By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”
Medical doctors have a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to their patients, and journalists also have a responsibility to be accurate, fair, and thorough in their reporting. Unfortunately, the media have failed to adhere to their own set of ethics codes.
The Society of Professional Journalists lays out a code of journalistic ethical standards that all in the media should follow; unfortunately, today’s media has abolished any charade of being accurate, fair and thorough in their reporting thus throwing their own code of ethics into the trash.
Throughout the 2020 presidential election, the mainstream media of the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and other media affiliates as they are too numerous to mention have willfully engaged in partisan reporting with their stated objective of furthering a partisan Democratic narrative.
All one has to do is reference the ethical standard set forth by the Society of Professional Journalist to review if the media has been accurate, fair, and free of any preconceived bias in reporting.
During the presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the media covered both candidates far differently. The media covered Trump in an aggressive and openly hostile manner while Biden was never pressed nor asked any question of substance.
The media also allowed Biden to dictate how, when, and the types of questions he would respond to, not so with Trump.
Even during the racial unrest that erupted across America in the summer of 2020, the media never asked nor pressed any Democrat or Biden if you believe in racial justice than why do 70% of black and Hispanic children are deficient at grade level in math and English?
Currently, the teachers unions across the country have refused the re-opening of their respective school’s over concerns regarding safety from the impact of the coronavirus, no matter that the Center for Disease Control has reported its safe to do so even without vaccinating all teachers.
Why has there been little or no coverage of the billions already allocated to the schools from the recently passed economic stimulus packages, and why recently allocated funding has not been spent?
The question unanswered is why the media hasn’t pressed any Democrat or President Biden who received the largest campaign funds from the national teachers union, nor have they been pressed on the dismal educational statistics of minority students.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics and “Open Secrets” website Biden had received $225,000 from the teacher’s union during the 2020 presidential campaign far above the next closest recipient. During the presidential campaign, Biden had stated while addressing delegates of the largest teachers union that teachers will have a say in how education decisions are made.
Have the media pressed Biden as to whether he is looking after the needs of the union or the needs of American school children, who have been out of in-person learning for almost a year.
It was despicable before the economic lockdown and it’s far worse now, considering various reports have also shown that low income and minorities are faring terribly with being educated by electronic learning.
The question is how many Americans know that 70% of black and Hispanic children are deficient at grade level in math and English? Considering that any educational change no matter what state has to pass through the powerful teachers union for their support.
With all the focus on re-opening of the schools, and as we celebrate “Black History Month” have any of the media examined the dysfunctional state of American city governance that directly impacts the black and Hispanic communities.
Almost all of these cities have been governed by Democrats for decades with some going back to 1879 as the case of Atlanta. Milwaukee’s last Republican mayor was 1906, Washington D.C was in 1910.
Minneapolis, which was the epicenter for racial unrest last Republican mayor was in 1961.
Has the media questioned the Democratic mayors of these cities why they have such economic and educational disparities in their respective cities, when they control every apparatus of governance? Many are controlled by the members of their own communities such as Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Chicago, a city that hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1931, is a fiscal disaster with high government debt by the city and its school district. The Chicago Unified School District that serves primarily minority children boosts that 70% of black and Hispanic children are deficient at grade level in math and English.
It’s interesting that the Chicago Unified School District is fighting back against re-opening of the school, but according to openthebooks.com auditors found that the average Chicago teacher earned $108,730 last year—$81,422 in salary and another $27,307 in benefits. Further, teachers are allowed to accumulate up to 244 sick days for use or pension credit. (A full school year runs only 175 days.)
These same auditors found that the most highly compensated Chicago Public Schools (CPU) employee was the CEO, Janice K. Jackson, who made $322,839—a $260,000 salary and an additional $62,839 in benefits. Jackson’s salary alone was $61,000 higher than that of the U.S. Secretary of Education, a cabinet-level position. And Chicago’s 522 school principals averaged $194,000 in pay and benefits last year, with the most highly compensated earning up to $219,000. Another 304 acting, interim, assistant, and resident principals averaged $171,315 in pay and perks.
The Chicago Teachers Union understand that strikes help secure higher pay for their members, and in November 2019, the union walked off the job for the third time in three years, and after 10 days were awarded a 16% pay hike. Now the same union has threatened another strike!
This same school district has 70% of black and Hispanic children deficient at grade level in math and English and currently fiscally broke. Where’s the media coverage?
Former civil rights activist, and former head of the National Urban League Department of Criminal Justice, Bob Woodson, who is now President of the Woodson Center stated, “In the past 50 years, $22 trillion has been spent on poverty programs. Seventy percent goes not to the poor but those who serve poor people,” he said. “So many of those people taking office use this money to create a class of people who are running these cities, and now after 50 years of liberal Democrats running the inner cities, where we have all of these inequities that we have, race is being used as a ruse, as a means of deflecting attention away from critical questions such as why are poor blacks failing in systems run by their own people?”
Woodson continued, “It’s more class than it is race … and now race is being used to deflect attention away from the failures of people running those institutions,” he added. “The question is why are black kids failing in school systems run by their own people?”
Where is the media coverage?
Look at the egregious salaries of the government of Washington D.C.
This coming from a city that is billions in debt and 70% of black and Hispanic children deficient at grade level in math and English, and governed by their own community.
Where is the media coverage?
Finally were was the media coverage when at a CNN was hosted Town Hall hosted by Anderson Cooper, Biden stated that black and Hispanic people haven’t received the COVID-19 vaccine because they don’t know how to get online to schedule their appointments.
Biden just implied that black and Hispanics are not educated enough to use the internet that is why they are having difficulties accessing COVID-19 vaccinations.
There was a virtual media blackout of this; would a Republican have been able to get away with such a blatant statement?
One of the dangers for a Democracy and our Republic is when the media becomes partisan and no longer is objective, the country is then in peril.
For more on this topic checkout “Ubaldi Reports” Podcast at https://www.ubaldireports.com/category/podcast/
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