March 6, 2007 5:07 PM
Leesburg Today and news bias in Loudoun County
We have a number of local papers in Loudoun County. One arrives free in may mailbox every Friday – Leesburg Today .
As a parent with six kids in Loudoun County Public Schools (down from 9 when we first moved here) and involved in LOTS of activities, I tend to read the local paper - especially anything that has to do with the schools, theater and the arts. Also, my favorite part of any publication is always the Letters to the Editor – I read those first.
So, I've been reading Leesburg Today for over four years. And while I appreciate its coverage of local events (there was a page last week with pictures in full color of two plays - Jonny was in one and Maddy in the other. I am one proud mama!) each week I am more disturbed by the paper’s outright bias.
It’s so bad that you can always predict which side the LT will come down on in any issue - and I'm not talking about editorially, but in their news coverage.
We recently had our second dust-up here with Keith Deltano coming to speak about abstinence at local high schools. Because of the previous coverage of his first visit last October, I went to hear him twice in one day, noting the grim-jawed contingent from Mainstream Loudoun on the front row bleacher at Dominion High furiously scribbling notes so they could write letters to every editor in the county decrying Deltano’s delivery: He’s not a trained health professional, his humor is over-the-top, he scares the kids about STDs, blah, blah blah, blah blah.
I will be addressing all of these issues in more detail in the weeks to come. But for now I want to focus on Leesburg Today .
Oh, by the way, I met their education reporter Charlie Jackson in person at Deltano's second high school presentation. When I told him I read all his articles, he looked surprised.
“Well, I have six kids in public school. I care what’s going on.”
“Oh?” his eyes lit up. “What do you think of the schools?”
“I love them,” I said.
His light shut down.
I wasn’t surprised as I’ve noticed Charlie’s reporting gravitates more to the negative coverage, usually interviewing only the disgruntled minority and not balancing their comments with comments from parents with anything positive to say. We hear way too much from a teensy group calling itself Mainstream Loudoun (more on them here and here) and very little from the real mainstream parents concerning education in our county.
I’d wanted to meet Charlie and have a real conversation for a while. But I don’t think I looked interesting enough to merit his time. He didn’t ask me or any of the other adults at the presentation why we were there or what we thought.
It didn’t surprise me that his Deltano Returns over Objections to Promote Abstinence carried no comments from supportive teachers, parents or students. Though Charlie had ignored the adults present at the afternoon presentation, it seems he made it a point to do a phone interview with Kathy Hawes of Mainstream Loudoun who’d been at the morning presentation and not at the one he’d actually attended. (I’d actually given Charlie my phone number, but he never called me.)
I guess in Charlie’s view of Loudoun County the only adults whose opinions matter are involved with Mainstream Loudoun or the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun (more on these later). His coverage followed their talking points – e.g. referring to Deltano as “Christian comedian” and he’s given Kathy Hawes enough print to give her icon status.
But maybe that’s what Leesburg Today expects from him. For sure enough, along with Charlie’s one-sided report of the event in that week’s edition of Leesburg Today (Deltano "screamed," was "in a mini-lather" - hey, as a writer, I know the power of word selection - I never hear those words used in the media about leftists - though when you see or hear them it can be downright scary) were three letters from the Mainstream/UU contingent. Since there’d been a warning letter to the editor the week before (Deltano is coming! Deltano is coming! Lock up your daughters so they won't get scared about the concept of abstinence!) from the aforementioned Kathy Hawes, I'd already written a letter to the editor defending Deltano's October presentation. It was not published. Nor was it published the following week, though I called twice to find out why not. Nor were the letters of at least three other parents in support of Deltano published.
So Leesburg Today published not only Charlie’s biased report (failure to interview any of the supportive parents, teachers, students), but four anti-Deltano letters to the editor – while completely blocking all letters representing the other side - even though a receptionist told me "We publish all letters to the editor."
Anyone relying on Leesburg Today needs to know that their reporting should be taken with a major grain of salt. There is so much more to this county and its populace than they want you to believe. Because the truth is Mainstream Loudoun is not mainstream at all – it is a small group of vigilantes trying their best to shut down the voices of anyone with whom they disagree. (And if you're a Christian, no matter what you believe in, they'll disagree with you. I once wrote an article about starlings and - well, that's another story I'll share another day.)
And Leesburg Today is doing their best to give them a megaphone, as when they created a flap over a local play “Normal,” trying to make the school administration look like the bad guys, when in reality the play’s director did not provide a script for review and so the schools – which were actually generously providing the stages for the play to perform on – would not allow handouts to go home with all Loudoun County students.
But why report the actual news when with just a few tweaks you can manipulate things to look like a particular group is being victimized? The answer involves a long story, but I will be telling it over the next month or so.
In the meantime, just so you know: Leesburg Today which bills itself “In the Community, With the Community, For the Community” is owned by Amendment One, a Minneapolis-based company and is preparing to move its offices outside Leesburg.
In the community, with the community, for the community? I don't think so.
Posted in Current Affairs, Loudoun County | Permalink
