At a right-wing blog titled “Wolf Howling,” there’s a post titled “AP Goes APE Over Texas School Book Changes,” attacking April Castro for her coverage of the Texas State Board of Education’s demolition of the state’s social studies standards. “Wolfhowling” writes:
The author, Ms. Castro, does not want to admit that what we are seeing is simple democracy.
. . . succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade. [cue primal scream]
[“Wolfhowling’s” emphases]
But the screaming apes we’re hearing are the chorus of bloggers in the right-wing echo chamber howling over this bogus allegation of journalistic “bias,” for example: here, here, here, and here.
Was the AP report biased, or simply factual? You be the judge: Check SBOE member Donald McLeroy, in his own words (video), or this “List of Shame,” compiled by the Texas Freedom Network.
The real journalistic shame, however, results from the way that intimidation from this sort of ape-spit produces real bias in the form of falsely “balanced” coverage.
I don’t know any better example of this than an article by the same April Castro, “reporting” on the SBOE hearings earlier on the science standards, which I analyzed closely in a post here, titled “fair, or ‘balanced’?”
What can be done? Well, for one thing (especially if you’re in Texas), watch your newspaper’s opinion pages for any of this ape-spit on the AP coverage reverberating from the right-wing echo chambers, and respond with the facts, demanding journalistic integrity against efforts to intimidate journalists into caving in to the ideologues.
Next, stay informed by sources such as the Texas Freedom Network (and maybe even lend them some support).
Tony's curricublog 