What a difference an hour makes
(edited and updated 4/27)

I was going to title this post "Even Local Fox News Sucks," but then I watched the second hour of the local broadcast (yes, a full hour of local news at nine and a half hour at ten!) of the local Fox afilliate's news and a swear to Jeebus it was like watching a different channel.

This afternoon, my teachers' union had a rally to encourage the school board and superintendent to actually, you know, bargain on our contract, which expired last June. (And it's working: Since news of our planned rally broke, the district offered a new version of its BOHICA health-care package and the superintendent himself is back at the bargaining table for the first time in fourteen months.)

Anyway, I pulled media duty, and was assigned to the local Fox guy. They actually mic'ed me and followed me around for a while after the interview. The interview went off without a hitch: I was on message and, I think, friendly and accessible. Our union president was interviewed just before me and, I have to tell you, he has more message discipline than even I do. He hit all the right points: An unsettled contract does nothing to encourage new teachers to enlist or keep the good ones we have; a focus on benefits leaves issues around what happens in the classroom off the table.

And then rally, rally, yay, yay, petition, rally. Probably 1500 people out. Lots of hot dogs. Bad '80s music from the DJ. Tents. All good. (Local print media coverage here.)

So I rush home to set the TiVo to tape the 9 and 10 editions of the local Fox news, cause there's nothing funner than seeing yourself on TV. And after the 9:00 story ran, I was incensed.

It began with Smiley Guy and Hair Woman standing around the studio (the 9:00 news is the, er, casual news). They flashed some stats about the budget the superintendent presented (here's the budget story), including the inflammatory proposed increase in the property tax levy. Then Smiley Guy mentions that we're negotiating our contract--not that it's long-expired--and that asking us to pay for our health care has got us mad. "And, can you believe this?" Smiley Guy asks. "Teachers pay nothing right now for their health insurance!"

And then they go to the video, with nothing of me, and their focus is entirely the angry demonstration. The reporter repeatedly referred to the several hundred protesters, rather than the thousand plus there for the rally. The few moments of our chanting "We want the board!" out of the half and hour we waited in the auditorium before the school board meeting was what made the air, of course, as well as the one moment our union president said that this rally was the chance for teachers to say they were "silent no more." Throw in the outgoing school board president's wondering whether paying teachers is a good use of our money (I'm paraphrasing), and you got yourself a horribly negative hit piece.

Folkbum not pleased.

But I watch the 10:00 piece anyway, prepared to be just as mad, and it was a completely different report, from the content to the tone. First of all, I got plenty of face time, getting in all the right points about the teachers who are leaving and a sense of optimism that maybe now we can settle the contract. The reporter still referred to what we were doing as a demonstration, but this was a much more balanced report, noting some actual facts about the negotiations and a much better quote, too, from our union president. In all, this report spent much more time on the effects of this protracted bargaining process on teachers and the classroom. The reporter even ended the spot with a dig at the school board, saying that at the moment, the board has no intention of getting involved in the negotiations.

Folkbum pleased.

Sarah wondered whether they had demographics telling them that their 9:00 and 10:00 audiences were completely different. I wonder if they didn't get some calls. Or maybe they just are fair and balanced, but not all at once.

(Update, 4/27: One teacher who was at the rally told me today that a board member told her that the bean-counting technocrats running the district's negotiations specifically requested that the elected board stay out of the negotiations and have been purposefully keeping the board in the dark about the proceedings.

Plus, last night's school board meeting was the one where they re-shuffle committee assignments and elect new officers. There is a long history of partisanship and division on the board, and this time the board elected a union ally as president. Plus another powerful new ally joined the personnel and finance committee, averring that "the money is there" and that he would "go over that budget line by line." More news on the board's doings here.)