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madrobinsSometimes it's what you're willing to let High School students print about you:
And sometimes it's less what you say (albeit clumsily) and more the fact that your handwriting sucks. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been taken to task for a condolence letter he wrote to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. He's not the world's most socially adept human (and apparently he's penmanship is appalling, largely because he's highly visually impaired). By the end of the article I felt a bit sorry for him--and for the grieving mother, who seems to have taken every flaw in Brown's delivery of his messages (a: condolence on the loss of your son; b: horribly sorry to have hurt you at a time when you're mourning) as callousness and lack of concern. None of this would be so bad, except that the British press (read: Murdoch press) has jumped on the Bash Brown bandwagon and inflamed something that should have been a private correspondence into a to-do.
The school newspaper at Dalton, a private school in Manhattan, contained a cryptic note from its editors last Friday.Cause there's nothing worse than getting quoted out of context in a High School newspaper.
“We are not able to cover the recent visit by a Supreme Court justice due to numerous publication constraints,” the note said. It promised “an explanation of the regrettable delay” in the next issue.
It turns out that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, widely regarded as one of the court’s most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values, had provided the newspaper, The Daltonian, with a lesson about journalistic independence. Justice Kennedy’s office had insisted on approving any article about a talk he gave to an assembly of Dalton high school students on Oct. 28.
Frank D. LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, questioned the school’s approach. “Obviously, in the professional world, it would be a nonstarter if a source demanded prior approval of coverage of a speech,” he said. Even at a high school publication, Mr. LoMonte said, the request for prepublication review sent the wrong message and failed to appreciate the sophistication of high school seniors.And to realize they're being managed.
“These are people who are old enough to vote,” he said. “If you’re old enough to drive a tank, you’re old enough to write a headline.”
And sometimes it's less what you say (albeit clumsily) and more the fact that your handwriting sucks. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been taken to task for a condolence letter he wrote to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. He's not the world's most socially adept human (and apparently he's penmanship is appalling, largely because he's highly visually impaired). By the end of the article I felt a bit sorry for him--and for the grieving mother, who seems to have taken every flaw in Brown's delivery of his messages (a: condolence on the loss of your son; b: horribly sorry to have hurt you at a time when you're mourning) as callousness and lack of concern. None of this would be so bad, except that the British press (read: Murdoch press) has jumped on the Bash Brown bandwagon and inflamed something that should have been a private correspondence into a to-do.