Helping who live better, where?

Why does The Dallas Morning News so eagerly investigate Dallas public schools? Here's a theory
By Louisa Meyer
Dallas Business Journal - June 29, 2007

As the far north commuters approach downtown, they ruminate about time spent in their cars each week and ask themselves again, "Why do I live so far away from my job?" For the last three months, just as they entered downtown, our hometown newspaper reminded them with an ironic message, on a well-placed billboard: "Helping You Live Better Here."

The subliminal message was: "Helping You Live Better THERE. You can't live in Dallas; there are too many problems -- especially with the schools."

We can understand why any business would want to expand its market share to the suburbs, but The Dallas Morning News may be doing so by bolstering its coverage of bad news about our city and its schools -- or in some cases, turning no news into news. It's what the suburbanites want: validation that living in the city is not an option.

Sadly, many past criticisms about the Dallas Independent School District were valid. But when major accomplishments during Superintendent Mike Moses' tenure received minimal press coverage, I became cynical and decided the media simply prefers bad news to good.

But The News' coverage over the last year struck me as scripted: "Break" the story the day after the school administration closes for summer vacation, follow with monotonous reruns of the story, then layer on with shame dispensed by the editorial board and beloved metro columnist Steve Blow.

When the advertising campaign was launched complete with billboards, print media and TV ads and the coverage of alleged credit card misuse passed 30 stories, I became convinced it was indeed a scripted series. Add to that the limited coverage of national awards recently bestowed on our schools and students, or the work of the Dallas Achieves Commission dedicated to school improvement, and my cynicism grew.

In case you've been an ex-pat in China for the last year, all these self-congratulatory billboard ads were about The News' devotion to reporting on fraud within the Dallas ISD. The reported fraud amounted to an underwhelming $200,000 from an annual budget of $1.8 billion. It's amazing it received weekly coverage. Was there similar coverage when the same newspaper took a $30 million hit for misrepresenting its circulation figures to advertisers?

It's also ironic to note that the likely cost of the associated advertising campaign exceeded the reported fraud. Add to that the time reporters spent making more than 175 open records requests of the district (which, by the way, required the district to hire someone to support) and, I'm inclined to ask, who's watching the "watchdog's" spending?

After reading an editorial I wrote for Texas ISD.com, I was contacted by someone who suggested that The Dallas Morning News may indeed have a marketing strategy, based on focus-group research, to lure rural and suburban readers. I've got my own research on that. As a Dallas ISD parent since 1993, I've met any number of suburbanites who delight in hearing bad news about city schools.
Hideous strategy

Ask my PTA friends about the biggest challenge we face as Dallas ISD parents, and the overwhelming response is not ridding the schools of drugs, corruption and bad teachers. It is, rather, the daunting task of publicizing the good news about our schools to counter the cynicism dispensed by our hometown paper and its broadcast affiliates.

As readers of the Dallas Business Journal, do you think your business is hurt if the hometown newspaper has a strategy that validates suburban living by bolstering coverage of the flaws in our city or schools? A career journalist tells me that such a strategy is highly unethical. As someone who loves Dallas ISD, its students and employees, I find it hideous.

In a recent blog posting, The News' Bill McKenzie wrote that, "Part of our job as an editorial board is to help instill hope and diminish cynicism about DISD." If that's truly its desire, I've got a suggestion: Use those billboards to congratulate Dallas ISD and its students for the many national and state recognitions recently received. Now that's "Helping You Live Better Here."

Meyer, a member of the Dallas Achieves Commision, was a 2006 Secondary Dallas ISD Volunteer of the Year.

Original article located at: Helping who live better where? - Dallas Business Journal