Posted on 10/21/2003 2:11:10 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Dear CBS News:
By now I'm sure that you have already received hundreds, if not thousands, of letters concerning your reporting on homeschooling. Still, even though no one at CBS will read this, I feel compelled to add my two cents.
I happened to be watching Monday night when your news organization decided to report its agenda through a story on homeschooling. Granted, there are problems in some homeschooling families, just like there are a lot of problems in many public-schooled families.
Yet, focusing on isolated cases of homeschooling looks to portray most homeschoolers in the same light. One could report on the overall state of the homeschooling community which I'm sure would prove to be a more truthful report. Unfortunately, such a report may be too unbiased for Dan Rather.
Admittedly, I only saw the first part of the two-part series the first part being such a colossal waste of time I decided to skip the rest. However, in researching this letter, I've found that CBS News reporter Vince Gonzalez basically took the same spin in both reports, but used different examples each time.
In Part 1: The Dark Side of Homeschooling, Gonzales looked at a case out of North Carolina where a family supposedly homeschooled their children. The Warrens, however, were really abusing their children.
Social services in North Carolina were tipped off to what might be happening in the home.
CBS reported, "'I was stunned at the squalor that I saw,'' says [Tom Lock, the Johnston County district attorney.] 'There was rotting food, animal feces on the floor. I can't imagine anyone living in a residence like this.'
"In the bedroom, 14-year-old Brandon had committed suicide with a rifle after killing his brother Kyle and sister Marnie. Their mother discovered the bodies."
According to CBS, "Nissa Warren told a detective she'd 'rather God had them than Child Protective Services.'"
There was more to the story. Part 2: Homeschooling Nightmares promised to be equally scintillating focusing on the case of Andrea Yates but I was done. The entire ordeal seemed completely ridiculous and I had a million reasons why popping up in my brain.
First, with at least a million homeschooling families, and the ongoing and high-scoring results of homeschooled students, it's obvious that most families are not abusing their kids unless they call real education abuse.
However, CBS wished to focus on some isolated cases. Sure the things that happened were awful, and I don't wish to make light of the evil things that the Warren family and Andrea Yates did, but to bunch them in with the rest of homeschooling America is absurd.
Why not focus on some success stories? I'll tell you why: CBS News isn't interested one bit in what good has come from the homeschooling movement a movement that happens to be overwhelmingly Christian and conservative. News stories like these seek to promote more regulation on homeschooling leading to less freedom, less education and more government.
I happen to believe that CBS has come out politically biased in reporting on homeschooling surprise, surprise.
Really, I shouldn't be surprised. After watching the love-fest between Dan Rather and Saddam Hussein before the war, should anyone be surprised that "CBS Evening News" would promote anything wholesome?
I have observed in my time of following politics a deep-seated liberal bias in CBS even more so than any other news organization out there. Just like there is an entire book devoted to the disgusting journalism of the New York Times, the same could be done with Dan Rather and the entire crew of CBS News.
I considered a boycott of CBS after watching this news story and hearing about Part 2, but I remembered that I rarely watch CBS anyway, unless it's local news. However, what I will say is this: "CBS Evening News" is a disgusting excuse for journalism and is second-place to none except maybe the New York Times in bias.
Sincerely,
Kyle Williams
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