FIRST TAKE Push-Back on CBS News Necessary WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY |
RYAN@STNONLINE.COM H
ow quickly the pendulum swings from media non-bias to “fake news,” as seen in the differenc- es between the Education Week report for PBS News Hour on school bus lap-shoulder belts and
a hit-job by CBS News on school bus driver oversight. Counterfeit is one definition of fake. Tis requires intent. Call me naïve, but being a journalist for more than two decades I find it hard to reconcile in my mind that my peers willfully seek to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. Still, reporters are human and, thus, flawed. Now, let’s consider the word “news,” or previously
unknown information that is trustingly communicated by a journalist. While we’re at it, a “journalist” is one who engages in the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media, such as the public press. “Journalism” is the profession of these individuals, aca- demic in nature with strict rules for reporting. An increasingly relevant synonym for “journalist” is “blogger.” A blogger need not be a journalist, or a trained one, anyway. Rather, it can be anyone with access to readers and an opinion to share. Everyone has an agenda. Some are very good while others are very bad. Agendas are often based solely on perspective rather than on fact. Marry journalism with an agenda—especially one desiring ratings or website clickthroughs—will easily make the leap to “fake news.” Journalists are supposed to seek the truth, even if they
don’t always find it, and ask tough questions when no one else will or thinks to. Tey are supposed to challenge the status quo. Often, they are supposed to make people uncomfortable in seeking accountability and protecting the public from being abused. We all know what happens, however, when they spread falsehoods, knowingly or not. Now, let’s dive into the CBS News report by Kris Van
Cleave and producer Megan Towey. Te CBS Evening News aired an initial segment on June 27 claiming an oversight of school bus drivers nationwide is lacking to the point that convicted child sex predators, drunk drivers and drug users are speeding across the U.S. like the Mad Hatter. CBS Tis Morning reiterated the claim the next day with a slightly longer report. All school bus drivers are not perfect citizens, of course, as one can say about any profession. We at STN read far too many stories about a school bus driver arrested for this or that, and some of the incidents are quite appalling. In January, we wrote of the increasing
10School Transportation News • AUGUST 2017
challenges to school districts in properly vetting new applicants amid the current driver shortage, especially the challenge of predicting future driver behavior. I get what Van Cleave and Towey set out to do. Someone
pointed out recent headlines of school bus driver arrests. Unfortunately, there are many parents who have experi- enced first-hand their child being victimized by a school bus driver. So, Van Cleave and Towey, no doubt upset at the revelation, saw it as their responsibility to shine light on the issue. Plus, what better story to attract viewers, especially parents? Tis is no doubt an extremely important topic that needs to be discussed. But they so egregiously and sensa- tionally erred in doing so that they broke many longstand- ing tenets of journalism in making their case. Towey spoke to NASDPTS on “background” to obtain
the school bus perspective without attributing direct quotes. But the final report included only a statement that the industry was also facing a driver shortage. Van Cleave then closed the segment by saying the “school bus industry” refused comment. No mention was made of the school bus safety record or the fact that FMCSA is charged with oversight of all commercial drivers but makes certain exceptions for school bus drivers (though criminal background checks, drug and alcohol screening and medical exams are not among them). Van Cleave and Towey also cited 22,000 school bus crashes occur a year but didn’t cite where they got that statistic from or the fact that many of these are caused by other motorists. So many holes can be poked in the story, but the biggest
of them all is an average of one school bus driver a week arrested amounts to 52 a year, which equates to only 0.01 percent of a low-ball estimate of 500,000 school bus drivers nationwide. While we all would hope zero school bus driv- ers a year are arrested, just as we’d wish there are zero school bus fatalities, this figure is 170 times less than the percentage of 100,000 police officers nationwide arrested for similar offenses, per the National Criminal Justice Reference. All student transporters should be outraged at this
“news,” whether you want to call it fake or not, and seek out local media to set the record straight, especially at school startup. Let us all hold CBS accountable.
Ryan Gray, Editor-in-Chief
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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