Category Archives: Media

Should schools be required to teach about real news?

Education, Legislature, Media, Politics
Julie Mayberry
Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, has pre-filed a bill that would require Arkansas high schools to offer journalism as an elective.

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Society needs people who can produce real news, so should Arkansas high schools be required to offer a class teaching those skills?

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, says yes, which is why her House Bill 1015 would require high schools to offer journalism as an elective. That’s the way it was until July 2018, when the Arkansas Board of Education voted to instead allow school districts the option of providing the class.

Mayberry believes that was a mistake for several reasons. Journalism has always been a critical check and balance on the government. In fact, she said, it’s so important that the Founding Fathers listed freedom of the press in the very First Amendment. She as a legislator relies on the newspaper to inform her about meetings she can’t attend. Continue reading Should schools be required to teach about real news? →

Do we really want the president to turn off the news?

Media, Politics

By Steve Brawner,© 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Here’s the thing about polls: They never tell you everything, but they often tell you something.

Such is the case with a recent Ipsos poll where 85 percent agreed that “Freedom of the press is essential for American democracy.” At the same time, 29 percent, and 48 percent of Republicans, also agreed that “the news media is the enemy of the American people.”

In other findings, 26 percent of Americans, and 43 percent of Republicans, agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Thirteen percent of respondents, including 23 percent of Republicans, agreed that “President Trump should close down mainstream news outlets, like CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.” Another 3 percent of Americans didn’t know.

Continue reading Do we really want the president to turn off the news? →

How your newspaper subscription is an investment

Media

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Bell, California, has a population of 37,000 and, until 2010, a town manager making almost $800,000 a year. The police chief, meanwhile, was making $457,000. That’s 50 percent more than the salary made by the police chief of nearby Los Angeles, population 4 million.

What stopped this from continuing? An investigation by the Los Angeles Times. Before that, Bell, a suburb of L.A., had lost its local newspaper in the late 1990s. When the town manager had started working there in 1993, he was making $72,000.

Bell offers one possible example of what three professors say is a larger reality: When newspapers close, the county’s taxpayers suffer. Their study found that local government borrowing costs rose, the number of government employees increased by four people per 1,000 residents, government wages increased by a median of $1.4 million, and tax revenues increased by $85 per person. Continue reading How your newspaper subscription is an investment →

My first experience with fake news

Media, Politics

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In about 1998, I had my first experience with “fake news.” In fact, I unwittingly helped create it.

At the time, I was a less-than-30-something communications aide for then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. Most of my duties involved writing, and there was a little press work.

One day, a couple of nice guys with a television camera stopped by the office and said they were Canadians, that there was some igloo in their country, and it was a big deal there. They were vague, but I remember taking it to be some kind of archaeological discovery. They asked if the governor could congratulate Canada on preserving its national igloo. Huckabee helpfully made a quick statement coming out of his office, and that was that. Or so I thought. Continue reading My first experience with fake news →