Journalism: Phooey

In 1982 a certain teacher was doing his thing in a parochial high school in Rock Island, Illinois. Since his field was social studies he was assigned the task of dispensing information for discussion on so-called, "non-essential" classes. It was that period when teachers were to find out where the students were coming from so they could better understand their problems. One of these classes was called, 'Understanding Ethnic Minorities'. The curriculum was designed for an appreciation of Black, Hispanic, Jewish and Japanese contributions to American society.

One spring day a student brought to this particular teacher a 'cartoon flyer' picked up in a fast food restaurant. It depicted a black man being hung from a tree. On the lower right hand corner was an address: Ku Klux Klan, POB, Villa Park, Illinois.

This certain teacher knew the editor of the second largest newspaper in the state of Iowa, The Quad-City Times. Since the population of the Quad-Cities(Rock Island, Moline, Bettendorf, Davenport, East Moline) was over 500,000 newspaper distribution had to be sizeable. The teacher in question told the editor, in passing, about the cartoon. The editor asked said teacher to bring the cartoon to his office later that day. The teacher, being stupid and naive did so and showed him the KKK paper.

The editor then asked the teacher to talk to one of his reporters. No big deal because the certain teacher had no questions, answers, opinions; just a cartoon paper.

The next morning, in the Quad City Times, there was a banner headline reading:
"Klan On Rise In Quad-Cities". It was blatant 'yellow journalism' that would have made William Randolph Hearst proud. How much research on the subject could be done in a matter of ten hours had that reporter worked all night? "Damned little", the teacher might have responded.

Said teacher was embarrassed as was his school since it's name was in the newspaper without permission being obtained.

There are certain professions that cry out: "I am scum". Journalists, by and large, fit the bill. If you don't believe me look at what's been going on around the nation in regard to the Tuscon shootings.