Seek truth and report it

At least 70 journalists were killed on the job in 2013, mostly in the Middle East, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Can you think of any job that requires more bravery than to dash to the worst fighting and atrocity in the world to find out what is going on?

They embrace the Society of Professional Journalists' first dictate in its code of ethics: Seek truth and report it.

According to the committee:

“Syria remained the most deadly place for journalists on the job in 2013, while Iraq and Egypt saw a spike in fatal violence. Two-thirds of journalist killings during the year took place in the Middle East.

“Seventy journalists were killed for their work in 2013, down from 74 in 2012, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its annual analysis. CPJ is investigating the deaths of 25 more journalists in 2013 to establish whether they were work-related.

“Pakistan, Somalia, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Mali, and Russia also saw multiple journalist deaths during the year, although the number of deaths in Pakistan and Somalia declined significantly. Mexico was notably absent from the list, with no deaths confirmed as work-related.

“The proportion of victims who were singled out for murder was 44 percent, less than the historical average. Thirty-six percent of the journalists were killed in combat or crossfire, while 20 percent died during some other type of dangerous assignment.”

Education activist Michelle Rhee writes that adopting Common Core standards will help American students keep up with the world.

But what good are standards if they are never enforced? What good would new standards be for a district like Reading School District? Problems there with leadership, finances and academic achievement have been obvious for years, if not decades, based on any standard you care to use.

But, perhaps until recently, nothing changed. Neither the state – which I would think has the duty – nor the community intervened in any effective way to change the district’s course.

Update: I'm so glad I was wrong about this. The Reading Eagle has published the name of the Russian group Pussy Riot twice since Christmas.

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Is our local paper so prudish it won’t publish the proper name of the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot?

Is this the puritanical worldview shaping Berks County’s media monopoly?

A story in the Reading Eagle on Tuesday referred to Russian President Putin freeing “punk-band activists.”

The original AP wire story says “Pussy Riot activists.” Why the change?

A search for “pussy riot” turns up stories about the activists from USA Today, CNN, NPR, BBC, the New York Times … .

A search on the Eagle’s own search engine discovers no “pussy riot.”

Is it because some people use “pussy” as a vulgar word for vagina?

Does the Eagle refer to “a former vice president” instead of Dick Cheney?

“An actor known for ‘Mary Poppins’ “ instead of Dick Van Dyke?

Would police make Reading schools safer?

“Local authorities” in Reading called for a permanent police presence in the Citadel Intermediate High School after a 14-year-old student threatened a dozen students with a loaded handgun in a ninth-grade classroom Nov. 20, according to the Reading Eagle.

"If police were assigned full time, this event would have been prevented," said Bryan Boughter, Berks County assistant district attorney.

Reporter Holly Herman didn’t follow up and ask how even 10 police patrolling the school could keep a student from sneaking a gun into the school.

District Attorney John T. Adams said that the school district should have full-time officers at the Citadel and Reading High School.

Rebecca Acosta, Reading School Board president, said the school district does not have enough money police officers, which cost $100,000 per cop per year.

The nice round number reminded me for some reason of the $200,000 the board paid to a California company for a strategic plan. It was so important, a special meeting was called for the vote – the only item on the agenda. The district's director of secondary education at the time had worked for the company. The report was full of blather and pages of stuff we already knew, but short on specific recommendations.

Has anybody heard about it since?

It could have paid for two police officers.

Why does Reading need another hotel?

In its front-page hagiography of a major advertiser, the Reading Eagle didn’t include a couple of basic background facts about the $56 million hotel that retailer Al Boscov finally got under construction in downtown Reading, across from the hockey arena.

Will the hotel pay taxes? The property is owned by the Reading Redevelopment Authority. How will city loans be paid back? Remember, the Abe Lincoln Hotel, (under major renovations a few blocks away,) claimed it didn’t have to make loan payments to the city because it wasn’t making a profit.

And who made Boscov the de facto city planner? Just because these projects CAN eventually be funded, does that mean they SHOULD?

What about using economic development money for people who live in the city? Last month, City Council transferred $150,000 of its Family Business Loan Program money to the hotel project.

According to the City Hall website:

“This new initiative [Family Business Loan Program] is an innovative $51 million public/private partnership that will help to expand and attract family-owned and small businesses in the City of Reading.

“Can any business qualify for this special loan program?

“No. The program specifically targets small businesses, and only those businesses that meet the SBA’s definition of a small business would be potential candidates for these special loans.”

Can Reading fix its school district?

In a letter to the Reading Eagle, Mike Schorn, a former Reading School District teacher and a former city councilman, put his finger on the problem at the Reading School District as clearly and concisely as I’ve ever seen it.

“For nearly two decades self-serving [school board] members have been interested only in employing family and friends, most of whom had little or no professional background. School board members used nepotism to get their people in positions of leadership, and most of them have failed.

“Our teachers and administrators have gone without professional nurturing. Thus when the opportunity knocked elsewhere, they left.”

My question is, how did this go on for so long? What leverage does a community have to intervene when such an important institution is off the rails? Did political and business officials ever privately lean on board members, reminding them of the clearly defined duties of school board members?

Sure, the board members were duly elected, over and over again. Does that mean the local parties or the voters themselves are to blame? I also think the Eagle dropped the ball on this. It never sends reporters to talk to parents or teachers to find out how students are being affected. You have to do more than just cover the public meetings to get to the bottom of things.

How to help kids learn to read

The Reading Eagle writes a glowing editorial today about volunteer efforts to help little kids learn to read, but typically does not tell people how they can get involved. Here's a link to Ready! Set! Read!: http://www.readysetreadberks.org/volunteers.html