LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com:
"SPOTLIGHT" ON LAUSD AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
(Mensaje se repite en Español)
While the recently released movieSpotlight is supposed to be a film about the long ignored Boston child molestation scandal that was allowed to run rampant for far too long because of the power of the Catholic Church, it actually has a much more insightful message. This message is about how power functions in the absence of any accountability. And this seems to be a lesson that has not been learned yet when one sees how the Los Angeles Times and other commercial and public media nationwide still continue to systematically ignore, twist, or downright censor the relevant facts necessary for the citizens of this country to meaningfully understand the stories in the news. In order words, 1st Amendment be damned, if telling a complete and controversial true piece of news would lead to real public accountability for those running mega-corrupt organizations, it will not be told. So, the only problem I have with an incredibly well done movie like Spotlight is that it still maintains the illusion that truth will out, which is clearly no longer the case in this country.
The most recent example of distorted news comes from Los Angeles Times reporters Teresa Watanabe and Howard Blum's Sunday, November 8th front page article entitled"Disorder In The Classroom," where they write a whole article about an increasingly serious epidemic of willful student increased violence and defiance of school authority in light of a counterintuitive LAUSD decision to eliminate student suspensions or pretty much anything else as a consequence.
While something referred to in the article as "restorative justice" is mentioned as the panacea replacing suspension and any other forms of consequences for what is becoming more and more outrageous student defiant behavior, other than saying restorative justice "seeks to resolve conflicts through talking circles and other methods to build trust," the article in no way goes into any depth as to how this is actually going to work and succeed.
