Can the media shed its partisan reputation?

17-year-old Alicia Life was chatting with a customer in the restaurant she works at in Mechanicsville, West Virginia. It was closing time. During their small-talk, the customer asked a seemingly innocuous question: what do you want to be when you grow up?

“I said well, I want to be a journalist,” said Alicia. “And he said ‘Oh, are your articles going to be called Alicia’s Fake News?’”

I met Alicia at the 2017 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference, a weeklong event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. featuring one high school journalist from each state and some of the biggest names in journalism. At the conference I was able to ask representatives of prominent media organizations how they’re fighting to regain the diminishing faith in journalism, particularly amongst conservatives – a 2016 Gallup poll showed that only 32% of Americans and 14% of Republicans have a “great deal or fair amount of trust in the media” – so rudely expressed to Alicia at work that day.

The answers were not particularly inspiring.

“I think we need to try to win people back, absolutely,” said Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron. “We have to do that with the work that we do and make sure it’s accurate, make sure that it’s fair, that we’ve done everything that we should to make sure its honest.”

            Others at the conference echoed Mr. Baron’s passive philosophy for building trust in journalism. “I don’t know if you’re ever going to convince [Americans who don’t trust the media] that the press is telling the truth,” said Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “But I think the best way to fight the fake news is with more awareness and more truth … It’s on the citizen to discern these things.”

In other words: the media just has to continue reporting real facts, and people will come around eventually. What reason is there to believe this will happen?

When Donald Trump was elected president, the press realized that the importance of its mission to make the truth known had increased tenfold. News organizations sounded the alarm bells – The Washington Post changed its header to “Democracy Dies in Darkness”; The New York Times marked the gravity of the moment with their first advertising campaign in a decade. “The truth is more important now than ever,” they warned in a half-minute Super Bowl spot.

Indeed it is. But to shine truth’s light in an age of misinformation and political dishonesty, mainstream media needs to make a priority of recapturing its credibility with the Americans who dismiss its work as “fake news.” Doing that will require more than fair and accurate reporting. To regain the right’s trust, the media needs to become more transparent and diversify its content.

With Americans increasingly getting their news from national organizations rather than local outlets, there is a disconnect between the consumers and providers of information. Twenty years ago you might have run into your prep sports reporter at the supermarket or lived in the same neighborhood as your weekly columnist. But to a reader of a national publication today, journalists are faceless names stationed in faraway metropolises. Not knowing who the people behind the news are or how they operate makes it easier to assume bias.

This is where greater transparency could help. “Something we did in the past that we need to come back to is opening up our editorial meetings,” said Val Hoeppner, a Nashville-based digital media expert. “Live-stream it. Use technology to let people to come in and see your process because I think people think we sit around and say, ‘How can we make Trump look bad today?’ And that’s not the truth.”

Providing behind-the-scenes access to consumers would bring the media closer to disaffected citizens. But ultimately, the only sure way for legitimate media outlets to win customers is to produce content that interests them. The most important step the press can take towards credibility on the right is telling more stories that appeal to conservative cultural and political sensibilities.

Culturally speaking, the media needs to cover rural communities and middle America with greater attention. “We journalists need to get out of our own silos – which are primarily urban – and start listening to those parts of the country that felt ignored until Donald Trump came along and lit a fire under their smoldering resentment,” wrote Judy Muller, an Emmy-winning TV reporter and professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Southern California, in a Telluride Magazine op-ed.

The media’s failure to detect the rise of Donald Trump opened the eyes of many in the journalism world to this geographic disconnect. Thankfully, steps are being taken to address it. After the election, The Washington Post expanded its “America Desk,” a team of journalists dedicated to covering political issues in the heartland. The US arm of The Guardian began an initiative called “On the Ground” this year that will commission reporting from writers imbedded in rural communities. Ms. Muller told me she’s leading a program called “Beyond the Bubble” that will take USC journalism students to rural Utah next May to work with the editor of a local newspaper. One story at a time, such efforts will bear fruit.

Politically, the press needs to take a critical look at its selection bias. Media outlets left of Fox News and right of MSNBC don’t blatantly overblow certain facts while minimizing others to skew reader perceptions of reality without outright lying – in general, they represent events honestly. But they do make choices about what they cover and how prominently they cover it that give the appearance of leftwing bias.

