when 7-8th grade class joins protest and die in at Gov Pawlenty Offce, the Media attacks school

[annm4peace]

Even though Congress members are being threaten by crazy tea baggers.

Local News Stations still decide to spin a story from Severe cuts to those on General Assistance, to attacking at charter school that is focused on Peace and Social Justice and it's students.

When will the FCC restore the Fairness Doctrine so our News Stations cover the news instead of doing hit pieces on anything that relates to Worker's Rights, Advocates for Poor, Social Justice or Peace ?

Thank goodness a journalist wrote about this injustice and unprofessional reporting.


http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/03/25/what-about...

By Mary Turck, TC Daily Planet
March 25, 2010
This time it's not a parent or a teacher, but the news media who are teaching kids the wrong lesson - about politics, about protest, and about civic participation. After a negative news report by KSTP 5 and an even more negative blog post by KARE 11's Gordon Severson, Southside Family School started getting telephone and email threats. Why? Because 6th-8th grade students at the school participated in a protest against Governor Pawlenty's proposed welfare cuts.

(I love this part of Mary's article)

"As for being taught to "hate," as Severson blithely alleges - that's a far different matter than learning about social justice, or participating in a demonstration at the State Capitol.

Opposing injustice is not the same thing as hating. Hate leads people to spit on Congressional representatives and call them racist and homophobic names. Or throw bricks through windows of Democrats after the passage of health care reform. Or cut the propane line at the home of a Congressional Representative Tom Perriello's brother, after a Tea Partier erroneously posted his address online, saying it was Perriello's address.

Hate leads people to threaten the children at Southside Family School. The threats to Southside Family School and its students that came after KSTP and KARE's coverage of the demonstration are described on the school's website:"

To see the full article

everson's long blog post was titled "5-year-old pawns in the chess game of politics," said in part:
Minnesota Food Share Campaign
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The planning for all of this was nearly flawless, but among those chanting about budget cuts dealing death, were children that probably don't understand what the word "welfare" means. Most of them probably don't even know what a governor does or who he is. However, they are taught to hate him and the "rich people" at a very young age. Why would anyone want to teach their children hate?

The beautiful part of being a kid is that for maybe 10-18 years they can play, experiment, and live without fear or confusion of the harsh reality of adult life. As a kid I had little to no knowledge regarding taxes, abortion, political parties, or anything else related to the adult world. I was more focused on what coloring crayon I was going to use next, and not what issue I would protest next. ...

Are they really mature enough to understand what they're a part of? Do they need to be taken out of their blissfully young and ignorant world in order to further a cause they don't know anything about?

Apart from the fact that the demonstrators were 6th-8th grade students -- and they'd tell you that is nothing like being five years old -- there's no evidence that they were pawns or ignorant of the issues.

In fact, based on my acquaintance with Southside Family School students, I'm betting that they were pretty familiar with what the word "welfare" means and it's entirely possible that some of their families survive only with welfare, medical assistance or some other form of aid targeted for cuts.

Many young people reject the "blissful ignorance" that Severson advocates. Those at Southside Family School have a curriculum that includes lots of education about the civil rights movement, in which young people were on the cutting edge. Grade school and high school students marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were knocked down by fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, and dragged off to jail.

Flo Golod, who headed Southside Family School for 20 years, explains on the school's website about its commitment to civil rights and social justice education:

But at Southside, social justice means more than youth engagement and a basic commitment to equity issues. It means that children themselves learn by doing social justice work, and do so well in their academics because they have learned that education is about them, about the roots of racism and its local legacy, about the reasons nearly half the houses in their neighborhoods are foreclosed, about the systemic reasons their mothers are poor and about why asthma rates are so high in big cities. ...

As for being taught to "hate," as Severson blithely alleges - that's a far different matter than learning about social justice, or participating in a demonstration at the State Capitol.

Opposing injustice is not the same thing as hating. Hate leads people to spit on Congressional representatives and call them racist and homophobic names. Or throw bricks through windows of Democrats after the passage of health care reform. Or cut the propane line at the home of a Congressional Representative Tom Perriello's brother, after a Tea Partier erroneously posted his address online, saying it was Perriello's address.

Hate leads people to threaten the children at Southside Family School. The threats to Southside Family School and its students that came after KSTP and KARE's coverage of the demonstration are described on the school's website:

Recent news articles on TV and the internet have highlighted Southside Family Charter School's social justice mission and successful civic engagement program. We have received several requests for follow up interviews. As we have been for years, we are happy to discuss the school's curriculum, philosophy and results. We are proud of our students and our curriculum.

However, we have also received vitriolic voice and e-mail messages. Some of these messages have been personal attacks, bordering on threatening against the school. At this time, our primary focus is on the safety and well being of our students so we will not be commenting further on the specific action at the Capitol. Requests for more information about the school and our curriculum will be taken in writing and responded to within the next two weeks.

In addition to requesting information, KARE 11 should make an apology for its inaccurate and disrespectful characterization of these young people.

