by Ron  Isaac 
Columnist EducationNews.org

Editorials belong on the editorial page. A reputable newspaper should in its news reports provide a straight account of the facts . It should not directly or subliminally slant and spin them in order to impose their management’s interpretation on often unsuspecting and indeed gullible readers.

Here’s the opening of a Daily News piece from a couple of days ago:

“In an attempt to curry favor with the powerful teachers union, Senate Republican and Democratic leaders said yesterday say they will oppose any midyear school aid cuts. The tactic appears to have worked…”

“Powerful” is the almost invariable adjective that “journalists” hitch to “teacher unions” to describe a not openly-stated but insinuated influence peddling. You can hardly find a story about teacher unions without “powerful.” It’s like the inevitable “pool of blood” in crime scene stories.

Hey, it’s no insult to be called “powerful.” In terms of moral influence and political clout, a “powerful” union is a great tonic for educational systems and mood enhancer for their professional staffs. But that’s not what these language hijackers called reporters mean.

And what are they suggesting by “curry favor?” Why not say “appeal to” or some other phrase that could be dredged from a thesaurus? Again there is a hidden dig. It implies at least a borderline breach of ethical restraint.

The most valuable words and phrases have meanings beyond what the dictionary says they mean.

That unexposed meaning “travels” under the passport of a dictionary definition but it is like a stowaway that is a separate concept with its own “baggage.”
This alternate meaning is in common usage and so everybody knows what it is trying to say, to hell with what the dictionary approves.

“Cheap” means inexpensive. But as a jewelry store owner you would be more likely to advertise your merchandise as “inexpensive” because cheap implies poor quality.

If you had a friend who lives contentedly in the forest and you didn’t want to tick him off ( pun is buried in a shallow grave!), you wouldn’t say he lives “in the sticks” even if some glossary said that phrase was interchangeable with “rural setting.”

Tabloid reporters on the education beat in this town are particular advantage-takers of the luscious and lurid flexibilities and ambiguities of English.

In less than two sentences, the Daily News story has in effect deputized several code words to act as de facto editorials. They have the unregulated right to color and cast false lights on the news. After all, it is their rag and the newsprint is their lifeblood.

Maybe the basic precepts of journalism went out the window, down the drain, and through the sewer by order of Tweed and Teachers College, pushed ahead by a secret billionaire’s hand.

Published October 21, 2008