The New York Times and The Washington Post frequently run stories that align with liberal thinking on political issues. Such stories are deliberately sought out – they aren’t coverage of important political developments that a news cycle would be incomplete without. There’s nothing wrong with the Times dispatching a reporter to Atlanta to find out how “Two Colleges Bound by History Are Roiled by the Me-Too Moment” in sexual harassment cases or telling the tale of a Queens family “Being Deported from Home for the Holidays,” or even The Washington Post sending out a breaking news update via its app on December 2^nd that read “Former Trump aides reveal a campaign filled with screaming fits, constant rivalries and Big Macs.” These are all important stories. But why not look to match them with articles about a rust belt town hurt by the closure of a factory? Or about a community where Obamacare didn’t pan out? The Times ran an excellent piece in this vein titled “Becoming a steelworker liberated her. Then her job moved to Mexico” in October. If conservatives could open a legitimate newspaper or tune into a factual TV news program and expect to see content corresponding to their concerns in balance with ammunition for liberal arguments, they might be won over.

The mainstream media ought to see to it that they are. With partisan hyperbole and actual fake news being the other available sources of information, nothing less than America’s sanity is at stake.

Where do students who rely on free cafeteria meals eat during summertime?

Amid talk of cuts to the federal education budget that would mean the end of many community-benefit programs, the Sacramento CIty Unified School District served tens of thousands of free meals to area youth through the USDA’s Summer Food Service. The district offered breakfast and lunch at 47 locations weekdays from late June through early August.

“It’s a core necessity to eat well,” said SCUSD spokesperson Alex Barrios, explaining that students who can’t afford to do so may receive free or reduced-priced lunches at their cafeteria while school is in session. “But during the summer school gets out, and a population of our students don’t have anywhere to go. That’s where this program came from: The need to make sure those kids continue to have access to healthy meals.”

Indeed, the Summer Food Service provided approximately 1500 breakfasts and 2200 lunches per day in Sacramento this summer, according to the district. The program supports kids with varying levels of food insecurity. “We have some regulars,” said Barrios, but also “kids who happen to wake up that day and realize ‘Wait a second, what am I going to eat today?’”

The future of the Summer Food Service is uncertain. While there is currently no proposal to axe this specific program, the Trump administration has proposed massive cuts to the education budget, cuts that consist primarily of reductions to after-school and summer services.

 Losing the Summer Food Service would have major implications for the Sacramento area -- more than 20% of children in Sacramento County are food insecure, according to the Healthy Communities Institute.
“A society can be judged on how it treats its young, old, and vulnerable,” said SCUSD School Board Trustee Ellen Cochrane. “It's up to all of us to make sure that our leaders reflect values of basic human decency.”

Why doesn't counseling broaden student horizons?

It’s college application season, and last Friday I gave a presentation on private colleges and the Common App at the Brown Issues meeting after school. I started with a question: “Who here wants to go to a four-year university after high school?”

All hands in the room shoot up.

“Great. Anyone applying to any private schools?”

One hand rises tentatively. One.

The disparity in the two responses didn’t surprise me -- I wouldn’t have given the presentation if I thought everyone was planning on applying to private colleges and already knew how. But it does suggest a larger failing on the behalf of our school to make students aware of the opportunities available to them.

McClatchy tracks its students into California’s public university system (UCs and CSUs). Twelfth grade English teachers make assignments out of the UC essays. Counsellors stress the importance of A-G requirements. The HISP program, despite its rigor, does not award students AP or Honors credit for their freshman and sophomore year classes, in large part because UC schools are supposedly familiar with the program and recognize the difficulty of HISP classes even without those labels.

There’s nothing wrong with this in-state focus -- McClatchy is a public school, so UCs and CSUs are the logical next step for the majority of students who want to pursue higher education. Because of this, things like building schedules around A-G requirements and requiring seniors to write UC essays for class are helpful in keeping as many students as possible on the college path.

But McClatchy’s college-support mechanism acts as if schools that aren’t public and in California don’t exist. It’s entirely possible to attend McClatchy for four years, meet with your counsellor regularly, take advantage of every resource in the college and career center, attend every on-campus college information session, and still not be able anywhere that isn’t a UC or CSU because you don’t know what the Common App is.

(The Common App is a service through which one can apply to practically every private university in America, and many out-of-state public schools.)

