| I was horrified to see that the Michigan Press Association released a joint statement with the Mackinac Center the other day regarding Proposal 2. I can't for the life of me think of why any journalist of any competence would want to be publicly allied with an advocacy group, especially one that so regularly misinforms the public about stuff. I mean, I've been mildly concerned about MLive farming out a lot of its reporting to The Bridge, since traditionally newspapers don't consider the competition to be a source of labor, but The Bridge does do good reporting and MLive has hollowed out the reporting staffs of the former Booth properties. But, this is just shameful. Want an example? It's right here. Both the MPA and Mackinac Center point to a collective bargaining agreement that governs Bay City Public Schools. The Center discovered and publicized that the CBA mandates that a teacher drunk five times or actually sell drugs to students two times before they are fired. Except that this is patent horseshit. In the state of Michigan, if you are caught selling drugs, you are very probably going to be charged with a felony. That's especially the case if you're a school teacher who is dealing drugs to students. You're going to be charged with a felony, which means that you're not protected from being fired by the contract, at least the portion that the Mackinac Center is flapping its arms up and down over. You're only protected if you're charged with a misdemeanor. No prosecuting attorney would stand for it, and no judge would allow it. We've had years and years and years of "get tough on drugs" laws. Did no one think that maybe at some point they made selling drugs to kids a serious crime? As for the bit about being drunk in the classroom ... addiction is a disease (the contract mandates counseling if you're caught once, by the way). In other words, the contract protects an addict who is required to get treatment as a condition of staying employed (and, by the way, employed is probably the only way that the addict is going to get any help in the first place). In other words, there's societal value to it. Or, does the Mackinac Center not consider treating addicts a good idea? You can excuse the Mackinac Center for making shit up. It's what the Mackinac Center does. But, the MPA should have known better. They not only got into bed with a political advocacy group, which is something that the MPA shouldn't do in the first place, but they also did over something that's a factual error. Or, did the MPA not think to consult a police and courts beat reporter about whether any of the Mackinac Center's assertions held water. |
