Kill the goat - that'll do it!!

Hey Folks -


This is probably (but not necessarily) my last posting focused on the Dispatch's sodomy of the teaching profession.


It's possible that the reporters are just reporting on a story they were assigned or dreamed up on their own. If they are certainly guilty of anything it is ignorance of the nuances of school politics, school "discipline," and the accurate presentation of statistics - they may, also, have gotten carried away with the self-righteous "good" they were doing. It's also possible they share their editors' prejudices, but that hasn't been demonstrated.


In an earlier posting here, I said, "The local paper, the Columbus Dispatch, must have decided that the threat of foreign terrorism has decreased to such a level, that – once again – they are reduced to spreading panic and fear by picking on the schools."

Well, before terrorism, the uppercrust concentrated on public schools, Social Security, and Medicare. We've seen plenty on the schools lately. Interestingly, the paper's editorial today goes after Social Security and Medicare. I guess we can quit worrying about Osama bin Laden; the Dispatch will, again, take care of domectically terrorizing Americans.

Anyway, below is the most recent complaint I've sent the paper. I wrote it yesterday (notice the part about brain-dead Cooper Snyder doing his self-serving, sensational, political bludgeoning back in the day. This morning it was reported that all the state politicians are on board and chomping at the bit to "protect the kids" (not from lack of medical care, or from hunger, or from underfunded schools - but from the myriad of evil-doers in the classroom).

- Uke Man




Dear Ms. Richards,

As promised, I am writing to address a general concern I have regarding the “ABC’s” series.

As I’ve said, I have no problem with rooting out criminals.

If the Dispatch series were but one of a long string of such exposés, it would be different. As it is, the piece seems very close to sensational scapegoating. Moreover, embedded in the context of the paper’s long-running, business/Republican-oriented animosity toward public education, taxes, teachers, and their unions; credence is lent to the charge.

See the Thursday, Oct. 18 editorial “Reprehensible” (and accompanying cartoon) in which the editor feigns outrage and surprise that a candidate who walks and quacks like a business-Republican (even according to her husband) wasn’t funded by Democrats and supported by unions.

Some years ago when semi-literate Sen. Cooper Snyder ran an “education” committee at the Ohio State House, the official age of consent was 16. Thanks to “Coop” and others it still is, except for a narrow range of people - which includes teachers (but not state senators).

My point is that if children aged 16 to 18 should be protected from abuse by some adults, they should be protected from abuse by all adults, but it’s easier to pick on educators – and it looks good politically and it need not confront the entire electorate. It also aids the general Republican/Libertarian effort to weaken public schools and public employees’ unions. It sells newspapers too. And it’s easy to bludgeon scapegoats.

I’ll gladly eat my words when the Dispatch runs hard-hitting, multi-day investigative reports on the criminal actions of state legislators who, in regard to school funding, have blatantly ignored both the orders of Ohio’s Supreme Court and their oaths to uphold the Ohio Constitution.

Look what happened to Dan Rather for reporting on Bush’s National Guard “service” – the truth was thrown out along with the reporter - over a matter less important than the truth. The same thing happened to a Cincinnati reporter for taking on the Chiquita Banana millionaire. The criminal behavior of the power broker was ignored and the reporter was run out of town.

Or consider Katharine Graham. She is lionized as a journalistic heroine. What did she do? She owned a newspaper. Reporters uncovered a true story. She published it. Isn’t that what newspapers do? What’s the problem? We have freedom of the press, don’t we? Hmmmm.

So, it’s a lot easier – and safer – to exercise “freedom of the press” when the subject is a relatively powerless scapegoat – and even easier when bashing the scapegoat is part of the publisher’s long-standing agenda.

I don’t think this is your fault. Reporters are under their editor’s thumb. I bet you’d love to report on some of these difficult matters. You won’t be allowed to, however; and that’s a shame. But, then, we know the Golden Rule: those who have the gold make the rules.

Still, they have to live with themselves, and just as virtue is its own reward, moral delinquency is its own punishment. Just look at where ethically ignorant George W. Bush, his morally bankrupt Neocon brain trust, and his self-serving supporters have taken this once honorable and honored country.

Yours - Tom Harker, Circleville