Recently, Columbia Journalism Review reported that when 2,529 people were offered free subscriptions to their local newspaper (the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia Inquirer), only 44 accepted the offer. This item was under the headline: “They gave local news away for free. Virtually nobody wanted it.”
As a former PG editor as well as longtime subscriber, I was distressed to read this report. Equally distressing, though, was op-ed columnist Adriana Ramirez’ remarkably biased and ill-informed depiction of the lawsuit against the Mt. Lebanon School District last Sunday (Feb. 25, “Making transgender people visible in Mt. Lebanon”).
Had the writer bothered to consult any of the documents in the court record, she would have known that “this case is not about treating all students with kindness, tolerance and respect,” to quote the opinion from the judge (Senior United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti) overseeing the case. Twice the school district has sought to dismiss the complaint and dismiss too the constitutional religious rights of the brave parents who filed the lawsuit (who themselves have been subjected to threats from the opposition). And twice Judge Conti has ruled in favor of the plaintiff parents, that the lawsuit should proceed.
Ms. Ramirez ignores entirely in her column the lawsuit’s central issue. The case is about teacher Megan Williams’ willful disregard of parental rights in pursuit of her own transgender agenda. As has been demonstrated in the copious testimony of school administrators taken in the case, gender education is NOT part of the published elementary curriculum in Mt. Lebanon. But that didn’t stop teacher Williams from deciding to educate her first-grade students about transitioning their gender.
Williams’ instruction included telling her 6- and 7-year-old students that “when children are born, parents make a guess whether they’re a boy or a girl. Sometimes parents are wrong.” Parents were not informed beforehand of the subject matter to be taught nor were they given any notice that would allow them to opt out from the instruction – both inconsistent with long-standing District practices and policies. School administrators (including School Board President Jacob Wyland, a defendant in the lawsuit) blithely ignored the district’s own policies in favor of transgender instruction of first-graders. Thus, they have created an environment in the district that instead of being tolerant is the very definition of intolerance toward those who have beliefs different than theirs.
Ms. Ramirez chooses to ignore all of the above. Her comparison of people who object to the sexualization of their children and grandchildren, effectively calling them bigots (“There are still holdovers who believe that the desegregation of schools was a mistake”), was repugnant.
When the history of the demise of local journalism is written decades hence, there will be many reasons cited. But at the top of the list will be the shoddy work of journalists themselves. As well as the extraordinary disdain the news media display toward its readers’ sensible sensibilities.
The Parrhesians 