Bad Reporting

Headlines and leads are all too often the only part of a newspaper story that people read. In the case of the The Cincinnati Post's story from Saturday entitled "Equality remains an issue: Many local schools as segregated as ever" has a lead that along with the headline misleads the public:

Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court changed the course of history by ordering America to desegregate schools, many Greater Cincinnati schools are as racially segregated as ever.

If anyone were to read only the headline and opening paragraph they would have been subjected to a clear falsehood. What local school anywhere in this country is as segregated as ever? There are none. No public school in this country can legally segregate students based on race or ethnicity. That is the element of Brown v. Board of Education that everyone can celebrate 50 years later. Brown is a success on that front. The intention of the writer/editor may have been to say that schools are largely still divided by race, but the language used implies that the legal victory won by Brown was not achieved, and it was, so no school has the same segregation as before.

Those who see Brown as a catalyst of integration, as opposed to segregation, give it too much power and not enough reality. This country is nearly as unintegrated as it was 50 years ago, but to say it is segregated is wrong. Segregation in terms of our society has the implication of forced or required separation of the races. To use the term misleads the public, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to believe that things are largely no better than it was 50 years ago. I am sure that is what the boycotters want people to believe, that brings them power from angry people. That is not the truth. The reasons why schools today are not integrated are because most communities are not integrated. Asking why our communities are not integrated would have been a better focus of this story, if your concern is why many local schools are largely only one race.

'Told You So'

Why do I feel like the hawks are grasping at straws? Well, they jump on anything as a basis for the war and its ever-shifting rationale.

Rob makes a good argument why the UN and the USA should have stepped up the pressure on Saddam and taken a vary hard line with Iraq, including an increase in targeted missile attacks. What he forgets is the threat Iraq was allegedly posing to the USA, a fiction of the gravest proportion. He also again leaves off the rationale as to why War in March of 2003 had to happen. Not to mention he forgets that BushCo. mislead the country and the world into believing that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons. I guess those issue don't matter. I guess it matters not that we had no plan for Iraq after the battle plan. I guess it matters not that we have no plan for stabilizing the country.

I guess I have said these things before, but they bare repeating every time. Let us not forget why we fight....we fight out of choice...'we' fought because it fit Bush's political timeline. We fought because of blood lust. We are acting like barbarians. We don't seem to care enough to say much about it. We are getting 'ours' so we don't care what is left over for everyone else.

Damn, I guess I am really part of everyone else, because I got nothing but shame out of this war. I am no safer, I am no richer, I am no more honorable in the fight for freedom.

Luken's Press Secretary Joins Kerry's Ohio Staff

Carl Weiser reports on the Kerry campaign's ramp up of of paid staff in Ohio:

And, she said, Ohio has more staff on the ground than any other state. Brendon Cull, Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken's press secretary, will be the 13th paid employee this week as he takes a leave of absence to become Ohio press secretary for the Kerry campaign.

Kerry is leading in Ohio in the latest poll, so do they really want to add staff now? Well, hell yes. If Kerry can build on his current position in Ohio he can take it from Bush and win. Brendon Cull, who I assume will working mostly in Cincinnati, will be either wasting his time against a solid Bush area, or he might turn over enough moderates in the area to help make the state a landslide for Kerry.

Everything could turn any which way, but Ohio is going to be with the trend, no matter which way it turns.

Comments

I have brought back Haloscan and have kept the Blogger Comments. I like things about both, but I want everyone to participate, so for now I will kept both and see how it works, if at all. I might turn one off if no one uses it. Let me know what people prefer.

Horrible

One of the Moose on Main's Bartenders was shot in the face after closing traveling to his car after work. Luckily his wounds were not life threatening. No reason was reported, but the circumstances sound like a robbery. Here is where gun nuts clamor for carrying more guns and where I clamor for more police patrols and where the boycotters say nothing at all about what happened.

New Editor at Cincinnati Magazine

Kitty Morgan is leaving, so welcome Jay Stowe. Jay comes from Outside Magazine, an outdoors culture magazine. I sometimes pick up a copy of Cincinnati Magazine. It's view on culture have stuck generally to the fine-living type as the focus, sprinkling in something different each month. Will we see a change?

A Blog Movie?

The 'Baghdad blogger' has a movie deal. Life in a war zone is much more of a compelling story than writing on a website from your living room. I will be waiting for my agent's phone call any time now. (cough, cough)