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PUBLISHER'S ANALYSIS: Please Hold us to the Same Standards
- By Roy Douglas Malonson
- Published 08/31/2009
- Editorial and Opinion
- Unrated
Roy Douglas Malonson
Roy D. Malonson is publisher of the African-American News&Issues.
View all articles by Roy Douglas Malonson
There’s an old down home blues song with lyrics that went something like this, “When I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but when I’m right, I’m still wrong.” Those lyrics came to my mind when I overheard staffmembers in a lively debate a few days ago about a word that appeared a few weeks ago in this newspaper. After the issue was settled, I made up in my mind to just let it die, however, a report in Houston’s only daily reignited my conscious and got me to thinking about the issue all over again.
The report stated, “Houston philanthropists Nancy and Richard Kinder handed out $225,000 to 15 teachers as part of a new effort to reward outstanding educators at the city’s two largest charter school chains. Through the partnership with KIPP and YES Prep Public Schools, the Kinders awarded $20,000 to 10 charter school teachers. Five high-performing Teach for America corps members were also awarded $5,000 each.”
These organizations are doing a great job and should be commended for their efforts in providing excellent education to our young people. For example KIPP, (Knowledge Is Power Program) serves a study body that is 80 percent low-income, and 90 percent African-American or Latino. More than 90 percent of KIPP middle school students have gone on to college-preparatory high schools, and more than 80 percent of KIPP alumni have gone on to college.
YES Prep Public Schools which was named the best school in Houston by Newsweek and ranked #80 in the nation, serves a student body that is 90 percent first generation college-bound, 80 percent economically disadvantaged and 95 percent Hispanic or African-American. For the ninth consecutive year, 100 percent of YES Prep’s graduating seniors have been accepted into four-year colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Rice and Stanford.
Back to the story. A couple of staff members at a local charter school, including a teacher, questioned the usage of a word in the article, “Tempers Flare During D.E.A. Raid of Dr.’s Office at Center of Michael Jackson Probe,” which appeared in our July 29-August 4, 2009 edition. The sentence read in part, “... as the crowd began to grow after the rumor quickly spread by the grapevine that Dr. Murray himself was holed up in the non-descript building.”
What tripped them up? The phrase “holed up,” which apparently no one in the school, had ever heard of. For their edification (instruction, enlightenment) the term is not the past tense of hold, as suggested, which would make the sentence to read “held up,” but it simply means “to take refuge in or as if in a hideout” (urbandictionary.com). I’m not at all surprised by secretarial comments, “I don’t read that paper because of misspelled words,” but I have to wonder about the consistency level of instructors who automatically assume something is wrong, without doing basic research.
Even doctors are wrong sometime. Somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class. But what really gets my goat is knowing that these same people never dream of talking about mistakes found the in the Houston Chronicle, The Wall St. Journal, USA Today or any of the majority media which can afford several levels of editors at low-five to high six-figure salaries. And please don’t think they don’t have any mistakes.
Why else would all of them have paid reader representatives or ombudsmen for your comments on coverage, standards and accuracy as well as Corrections ... every time their paper prints? Before you write me, I’m not making excuses for our staff members who as far as newspapers go, do a hell of a job in putting together our paper within acceptable industry standards. And of course, we’ve had our hands deservedly slapped a few times over the past 14 years for sloppiness.
But when other papers aren’t held to the same standard, another song comes to mind, by the late Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Which one? Well, if I have to tell you, maybe you still won’t understand.
The report stated, “Houston philanthropists Nancy and Richard Kinder handed out $225,000 to 15 teachers as part of a new effort to reward outstanding educators at the city’s two largest charter school chains. Through the partnership with KIPP and YES Prep Public Schools, the Kinders awarded $20,000 to 10 charter school teachers. Five high-performing Teach for America corps members were also awarded $5,000 each.”
These organizations are doing a great job and should be commended for their efforts in providing excellent education to our young people. For example KIPP, (Knowledge Is Power Program) serves a study body that is 80 percent low-income, and 90 percent African-American or Latino. More than 90 percent of KIPP middle school students have gone on to college-preparatory high schools, and more than 80 percent of KIPP alumni have gone on to college.
YES Prep Public Schools which was named the best school in Houston by Newsweek and ranked #80 in the nation, serves a student body that is 90 percent first generation college-bound, 80 percent economically disadvantaged and 95 percent Hispanic or African-American. For the ninth consecutive year, 100 percent of YES Prep’s graduating seniors have been accepted into four-year colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Rice and Stanford.
Back to the story. A couple of staff members at a local charter school, including a teacher, questioned the usage of a word in the article, “Tempers Flare During D.E.A. Raid of Dr.’s Office at Center of Michael Jackson Probe,” which appeared in our July 29-August 4, 2009 edition. The sentence read in part, “... as the crowd began to grow after the rumor quickly spread by the grapevine that Dr. Murray himself was holed up in the non-descript building.”
What tripped them up? The phrase “holed up,” which apparently no one in the school, had ever heard of. For their edification (instruction, enlightenment) the term is not the past tense of hold, as suggested, which would make the sentence to read “held up,” but it simply means “to take refuge in or as if in a hideout” (urbandictionary.com). I’m not at all surprised by secretarial comments, “I don’t read that paper because of misspelled words,” but I have to wonder about the consistency level of instructors who automatically assume something is wrong, without doing basic research.
Even doctors are wrong sometime. Somebody has to be in the bottom half of the class. But what really gets my goat is knowing that these same people never dream of talking about mistakes found the in the Houston Chronicle, The Wall St. Journal, USA Today or any of the majority media which can afford several levels of editors at low-five to high six-figure salaries. And please don’t think they don’t have any mistakes.
Why else would all of them have paid reader representatives or ombudsmen for your comments on coverage, standards and accuracy as well as Corrections ... every time their paper prints? Before you write me, I’m not making excuses for our staff members who as far as newspapers go, do a hell of a job in putting together our paper within acceptable industry standards. And of course, we’ve had our hands deservedly slapped a few times over the past 14 years for sloppiness.
But when other papers aren’t held to the same standard, another song comes to mind, by the late Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Which one? Well, if I have to tell you, maybe you still won’t understand.