Sadly, this hypothetical McClatchy experience is a reality for many. Very few students knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the Common App at the Brown Issues meeting. Even some HISP kids, generally more privileged and more likely to have college ambitions than the larger student body, don’t know what they need to do to apply out-of-state until late in the application season.  

Without this knowledge, students miss out, particularly low-income students.

I know that sounds wrong -- low-income students missing out by not considering private schools, with their astronomical tuitions and pretentious, prep-school students?

Yes -- and the fact that many students are deterred by that reputation is just another reason we need more education on the topic.

Private schools have huge endowments and small student bodies, allowing them to heap financial aid money on deserving applicants. Most private schools promise to meet the entirety of students’ demonstrated need, meaning they offer aid packages tailored to each family’s financial situation. If they want you, they’ll cover whatever costs you can’t.

Equally important, private schools offer students more attention. Smaller class sizes mean more interaction with professors, lower student-to-faculty ratios mean better individualized career counselling and the ensurance that nobody slips through the cracks. This support is particularly valuable low-income students who might be the first in their family to go to college.

Lastly, private school admissions favor a type of student who might struggle to get into UCs and CSUs. Due to the large volume of applicants at those schools, quantitative data -- test scores and grades -- carry lots of weight (at CSUs they carry all the weight, since there are no essays). Private schools are more interested in your story and your voice, things that come through in the personal statement you write as part of the Common App. Interesting students without great numbers, and students with difficult home lives that might hinder academic achievement, fare better in private-school applicant pools than in public ones.

The most frustrating thing about all this is that relaying the above information to students would be incredibly easy.

Mr. Mitchell already makes the rounds in 11th and 12th grade classrooms, informing students of scholarship opportunities. Why not have a short presentation on the Common App too? Or on Questbridge, the application service designed to catapult low-income students into prestigious universities through generous scholarships?

An in-depth presentation isn’t necessary on the first pass. Just something short to alert students to the wider world of higher education so they know what to ask their counsellors about if they’re interested.

We’re talking about five minutes of time that could change students’ lives.

Crowding, DJ controversy dominate HoCo discussion

McClatchy held its annual Homecoming dance on Saturday, October 7th. Though students generally enjoyed themselves, many voiced displeasure with music selection, crowding, and tight chaperoning.

“The music wasn’t that good,” said junior Marcus Hamm when asked for his overall reaction to the dance.

Senior Michael Denecochea, who DJ’d the Back to School Dance, agreed.

“I felt the DJ’s playlist was a bit too scattered,” Denecochea explained via text, noting a particular dissatisfaction with the electronic music in the playlist. “Most students want hip hop and pop music to be played at dances. That’s what is most popular today!”

The DJ, Luis Guerrero, has DJ’d the past several McClatchy Homecomings. Last year, ASB decided to hire a different DJ for this year’s dance in response to similar complaints about music at the 2016 Homecoming.

“Around May of last year, Tony Burns came in to talk to the student government class as a whole, proposing a request to be our DJ for Homecoming,” said Michael Ross (‘18), the ASB Dance Committee chair. “He offered us a deal: he would DJ Homecoming and the Sadies dance, then DJ the Bye-Bye Bash for free. I believe the class voted unanimously in favor of hiring him.”

ASB President Zach Neff (‘18) said there was never an official motion voted on to hire Mr. Burns instead of Mr. Guerrero for this year’s Homecoming, but affirmed that all of ASB made it clear they wanted Mr. Burns.

“It was an informal expression of ‘Yes, we want a new DJ,’” Neff said.

“It was a consensus,” added ASB Vice President Madi Pearce (‘18) of ASB’s decision to hire Mr. Burns. “But [ASB Director] Hubbard hired Luis without letting anyone know.”

Mr. Hubbard claimed that the desire to replace Mr. Guerrero was never communicated to him, so he hired Mr. Guerrero again. He said that the decision to hire Mr. Burns was an internal choice made within the Dance Committee, and did not involve the larger class over which he presides.

“Unfortunately, that committee neglected to inform me of their decision,” Hubbard said.

“Therefore, just to make sure we had our bases covered, I booked Luis.”

Multiple other ASB members confirmed Michael Ross’ version of events, however, saying ASB made a clear demand for a new DJ. But there may have been some confusion over whether the ASB members’ positive response to Mr. Burns’ presentation constituted a binding declaration of his hiring.

