Citizens for Actually Unbiased Media Coverage of Public Education in Washington, D.C.
- Target:
- Citizens of Washington D.C.
- Region:
- United States of America
During the Summer of 2008, DCPS volunteers were dispatched throughout the city to survey residents on how involved they felt their community to be in public education.
Overwhelmingly, these respondents reported that they heard mostly bad news about their schools. In fact, 68% felt that news outlets mostly reported the bad, while 9% heard mostly good, and 19% heard both equally.
Another, similarly named group takes this data to mean that local news media should stop reporting "negative" news about the school system, presumably because it's bumming them out, or threatening their jobs.
We feel that the reason there's so much bad news about the schools is because there is, in fact, so much bad news to report. D.C. public schools, are, after all, the worst in the nation by several measures. And we feel that reporting on their problems is a public service.
Claims that there's "too much negative" news are silly at best, misguided and deceptive at worst. If your kids are in schools that aren't doing well, wouldn't you want to know that? Wouldn't you want to know why?
But if you were a teacher whose job might be at stake, would you want to see that same news? Probably not.
Think of who's saying there's too much negative news. And judge accordingly.
We think having more information, not less, is better.
We, the citizens of the District of Columbia, tire of misleading and flatly off-base claims that "the media" offers only "persistent, negative coverage of events pertaining to public schools in the District."
I sign this petition to call on these petitioners to admit their own biases and as a plea that my fellow D.C. residents acknowledge that reporting what's actually occurring in the school system is a reflection of reality, not "bias."
We further call upon our citizens to reflect upon the fact that reporting "positive" news such as bake sales, "heartwarming" teacher profiles, or selective reporting of test-score improvements and other feel-goody hokum does a disservice to students and our community when it is done to "balance" reporting of genuine problems plaguing our city's educational system, which we also acknowledge is, by several commonly agreed-upon standards, the worst in the U.S.
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The Citizens for Actually Unbiased Media Coverage of Public Education in Washington, D.C. petition to Citizens of Washington D.C. was written by Jack O'Flanagan and is in the category Media Issues at GoPetition.