[annm4peace]

1. To see the video of local news coverage, and compare with some videoing the event

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=160x38833

Well, I wrote the reporter and the managing Channel 5 director and cc'd the FCC democratic member and sent what I wrote to some others who do online news and Mike who is on 950am progressive radio with his 5pm show Quick on the Uptake

A mother who's daughter is at the school had emailed me some disturbingly sad but not surprising news of the charter peace school that her daughter attends.

The school has received a lot of negative calls and didn't let the kids out for recess and kept the main doors locked.

Those students should have been proud of participating in a "Die In".. instead they were in lock down because of threatening calls.

I told the mother I was going to send the email below with her message to the MN Attorney General, Mayor Rybak and Police Chief Dolan and that maybe some of the Civil Rights Veterans we have in the Twin Cities would like to have their own Press Conference and speak out against the attack on students who participate in Civil Rights and demonstrations.

Here is what I sent the Chris, the report of Channel 5, and the News Director of Channel 5.

Hi Chris, (report with Channel 5)
Yesterday the People's Bailout Coalition (many groups which included nuns) had a protest at the Gov's office. (his office didn't even bother to open the door). There were many groups there and included a class that wanted to do their study on civil rights action at this event. The kids decided where they wanted to put in action what the learned. Intelligently they choose an event that could possible affect them and their families. The cut to health care and support on the very poor and the disabled.

Anyhow.. I didn't know about the class just that the Die In was happening yesterday and wanted to see how the news covered it, and if they did cover the Press Conference.

So I turned on channel 5 news.. WHOA!!! what a hateful spin you did on it. Channel 5 said Pawlenty's cuts were to Welfare.. and that a charter school used tax payers money for the kids to join the protest.. and some unaware professor from a college they interviewed (who probably didn't even know the story) said that the kids shouldn't participate unless they used it as a teaching moment. (this charter school is a peace and social justice school.. what a horrible idea (sarcasm).
Channel 5 didn't even show the speakers or what they had to say.. nor mention that the cuts are to GAMC.. the care for the extreme poor including homeless Veterans. What is very ironic that you didn't even mention that there are cuts to PCA and therapies for children and disabled adults, especially since I'm sure you know people who depend on the PCA. People who are part of "Friends of Alexander Deihl Foundation".

Here is the video of the Press Conference that someone took that is what a true journalist would have covered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1a7-EcnyEQ

and here is your hit piece on a group of kids learning and PARTICIPATING in civil rights.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1481311.shtml?cat=1

I would rather my tax dollars go to schools that teach children about civil rights, diplomacy, peace, and compassion than how to be soldier or to stifle their critical thinking, and I don't even have children or know of any children who attend the school mentioned in your story.

Shame on you for not reporting and not covering what the women had to say at their press conference, and shame on you for attacking these students who are learning about democracy in this country. I guess they learned the hard way the propaganda and lack of true journalism in this country with Corporate News on Public Airwaves.

You should apologize to the People Coalition and to these students from Southside Family School on one of your broadcasts.

[annm4peace]

2. Here is another independent reporting on the story

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2010/mar/governor-pawlentys-proposed-budget-cuts-protested-state-capitol

A die-in and ruckus protest disrupted politics as usual outside Governor Tim Pawlenty's office on Monday. The demonstration drew attention to the deaths that would be caused by Pawlenty's proposed cuts to health and human services, including eliminating the General Assistance program, cutting assistance to families with disabled persons, and drastically slashing the Minnesota Care healthcare program. As the Welfare Rights Committee said in an after-action statement, "It is obvious to most that Pawlenty is willing to sacrifice Minnesotans in order to let the wealthiest in this state go untouched." Watch the scene at the state capitol in this video open-published to TCIMC.

Later in the week, legislators compromised on a watered-down bill of cuts signed into law by Pawlenty on Friday. But despite the weeklong debate, corporate media's coverage of Monday's action wasn't about the issue--instead, it virulently attacked 6th-8th grade students who attended the protest.

Related: Media Justice and the Crime of Poverty: An interview with Tiny from POOR Magazine | Fight Back News: Die-in at Pawlenty's Office

According to Politics in Minnesota, the final bill “was a lousy solution, as all parties, give or take the governor, freely admitted — roughly one-fourth as much funding for hospitals providing last-resort care as the old, pre-recession version of the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program, which Pawlenty killed last year with $400 million in vetoes and unallotments.”

But that doesn’t make for sensational TV, especially as corporate stations in Minnesota stand to benefit financially from Pawlenty’s presidential posturing on the backs of poor people. As Mary Turck wrote in the Twin Cities Daily Planet on Thursday,

This time it's not a parent or a teacher, but the news media who are teaching kids the wrong lesson - about politics, about protest, and about civic participation. After a negative news report by KSTP 5 and an even more negative blog post by KARE 11's Gordon Severson, Southside Family School started getting telephone and email threats.

Her commentary continued:

Apart from the fact that the demonstrators were 6th-8th grade students -- and they'd tell you that is nothing like being five years old -- there's no evidence that they were pawns or ignorant of the issues.

In fact, based on my acquaintance with Southside Family School students, I'm betting that they were pretty familiar with what the word "welfare" means and it's entirely possible that some of their families survive only with welfare, medical assistance or some other form of aid targeted for cuts.

