Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy

Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by tptacek on Friday August 13, 2021 @05:05PM (#28174515)

You had me until the "wokeness" stuff. I don't think we have to have the culture war to critique structural problems in cable news; these are attention-driven ad-sales businesses, and they're competing with each other to drive to extremes. As you point out, thankfully, cable news has less control over day-to-day politics than the impression you'd get from... cable news. On the ground, it's mostly Kiwanis Republicans and PTA Democrats.

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by rayiner on Saturday August 14, 2021 @03:50AM (#28178895)

Wokeness is relevant because of the aversion to doing things that are seen as compromising with systemic racism . Wokeness is uniquely willing to compromise traditional professional ethics in service of perceived higher morality. In journalism it manifests as abandoning the appearance of impartiality. E.g. the “do we call Trump racist” debate at the NYT.

As an aside, in the legal profession, it’s probably the most monumental shift in legal ethics in centuries. E.g. proposed rule 8.5 which thankfully was voted down: https://reason.com/volokh/2020/01/06/a-new-aba-model-rule-8-.... I’ve heard internal gossip from the ACLU and similar organizations where younger lawyers are rebelling against representing longstanding clients for social justice reasons. It’s really quite remarkable.

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by nate_meurer on Saturday August 14, 2021 @07:38PM (#28184883)

It's a lot more than gossip. Ira Glasser (founder of the ACLU for those who are not rayiner) says the organization is at risk of losing its way for exactly this reason:

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/14/the-aclu-would-not-...

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by rayiner on Sunday August 15, 2021 @04:57AM (#28187252)

It goes deeper. I’m talking about younger staff at public interest law firms rebelling against representing organizational clients squarely within the ambit of their public interest mission, because of the client’s positions on unrelated issues. Much to the consternation of stoutly liberal attorneys of the previous generation.

It’s bad. Professionals inserting their personal political views into their jobs is destroying public faith in other professions. We can’t risk the legal profession coming to be seen as yet another way for the liberal elite to tilt the very systems of society in favor of their political ideology.

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by tptacek on Sunday August 15, 2021 @11:42PM (#28194729)

Is your suggestion here that the legal profession has historically done a good job of keeping personal political views out of the practice of law?

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by nate_meurer on Monday August 16, 2021 @05:09PM (#28203015)

Regarding the ACLU specifically, that's been my impression in the past. For example, their defense of Westoboro Baptist Church during the Bush era.

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by tptacek on Saturday August 14, 2021 @08:07PM (#28185060)

Ira Glasser wasn't even alive when the ACLU was founded.

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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by nate_meurer on Saturday August 14, 2021 @08:31PM (#28185192)

Shit. My reading comprehension sometimes...

Well, that guy did say that, whoever he is.

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