Bad parenting and Joe Biden’s lies have been subjects in my mailbag recently, and examining both topics through a journalist’s prism is my aim today.
I start with bad parenting. Today marks the halfway point of our unprecedented series: Delinquent: Our System, Our Kids. The illuminating project by reporters Kaitlin Durbin and John Tucker takes readers through all aspects of the juvenile justice system in Cuyahoga County through the eyes and experiences of the children who have been through that system.
When the series ends in mid-June, I think we will have some clear take-aways. One is that we should abolish mandatory bindovers of children to adult court for specific offenses because the practice removes any human judgment. No one studies what is best for the child or the community at large, and the series shows how that poorly serves us. Another takeaway likely will be that we should get far more of these kids into effective therapy at an early age. These kids need exposure to responsible adults.
None of this is simple, though. Real solutions rarely are. Yet, after I announced this series but before we had published the first word, people were sending me emails to say no series is needed. The issue is elementary, they say: bad parenting. If only these kids had decent parents, we’d have no problem. These readers appear to want to wash their hands of the whole thing. It’s bad parenting. Nothing to see here.
Of course, that is a ridiculously simplistic view. And how is it a solution? We’ve always had bad parenting among us. Some of it is irresponsible. Some of it involves mental health issues, including addiction. Whatever the reason, society can’t snap its fingers and legislate good parenting.
It does take a village to help raise children. In cases where parents are not up to the task, a community steps in to fill gaps. We do that in many ways, from hot school lunches to social services. America created juvenile courts more than a century ago to help reform children whose parents were unable to control them. The thinking is that childhood is where you make mistakes and learn, and when children cross the lines beyond which parenting is the answer, we deal with transgressions in juvenile courts.
Our juvenile justice system is mostly effective, as our series notes. But for those children and teens who repeatedly go through the system without reforming, we can do better. Our series offers plenty of insight into how.
So, please, stop with the emails about the bad parenting. You’re just stating part of the problem. How about reading the entire series and being part of the solution?
Next up, Joe Biden’s lies. I’ve written on multiple occasions about the staggering dishonesty of Donald Trump, which has been documented repeatedly over the past decade. I mentioned his many lies again last week, in a column about how we decide in our newsroom when to describe someone as a liar.
As happens when I write about Trump, I soon received a couple of dozen emails asking why I don’t also write about the lies of Joe Biden. The writers argue the two men are equal in the way they lie. Some argue Biden lies more.
Comparing the lies of Joe Biden to the lies of Donald Trump is like comparing the puddle in front of your house after a rainstorm to the Pacific Ocean. They’re not remotely close in scale. And if you believe otherwise, you are getting your news from dishonest sources like Fox News.
Yes, shame on Fox News for repeatedly misleading its viewers in search of the almighty dollar. The record is clear that Fox News views its programming not as news but entertainment pretending to be news, and it sucks in viewers with falsehoods that engender rage. I wish another network would get some charismatic anchor to do a nightly 5-minute segment on all the ways Fox News mislead viewers in the previous news cycle, so that at least someone is pushing back.
But this is also on you, if you believe the falsehoods of Fox News, the New York Post and the other media who make lots of cash by pretending to be news outlets and offering false narratives.
Our form of government, our democracy, works only if citizens are informed. You owe it to your fellow citizens to be an informed voter, to not accept prevarication from your news sources. If you believe the ludicrous notion Joe Biden lies in anything close to the scale of Donald Trump, you are failing in your duty to seek the truth.
Don’t just take my word for it. Test yourself. Take a few weeks and divorce yourself from Fox News. Use a 12-step program if need be. During that time, watch or read other media outlets for your news. See how they report the same stories that Fox News so ridiculously skews. If you’re so sure you’ve got it right, you should have the confidence to try something else for a few weeks and see what you think.
I asked about this with the 2,400-plus subscribers to text messages I send out each morning about stories our newsroom has in the works or questions we’re asking. I specifically asked about their sources for national and international news. I received more than 500 responses, and they are illuminating.
Many have gotten away from American media outlets. They use the BBC or the Canadian Broadcast Network. They read the Globe and Mail from Canada, or the Guardian, or the Economist. A lot have turned to Apple News, which aggregates multiple sources, including cleveland.com.
Plenty use the Washington Post, the New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, CNN and, sadly, Fox News, but I’m surprised by how many have peeled away for sources they consider more neutral, sources based in other nations. Clearly, the subscribers to my texts have a higher interest in news than the general population, so I should not be surprised they search for credible reporting.
For my purposes here, however, their responses offer you alternatives. If you watch Fox News, try turning it off today, and watch the BBC or the CBC. Or read the Guardian or the Globe and Mail. Just try it for a few weeks. See if you come away with a better understanding of what is happening on the national and international stage. See if your news-inspired rage subsides.
We all owe it to each other to be informed. We should not be working with separate sets of false facts. The truth is out there, if only we seek it.
I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com
Thanks for reading
