.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Farhi,

      Thanks so much for commenting on this posting!

      The focus of the Parents' Coalition blog is on education issues in Montgomery County, MD. From my reading of the above blog post, the outstanding question is: why wasn't this issue being reported on by The Washington Post Education Reporters? Why was the coverage of this situation focused on the reporter and not on the education piece? It does not appear that education is your beat, correct?

      Time and time again we see serious education issues ignored by the Post. If the issues are reported on, they are in the form that resembles more of a press release from the school system than investigative reporting. In fact, one of your education reporters told me directly that they were "not an investigative reporter."

      Why not?

      Why isn't there any investigative reporting done by the Post on education issues in Montgomery County? It's a big school system. A huge $2.1 Billion budget. Yet, nothing to investigate?

      Take today's issue - serious allegations by a long-time MCPS teacher as to the integrity of MCPS transcripts. Not the first time this issue has been raised, will the Post report on this beyond reprinting a MCPS press release?

      Investigation? Or, will the Post ignore this important education issue? Guaranteed, if this were in another local jurisdiction this would be front page news.

      Delete

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