Morning News fesses up, weakly, on government-sponsored op-ed fiasco

As I noted yesterday, The Dallas Morning News (don’t forget to properly capitalize that first “T”) got burned or else rolled over and played along with running two Department of Education-sponsored op-ed columns in 2004, plus one more in Al Dia.

I don’t know how many people besides me e-mailed the News, but the paper did run a brief editorial apology today.

Here’s the money grafs:

The Department of Education's inspector general released a report late last week saying that the department paid education advocacy groups to produce newspaper opinion pieces, advertisements and other public materials without revealing that the government paid for their production and distribution.
Unfortunately, we published on our op-ed pages two pieces by a writer affiliated with one of those groups. We had no idea that Marcela Garcini had “government financial sponsorship” through her position as director of parent outreach for the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options.

My thoughts:

1. Assuming this is a true account, the News gives no indication it has tightened editorial page oversight to prevent this in the future. Until they offer some assurance on this account, we don’t know this won’t happen in the future.

2. The News does not say that, in a similar situation in the future, it will not run such a column. It merely indicates it will (I assume) have some sort of disclosure blurb graf at the bottom, as it does with reps of lobbying groups, etc. Problem is, though, there’s a big difference. My tax dollars don’t pay the salary of the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. They do, though, help pay for some government grant. They shouldn’t pay for that grant to be used to advance a political point of view with which I disagree.

In fact, the Department of Education IG report suggests the News bit hook, line and sinker:

Marcela Garcini, the Director of Parent Outreach for CREO [Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options – ed.], wrote the op-eds published in August and October 2004. CREO’s September 2004 progress report to the Department states that Garcini “had the opportunity to become a regular guest writer for the Dallas Morning News.”

One also wonders if the News will apologize to the Dallas Independent School District, based on Garcini's second column:

:In the October 2004 op-ed, Garcini accuses the Dallas Independent School District of engaging in a “conscious effort to prevent eligible students from exercising their right to transfer to a better school,” and “blaming parents for their children’s underachievement.” She also states “I am tired of hearing excuses about the lack of funding for schools, particularly under No Child Left Behind… Don’t get caught up in the hype about funding, laws and politics. This is about our children.”

And, how about an apology to metropolitan Dallas public schools in general, based on this:

Garcini also wrote the op-ed published in the Al Día in January 2004 and En USA in April 2004. The op-ed encourages parents to be educated on school choice and supplemental service options under NCLB and to take charge of their children’s future. The op-ed also asserted that local officials were unresponsive to her concerns.

We won’t hold our breaths, though, wondering if Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey, let alone somebody above her head, will actually write a real apology.