Horrible reporting by AJC on Back to School (Atlanta: middle school, closing)

[cqholt]

Gallery | Atlanta Photos | Back to School | ajc.com
The AJC did some very bias reporting for the first day of school in Atlanta and Gwinnett County.
It showed pictures of 2 schools, 1 from each district.
Coan Middle School from Atlanta, which was kept open in the APS school closing and has had a lot of community involvement with helping move and setup the school to its temporary location at the old East Lake Elementary School campus. The AJC showed mostly photos of kids walking through metal detectors and bags getting searched, while the Gwinnett County photos are of kids interacting.
This type of biased news coverage is why many people have the thought that Atlanta schools are havens for crime. The Edgewood, Kirkwood, and East Lake communities have worked hard to improve the image of Coan Middle School. Now Coan has a top-notch principal that lead Mary Lin Elementary School's resurrection. This type of half-a** news coverage is the reason why many people are leaving newspapers and finding news soruces online. Shame on AJC for being so biased.

[futureATLien]

so teachers are allowed to go through students belongings without any suspicion? what is the world coming to? I havent been out of school that long(h/s grad 2004). I can't believe it

[gt6974a]

I wouldn't call it 'reporting'. It's just an photo album. Besides does Gwinnett even have metal detectors? Looks to me like it would have had to been two different photographers anyway, with two different points of access to kids. Maybe City of Atlanta wouldn't let them into certain areas.

Though, I do think the AJC has very biased opinions in several different areas.

[FlyingFox]

I wouldn't send my kid to a school where kids had to pass through metal detectors. Is it a school or a prison?

[BobKovacs]

I guess, as noted above, Gwinnett schools don't have any metal detectors to showcase. Maybe it's not "biased reporting", but rather a sad statement on APS schools when they need to have metal detectors. Isn't Coan one of the "up and coming" schools you often tout?

[ATLTJL]

If a journalist goes to a school, he photographs what he sees. Obviously, the most compelling photographs are the ones that get featured.

It would be biased reporting if they DIDN'T show the metal detectors. That's relevant.

I know in your world, you'd like to see children walking to schools with their families as they play hopscotch together and then see the Gwinnett kids sitting in gridlock for 3 hours on their way in some gas guzzling SUV....but maybe the realities are different.

Journalists photograph what they see. Anything unique and different gets featured. If kids are being wanded and having their bags searched, the biggest bias would be ignoring that and not reporting it. Maybe Coan needs to check itself. Maybe your fantasy of what the area is like isn't the reality of what it is like.

[cittic10]

As someone who is a staunch supporter of fairness and equality and has a finely tuned bias meter, I will say that the photos of the Atlanta schools portray them less favorably than the Rockdale and Gwinnetia schools.

I'm not making excuses for the AJC, but I will point out that the photos were taken by different people. That doesn't mean that each photographer took photos of exactly the same thing but certain photos were chosen during editing, but I'm more inclined to believe that a couple of the photographers got inside past the schools past the checkpoints and a couple of them didn't. Maybe the APS didn't allow the photograhers inside and the others did?

The photographer's name and email is right there underneath each photo so it should be pretty easy to get to the bottom of this and ask the photographers why they took pics of what they took pics of and why they didn't take pics of what they didn't take pics of. Maybe Vino Wong will say "I took pics of the students interacting but they were not included on the web." Or maybe Bob Andres will say "Metal Detectors? Bookbag searches? Why would anyone take a picture of that? Vino should pay more attention to the master."

You could be on to something but I'm not convinced.
Does AJC have a history of biased coverage when it comes to schools or something?

[ATLTJL]

You know, I have a friend who spent time in the Green Zone in Baghdad during the U.S. occupation there.

A lot of my friends talked about how the mainstream media never covered troops opening schools, fixing power plants, etc. and why all the news you saw was about explosions and attacks.

I asked my friend why this was. He said there were times when they planned to go cover things like that, but when they would go out to cover it, they would get a call about an explosion so they would be diverted to cover that. Also other issues, like often the schools would be in far out areas it wasn't safe for journalists to venture. But the bottom line is, you can't ignore the big newsworthy event for a less newsworthy event even if you want to.

So maybe the photographer did go to Coan with the intention of just taking pictures of students. But when he/she saw kids getting searched and passing through metal detectors, that's more important journalistically than kids sitting in class. It would be biased if the other schools had those things and they were conveniently left out, but the fact is, they don't.

When you have middle school kids having to go through metal detectors....that's a problem. The public should know.

[cqholt]

It was the editors that decided which photos get published. Those of you need to stop trying to make this about urban vs suburban because that is not what I am trying to portray here. This has nothing to do with past post I've made, I am showing that this is not real journalism and this is why more people are turning to the internet for their news. At least those parents at Coan know their kids are safe from people bring guns!

[sofjwp]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

I guess, as noted above, Gwinnett schools don't have any metal detectors to showcase. Maybe it's not "biased reporting", but rather a sad statement on APS schools when they need to have metal detectors. Isn't Coan one of the "up and coming" schools you often tout?

This is just Atlanta schools being ahead of the curve. A big part of the reason folks spend big money to live in the city is for these types of school systems. The picture shows those schools are spending education dollars where it matters; on pupil safety. The other systems are obviously not spending in that same area.