Preston Hollow resident and fellow blogger in our Preston Hollow blog Louisa Meyer called attention to this post by the DMN’s Rod Dreher (a neighborhood resident) concerning DISD and the Morning News editorial board; here’s the interesting excerpt…
"…As I’ve said before, I think it’s real easy for people like us ed board members to take liberal, tolerant positions regarding illegal immigrants, because their presence barely hinders our lifestyles. We all have good health insurance here at the paper, and never have to use public hospitals. I don’t think any of us have children in DISD schools, so we don’t see how the public schools are burdened by the illegal alien influx. And so forth…" For the full blog post, click here to make sure you’re satisfied with the context…
I’ve always wondered how many DMN big-wigs had kids in DISD, and at least as concerns the paper’s editorial board (the people who write editorials and handle the editorial/opinion pages of the newspaper), now we know the answer: 0.
One of the inescapable facts of journalism is that we all have opinions about issues we’re writing about, but when you have a "dog in the hunt" (as in, when you have a personal interest in an issue, such as having your own kids in a DISD school, which I do), you’re going to look at the district a little less impartially. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a good thing as far as journalism goes, but it’s the truth. I’m also not saying that having a stake in DISD means sugar-coating every story, either. But when people don’t have a personal stake in something like our public schools, things tend to be a little more cut-and-dried when it comes to coverage. And with something as big and as complicated as DISD, that’s not a good thing.