Many young people reject the "blissful ignorance" that Severson advocates. Those at Southside Family School have a curriculum that includes lots of education about the civil rights movement, in which young people were on the cutting edge. Grade school and high school students marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were knocked down by fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, and dragged off to jail.

Flo Golod, who headed Southside Family School for 20 years, explains on the school's website about its commitment to civil rights and social justice education:

But at Southside, social justice means more than youth engagement and a basic commitment to equity issues. It means that children themselves learn by doing social justice work, and do so well in their academics because they have learned that education is about them, about the roots of racism and its local legacy, about the reasons nearly half the houses in their neighborhoods are foreclosed, about the systemic reasons their mothers are poor and about why asthma rates are so high in big cities. ...

As for being taught to "hate," as Severson blithely alleges - that's a far different matter than learning about social justice, or participating in a demonstration at the State Capitol.

The Welfare Rights Committee also published a statement emphasizing the harm that would be done by standing by and accepting Pawlenty’s proposed cuts, and the predictable but particularly vile coverage from TV stations KSTP and KARE:

On March 23, the Welfare Rights Committee organized and held a protest and die-in in front of Governor Pawlenty’s office to highlight the devastating cuts that he is proposing this legislative session. We highlighted the fact that Pawlenty is willing to sacrifice the people of our state for his own political gains. Pawlenty is leading the charge in a war against poor and working people and he doesn’t care how many casualties there are. His cuts, if they are allowed to go through, will bring untold suffering on the most vulnerable in our state, the poor, disabled and elderly.

This is a very serious issue. Pawlenty’s proposed cuts will cut completely eliminate the General Assistance program, leaving over 20,000 poor people with disabilities and unable to work with nothing to live on.

Pawlenty proposes to count hundreds of dollars a month out of the welfare grants for poor families with a disabled family member. Welfare grants for a family of 3 pay a measly $532 a month. Pawlenty’s cut would count the SSI grant of the disabled member against the welfare grant, basically completely eliminating the entire welfare grant as well as food stamps for the remainder of the family. This is illegal and a criminal cut.

Pawlenty further proposes to steal nearly $60 million from the federal block grant intended for poor children and their caregivers and transfer it to spend down the deficit.

Finally, Pawlenty proposes to cut tens of thousands off of health care by gutting the MN Care program.

We organized a die-in to show the results of Pawlenty's cuts. People will die. It is obvious to most that Pawlenty is willing to sacrifice Minnesotans in order to let the wealthiest in this state go untouched. Pawlenty is making the immoral choice to balance the state budget on the backs of poor and working Minnesotans and refuses to make the richest pay even ONE dime for the budget deficit.

The Welfare Rights Committee is outraged by the way the Pawlenty die-in protest on March 23 was reported by both KSTP news and in the KARE blog. Rather than reporting on the reason for the protest and the devastating cuts in Pawlenty’s proposal, they completely let Pawlenty off the hook and instead chose to demonize those participating in the protest. Neither of these media outlets will come forth and challenge Pawlenty on his disastrous actions, instead they attacked those would be affected by his actions. This type of reporting is not only inaccurate, unprofessional, biased and irresponsible, it sets a tone of blaming the victim and fear mongering.

In particular, KSTP and KARE decided to focus on young students protesting instead of the real issues facing low-income people, families and children. Yes, we had up to 50 people, including children and students, who chose to participate. The fact is, most of the victims of Pawlenty’s cuts to welfare will be children.

Public and charter schools are supported by tax dollars; KSTP implied that this particular charter school was doing something wrong with that money. There are many schools that bring students to the capitol to advocate for issues. This day was no different. KSTP and KARE’s reports also insult the students’ intellect. These students are well informed about the issues that are present in their world. It is clear that they are more informed on welfare and the Pawlenty cuts than the reporters that are supposed to be reporting the news. The students vote on what they want to participate in. It's also insulting to all who were there to speak their minds to tell Pawlenty his cuts are wrong.

It is obvious to us that KSTP and KARE should be investigating Pawlenty instead of investigating those who stand up and speak out the truth about his cuts. The fact is, they have done little to nothing to investigate and report on the devastating path he is proposing for Minnesota, nor his political motivations for bashing poor, disabled and working Minnesotans. Pawlenty is using us as political footballs in his quest for national office, and he doesn’t care how many people he destroys or kills for his political gain.

The episode of the corporate coverage of Pawlenty’s proposed cuts shows the importance of social movements speaking for ourselves without relying on corporate media to disseminate our message. The outcome shows that the pressure is on for the poor in Minnesota, and that economic justice advocates will have to step up our fight for survival even with a new Governor taking Pawlenty’s place next year.

[madrchsod]

3. high school students in some cities in northern illinois have protested

school funding and other related issues...it`s up to the students , their parents,and those who care to save public education. most of the comments i`ve read in the local newspapers people blame the teacher unions and students.

[patrice]

4. Hmmm, the Media objecting to the fact that the children's minds don't belong to the Media. nt