ASB has already decided to have Michael Denecochea DJ Sadie’s, McClatchy’s next major dance.

In addition to the music, many students complained about crowding at the dance.

“It was just crowded,” said freshman Ben Silva. “There wasn’t that much space to dance and move around.”

This feeling of crowdedness might be more due to the dancers’ behavior than their numbers, however. According to ASB records, 1,557 tickets were sold this year, only slightly more than the 1,454 sold last year. But many students said dancers especially rowdy at this year’s Homecoming.

“Everybody was pushing; they kept pulling my hair,” said Areli Banales (‘18). She added that one of her toes started bleeding after it was repeatedly stepped on.

Girls typically take of their heels at school dances in the interest of mobility, and are left vulnerable to such injuries. Senior Payton Eldridge certainly was. “I got my toe stepped on during the song ‘Bodak Yellow’, because the crowd was too hype. I bled profusely.”

Battered and bruised McClatchy dance-goers had one more threat to contend with -- disciplinary action. Chaperones at this year’s dance were more active than in years past, frequently breaking into clusters of students with flashlights. Students caught dancing inappropriately were sentenced to a short time-out.

“We got some feedback from teachers last year who were offended by some of the dance moves of the newer class, and so we were responding to what students are doing now and how dancing has changed,” explained Mr. Hubbard. “We need to make it a safe space and make sure everyone’s comfortable.”

Despite all the negative feedback with regards to Homecoming, students still considered the dance a good time (the usual pattern).

“Crowded but fun” was how senior Ximena Campos characterized the dance.

“It was fun, can’t complain,” said Quin Nguyen (‘18), this year’s Homecoming King, though he maintained that past Homecomings were better.

Best Legion ever?

On Friday, October 6th, the McClatchy football team defeated the Kennedy Cougars for the first time in since 2013. The Lions didn’t hand their rivals a gentle defeat -- it was a good ol’ fashioned smackdown, 27-6.

Last year, McClatchy lost 38-0. What changed?

There are many possible football-related answers to that question. Better pass defense? Less turnovers? Better ground game? Could be, could be.

Only one thing is for sure: Legion absolutely brought it.

“For my first three years at McClatchy, we had an OK Hell Bowl crowd, and we lost every time,” said ASB President and Legion leader Zachary Neff (‘18). “But this was the fattest crowd yet.”

Three years of OK legion and zero wins, one year of electrifying legion and a thunderous W. The causal relationship is certainly established. But what made this year’s Legion into McClatchy football’s special sauce?

“We decided to bring some speakers,” answered Izzie Pfeffer (‘18), the second of our three Legion leaders.

Michael Ross (‘18), the Legion leader who actually brought the speakers, concurred, linking the speakers to the football team’s high-octane performance.

“I really liked when we started playing ‘Feeling myself’ on the speakers,” he said. “Not only were the people in Legion pumped, but we got the football team to get pretty pumped as well. I'd like to think Legion affects the motivation of the players. ”

The Legion leaders tried other new things as well.

“We brought back the flag,” said Zachary, in reference to the big red “M” flag not seen at McClatchy sporting events in years. “I saw Tweets from Kennedy kids, videos of just the flag saying ‘I haven’t seen this b**** in four years.’

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, I bet you haven’t!’”’

Legion leaders also orchestrated a “Splitting of the Red Sea,” an ambitious cheering section maneuver in which the crowd moves side to side, then splits down the middle to make room for a running hypeman to scale the bleachers. The hype man splits the crowd of red-clad students just as Moses did with the red-named Sea all those years ago in the Middle East.

“The splitting of the Red Sea was magical to see happen,” commented Zachary.

Legion tried a couple other things, namely a baby-powder toss that isn’t exactly new and also wasn’t exactly a success.

“I ate so much of it!” exclaimed Izzie in reference to the baby powder, which truthfully did get everywhere. The objective of a baby powder toss is to create a cool-looking white cloud that hangs above the cheering section as they perform a chant.

In Legion’s case, that chant was the classic “I believe” chant, which, unlike the baby powder itself, was a big hit.

“Definitely my favorite moment was when we all started singing the ‘I believe’ chant together,” said Michael.

Gimmicks aside, the objectively most-impressive feature of Legion was its size.

“I was not expecting such a big crowd,” said Zachary. “I was expecting the average, football-game-sized crowd that we usually get.”

