Is fact checking part of journalism?

Anyone out there remember our rally on April 24th when hundreds of people hand delivered a letter to Governor Pence pleading with him to stop Common Core? It was a letter signed by close to a thousand people within 4 days and supported by 58 Indiana organizations and several national groups.  You don’t recall it? That’s because the Indy Star along with other media outlets refuse to cover the other side of the Common Core debate. Today, they gave  coverage to a great big group of SIX teachers (confirmed number), who presented a letter to Glenda Ritz to keep the Common Core. I kind of want to laugh, all that money and energy and six whole teachers showed up. I guess that’s how it goes when your peddling mediocre standards that are UNPOPULAR with teachers.

WRTV-6, Norman Cox covered it with a 2 minute segment. What news busting soundbites did they catch? Well, how about a big fat lie  from Seri Walton, a teacher at Andrew Academy:

“It really teachers the kids to think further, rather than a lot of rote memorization. Indiana standards are too numerous. And it’s sometimes very difficult to teach all of the standards in a school year.”

How about a little fact checking, Cox? The Indiana math standards are FEWER, CLEARER and MORE RIGOROUS than Common Core. It only takes a two second internet search to see the Fordham Institute rated Indiana superior to Common Core. Or, you could count the standards if that is easier for you.

One quick click at www.gatesfoundation.org shows Stand received $9,017,857 from the Gates Foundation who has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Common Core. Of course, they failed to mention that Stand on Children is a nothing more than a lobbyist group pretending to be an advocacy group who’s funded by those who have a financial interest in the Common Core money machine. It really disappoints me that journalist can’t wade through the BS, especially where our children’s education is at play.

If journalists want a real story regarding education, they should look under their noses to see the popular uprising that is uniting left and right leaning groups from across the political spectrum. At a minimum, they could have asked for comment from the opposing side, but then again, we don’t place large media buys like Stand on Children. Shame on the Indianapolis media.

I’m not suppling a link, they don’t deserve the hits.