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Barack Obama  |
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Rob Kailey is a working schmuck with no ties or affiliations to any governmental or political organizations, save those of sympathy.
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Mon Jun 21, 2010 at 16:44:16 PM MST
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| Those of us whose local new source is the Helena IR (lovingly known as the Idiot Review down at the local brewery) know that the paper wins no awards for fairness and accuracy. Rather, it has suffered what many view to be a recent series of journalistic embarrassments, such as closing its Washington Bureau while investing in junk video content no one wants, and printing rogue solo-opinions (perhaps the rest of the editorial board refused to go there) from a single member of its editorial board, Publisher Randy Rickman. I'm missing lots of things here, such as the infamous "illegals" label applied to undocumented workers (even my in-laws in Maine heard about that one) but I was unable to locate the link.
And now, this past Sunday, this nonsense appeared. Heads up Helena, it seemed to scream, scary progress is about to be made. The proposed health curriculum update is driven by science, concern for students' health, and public safety. And, even the IR was reluctantly forced to admit (though it hurriedly ran the above referenced editorial first) most people are in favor of it.
But dude, the important, seasoned education experts on the editorial board seemed to say, there's lots of anonymous online comments from the same three people Harry Potter book-burning crowd about it. These Harry Potter book-burners seem obsessed with forcing an outmoded, dangerous social agenda grounded in the social morals of the 1800s on students. But hey that's better than anything that might rile up our sacred cows.
What sacred cows, you ask?
In our state's capital city there are three entities above all else that essentially produce their own news.
First, the Carroll College/Helena Catholic Diocese Public Relations Office will issue sometimes two or three "articles" a week that get republished by the Helena IR, and subsequently local television. While these tend to paint the school in a good light, they are often not relevant to non-Catholics or those not living on campus. The other entities are the St. Peters Hospital/Helena Catholic Diocese Public Relations Office and of course, the Montana Meth Project. There certainly isn't anything untoward about glorifying the Meth Project while Mike Gulledge, National Vice President of Publishing for Lee Enterprises serves as Chair of the Montana Meth Project board. |
| Montana Cowgirl :: Helena IR Editorial Board and the Curriculum of Doom! |
| These entities may feel they earned their coverage--the IR gets a lot of advertisement money from their sacred cows.
The bigger concern, however, is the longtime propensity of the IR to slant its editorial positions to appease the sacred cows... sometimes to a great comic effect, always to a great public disservice.
As any high school student can tell you, these poor journalistic practices incorporate several different types of media bias, including: inserting personal opinion as other than such, and applying equal space or treatment to two sides of an issue when the two sides are not of equal merit. Yes, this is a tricky one, often confused with not applying equal space or treatment to two sides of a controversial issue where the two sides are of equal merit. What if there are more than two sides to an issue? (shudder)
In this case, the Helena IR editorial board members are doing the health, safety and well-being of Helena students and parents a disservice by attempting to stir up a scary evil controversy where none exists. |
| Tags:
Miscellaneous,
John Doran,
media bias,
Helena Independent Record,
Education,
schools,
Media,
Montana,
sex ed,
journalism,
Helena IR,
Montana Meth Project,
Carroll College,
Mike Gulledge,
(All Tags)
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