A little misinformation can stir a lynch mob

[Career Prole]

When I heard that a teacher was suing the principal at Stevens Creek Elementary School for not allowing him to use the Declaration of Independence in class because it contained references to God, I laughed. This is so silly, I thought...

<snip>

When I rolled into work the next Monday, however, the story was taking on a whole new dimension, one that is hardly funny and has given me a lot of pause about what a small bit of uninvestigated information and certain buzz words in today's world can do.

<snip>

On Wednesday as the emails kept rolling in here, I finally was able to talk to a teacher at the school who described what was happening there.

She said the school was being pounded by faxes, emails and telephone calls of the most obscene language she'd ever heard. The school staff was shocked and felt betrayed and embarrassed. She said that she was a Christian—Episcopalian—and had never been barred from using the Declaration of Independence in class. She said, in fact, that the entire document is printed in the textbook.

<snip>

And therein lies the problem. We all jump up and scream before we even think. This headline must have been sent out when the lawsuit was being filed because, before the story hit Bay Area news, it was the subject of such national talk show hosts as Rush Limbaugh.

But what's most disheartening to me is the media has helped further this hate-filled reaction because it has failed to looked into the other side of the story. Certainly Williams has a right to challenge district policy, and more power to him. But the efforts of the Alliance Defense Fund to rile up people into what could be called a "virtual" lynch mob suggests that there's a bigger agenda. As it stands now, the principal, the school, the district, even California have been tried and convicted with no one hearing the other side of the story.

Believe me; I'm no longer laughing.

Here is a sampling of the emails we've received. They are tame compared to the threatening messages Stevens Creek School and the district have received.
http://www.cupertinocourier.com/cu-op-sandy.shtml

[pretzel4gore]

1. bushinc blackmailed your entire country....

he did it publicly, in broad daylight, with no effort to hide the act (sending american combat ready troops to iraq borders before the UN gave war mandate, forcing congress to go along with fait accompli) and the fact is no one seems to have noticed. websters defines blackmail as 'extort actions {accede to illegal invasion of iraq} by threat {the deployment of troops} of public exposure (failure to use troops would make america into big joke, and the troops would uselessly broil in hot arabian sun}
Even the democrats never said a word about the blackmailing of america by mandate-less bush regime...and this was achieeved by mediawhores simply pretending the busheviks were acting principled iow unseating criminal regime of saddam hussein (who was elected by at least the same legitimacy as bush etc)
no wonder we're all in trouble....basic reality can be successfully ignored and put away out of mindsight

[Wordie]

2. There's some great information re: Hannity's take on this on MediaMatters

<snip>
After suing teacher suggested otherwise, Hannity continued to falsely claim school banned Declaration of Independence<unsnip>

http://mediamatters.org/items/200412090005

[Career Prole]

3. Thanks. Lots of good info in that article and

the other one here...
http://mediamatters.org/items/leftsideitem/200412090002

[Wordie]

5. I surely hope that there will be lots of attention given to the trial and

the truth will come out. I'm getting increasingly sickened by this kind of thing.

[Career Prole]

8. -- "...and the truth will come out" -- There you have it, Wordie.

When the truth comes out it will be up to us to see that the truth makes as much noise as the initial false headline made, and that will be difficult because the country will have "moved on".

This sort of thing is how the media have been hurting the country the worst, IMO. It happens with alarming consistency.

During the invasion of Iraq, "breaking news alerts" would show footage of leaky barrels in an Iraqi warehouse and talking heads would breathlessly report on it as representing the WMD "smoking gun".
Days later, when testing showed the barrels contained nothing more malignant than paint thinner or oven cleaner they wouldn't report it because the country's attention had "moved on" to the next leaky barrel of "suspected chemical weapon precursor".
Thus did the country go on thinking WMD's had been found, even after the final inspector's report was in.

The Swiftboat Liars dropped their bomb on Kerry and the media all gleefully ran with the story, actually running the liars' own phony commercial over and over as part of their reports.
As the liars were picked off by the truth and exposed for what they were one by one, no one made nearly such a big deal of it.
Thus did the country go on thinking the false charges were true.

Now when it's shown that this teacher was handing out proselytizing pamphlets to "teach" something that wasn't in the lesson plan it will be relegated to the Cupertino Courier alone...an itty-bitty weekly.
Thus will the country go on thinking the "Declaration of Independence was banned".

[George_S]

4. If someone makes a Hollywood movie out of it...

... they will have to protest themselves:

Sarah Beetem, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary, said by Dec. 1 the school had received some "3,000 nasty, obscene faxes, telephone messages and emails." She said they included personal attacks, hate mail and obscene messages and that callers have also left angry messages on individual teachers' voice mail.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's some information on the group, Alliance Defense Fund

which is handling the lawsuit. At this point you have to start wondering if this teacher actually was the one who designed his actions in his class, or if he has actually been following a plan created by a fundie thinkgroup.

The Alliance Defense Fund was founded in 1994 by more than 30 Christian ministries, as a response to the American Civil Liberties Union, to defend "family values." ADF's major focus is strategizing and coordinating with hundreds of lawyers and right-wing groups to defend what they define as "Christian legal issues." Examples include anti-gay cases like Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network, and a national strategy to "protect marriage," following Vermont's decision to allow same-sex civil unions. People for the American Way notes that ADF's founding groups "are influential members of the Right, they are pro-life and anti-gay and their ultimate goal is to see the law and government of the US enshrined with conservative Christian principles." In 2001, ADF's budget was $15,411,093.
(snip/...)

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Alliance_Defense_Fund

[George_S]

7. $15,411,093?

Where are they getting that?

[Career Prole]

9. Phrase the question better. Where did the money come from, or where

did the info come from?

From the FAQ's on the ADF site we find
What is your annual budget?
ADF’s annual budget is approximately $16 million. Funds were allocated to programs in the following percentages in 2001: 8% General & Administrative; 9% Development; 33% Other Program Services; 42% ADF-Maintained Escrow for Grants and Projects Awarded; and 8% Grants and Projects Funded.
ADF strives to use wisdom as we steward the money God has graciously provided. We realize that each gift is a sacrifice from our ministry friends, and therefore we believe we must honor that sacrifice. ADF is proud to be a member in good standing with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, and we are audited each year by the ECFA.
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/faqs/financial.php

From the Better Business Bureau we find
Total income $16,710,601
Program expenses $11,545,435
Fund raising expenses 2,091,129
Administrative expenses 2,003,654

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total expenses ($15,640,218)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Income in Excess of Expenses 1,070,383
Beginning net assets 18,024,777

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ending net assets 19,095,160
Total liabilities 435,470
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Total assets $19,530,630
----------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.give.org/reports/care2_dyn.asp?749

[IHeart1993]

10. Here's a great article from Buzzflash

http://www.eriposte.com/philosophy/fundamentalism/stevenscreek.htm

[Career Prole]

11. That's great! Thanks very much!

And welcome to DU! :hi:

eRiposte is the same site which did such great work debunking the swiftboat liars, too. :)

[Judi Lynn]

12. Yes, thanks for this eRiposte article. It's excellent.

Professional journalism again fails us. As far as I know, no "journalists" have seriously looked into the outrageous claim that a school banned the Declaration of Independence because it contains the word 'God', even though it is a major topic of discussion across the country, after Reuters allowed itself to be used to publicize and bring mainstream credibility to the lie.

Looks like the time is coming when real Christian people of character are going to have to start recognizing that there is actually something very "unChristian" operating in their names.