“Truly,” he continued, “it was breathtaking to walk in and see the fattest, loudest group … They weren’t even chanting yet and it was so loud.”

Zachary’s reaction to that sight? “Yes. This was what the ‘Clatch needed.”

The impressiveness of Legion on that Friday night did not go unnoticed around campus.

“I’ve had multiple administration members and teachers come up to me and say, ‘Zachary Neff, that was the best football game I’ve ever seen at McClatchy. You should be proud of yourself,’” said Zachary. “And I’m like, ‘No, I’m proud of the people.’”

External Links

Content from elsewhere in the web.

The Parable of my Dog and the Squirrels

Intolerance opinion article

Jonah Lavering Interview -- a personal favorite

Teen Employment Sac Bee

JCamp Article -- Musical Infrastructure in the Soundcloud Age

Youtube Channel

Bosh Bowl (remix)

It was a Saturday night, and at neutral host Del Campo High, the lights were on for the sporting event of the century. The crowd was raucous, a sea of red swaying to the pulse of its own heartbeat. Ah, the high school football game – epicenter of teenage society, small-town society, American society. Usually a community event. But this time, the hearts and minds of the McClatchy faithful belonged to one individual.

With regards to his legacy, Josh “Bosh” Edwards (‘18) called his bowl a “game-changer.” As the game opened, this certainly appeared to be the case. Never had one player dominated the narrative of a team contest so completely. #Boshbowl was competitive with #Holybowl, the tradition-steeped catholic school showdown, on Twitter. Josh’s name graced Legion’s only sign and was the subject of our earliest chant. A paramedic stood behind the end zone, ready to attend to his victims.

Will Bosh score? The real question is when? Many had their money on his game-opening kickoff return. As Rio Americano’s kicker approached the ball, the energy was palpable.

But from this earliest of moments forward, things went wrong. Like a lame butterfly, the kick fluttered and fell after a measly twenty yards, well short of the waiting Bosh. The ball bounced off a McClatchy blocker and was recovered by the Raiders, who promptly marched down the field and scored a touchdown.

We conceded possession on the opening kickoff, a procedure that exists for the sole purpose of giving us the ball. To draw a parallel, we lost a battle during the enemy’s surrender. In Legion, anguish was everywhere.

Rio scored again and again, perforating our defense like Swiss cheese. Each look at the scoreboard sent daggers through the heart. 21-0. 35-7. 42-7.

After a while, though, McClatchy diehards realized defensive stops were no longer desirable, for every opponent touchdown afforded our beloved #44 a chance to return a kickoff.

But each opportunity disappointed. Not a single kickoff was in his vicinity, and the beast that is Josh Edwards was starved. Rio Americano: cowards.

One punt was returnable, however. Bosh caught it and charged valiantly downfield. Legion found life; cameras were rolling. The run had all the makings of an iconic sports moment. But alas! Rio defenders swarmed our returner, and through sheer numbers, dragged him to the ground as a pack of wolves would a proud stag.

Legion was deflated. A Jacob Forget (‘18) interception resuscitated us, but only for a moment. The night was over, as far as football was concerned.

But all was not lost. While a game is close, you see, spectators, immersed in the passion of competition, cheer with disregard for all else.

At a certain point in a losing effort, however, a sudden dash of sobriety hits. The tempest calms and people look around as if for the first time, feeling foolish for their earnestness. It’s like when the lights come on at the end of a concert. No, Mick Jagger won’t serenade you forever. Cease your fist-pumping.

It's at this moment of awareness that the fans become detached enough to have the perspective necessary for self-deprecation. Liberated from the intensity of a close game, we finally see the humor in our predicament. “We still love you!” shouted one fan, after a particularly bad sequence. 49-10

“We really love you!” screamed another after a sign of life. 49-13.

And it was true. Legion found kinship over the blowout, and everyone had a fun time.

So how will Bosh Bowl be remembered? Crushing defeat on the field, or resounding triumph of the spirit? There was pain to be sure, but the camaraderie we discovered was special. Josh himself was disappointed by the outcome, but noted that “fan support was great. Shout-out to Bosh.”

Shout-out to Bosh indeed.

 The spectacle was, as Charles Dickens says, “the best of times, it was the worst of times ...  it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

But mostly, it was a great day to be a Lion.