By Steve Rhodes
“When all hell broke loose two years ago over the yanking of Persepolis from the Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Emanuel’s press handlers wrote it off as a misunderstanding. They said some bureaucrat in the bowels of the central office misunderstood what he or she had been directed to do and things got out of control,” Ben Joravsky reports for the Reader.
“The message got lost in translation, but the bottom line is, we never sent out a directive to ban the book,” Becky Carroll, the CPS spokeswoman at the time, told reporters.
“Well, guess what? It didn’t really happen like that at all.”
Click through to Ben’s story to see the definitive proof that Carroll – and CPS superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett – lied.
*
Will reporters go back and affix an amendment to what they reported at the time?
*
Will the media call out Byrd-Bennett for her serial lying?
(The most recent episode was published in the Sun-Times.)
*
Will the media finally call out Rahm Emanuel for running the lyingest administration in city history?
*
It’s congenital. Everyone in the political system has long known this about Rahm Emanuel. Now we know it about Byrd-Bennett. And Becky Carroll? The worst – and now running Rahm’s Super PAC.
*
From now on, reporters should file FOIAs for every single story they work on. The pattern cannot be ignored.
The Traffic Stop
“President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law 50 years ago, yet recent police killings of young black men have many Americans wondering if society has really changed,” Melanie Zuercher writes for Bethel College.
“Charles Epp, professor of public affairs and administration at the University of Kansas, came back to his alma mater, Bethel College, to give two presentations on police treatment of African Americans and Latinos in a specific situation: the traffic stop.
“Epp co-authored, with two KU colleagues, Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship (University of Chicago, 2014). The book’s publication coincided with a dramatic rise in awareness nationwide of the frayed relationships between police and minority communities, revealed by the deaths while in police custody of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both young African-American men.
“However, Epp began the research that resulted in Pulled Over about a decade ago. He was spurred by the stories he kept hearing from his African-American and Latino students.”
*
Those who were listening knew this was an issue a long time ago. Those who weren’t have been learning about it in recent years.
Largely white newsrooms fall mostly in the latter camp.
*
Here’s how the University of Chicago Press describes the book:
“In sheer numbers, no form of government control comes close to the police stop. Each year, twelve percent of drivers in the United States are stopped by the police, and the figure is almost double among racial minorities. Police stops are among the most recognizable and frequently criticized incidences of racial profiling, but, while numerous studies have shown that minorities are pulled over at higher rates, none have examined how police stops have come to be both encouraged and institutionalized.
“Pulled Over deftly traces the strange history of the investigatory police stop, from its discredited beginning as ‘aggressive patrolling’ to its current status as accepted institutional practice.”
Vigilante Press Ends Its Run
The press release:
“Comic book retailer Vigilante Press will be closing its doors for business on Saturday, February 28th. Customers can expect to find hundreds of items up for grabs, and discounts of 10% – 60% now through the end of February.
“Vigilante Press will have one last blow out party on Saturday, February 21st, and all are welcome to attend.
“Sean and Lily, the owners, have also said that inventory, fixtures and equipment will be up for sale. The owners also expect to keep weekly comic book titles ‘fully stocked for a limited time’ and that they will be discounting everything on store shelves.
“Vigilante Press is located at 1931 W. Chicago Ave. in East Ukrainian Village, and has established itself as a friendly neighborhood comic book store.”
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on February 11, 2015