Letter: Teacher should watch his facts
Regarding the opinion piece by faculty advisor Warren Starr of the M.S.H.S. student newspaper, “Stallion Stampede,” published Feb. 19:
I am pleased to see the students of Madera South High School have taken an active interest in the workings of our nation’s election processes, as is evidenced by their articles on the opinion pages in the latest issue of the Stampede. What is troubling, however, is the opinion piece on page 2 by faculty advisor Warren Starr.
As a mentor to journalism students, Mr. Starr must be careful to teach his students to be fair and unbiased in their reporting of facts. As is listed in the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp), journalists should: “Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.”
Given, the article in question is an opinion piece, but I found myself wondering where Mr. Starr came up with his information.
Take, for example, his reference to the constitution of the state of Texas: “The people of the great state of Texas, in their constitution, made it illegal for a former minister to be governor.”
Having never heard this before, I decided to do a little research. From the online Web site of the Texas Legislature, one can click on a link to the text of the Texas Constitution. In that document, in Article I, Section 4, the following statement can be found: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust,
in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.” (http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/ txconst/ sections/ cn000100-000400.html)
I would be interested in the source of Mr. Starr’s information. Without that reference point, we are left to assume, at best, that he has not checked his facts, and at worst, he is inventing historical information to bolster his own personal political argument. I would like to see proof that these assumptions are misinformed.
There are multiple other items in his article that I could take issue with — his apparent distaste for Christians in politics, his oversimplification of Huckabee’s political stances, his complete misinterpretation of the First Amendment, etc., etc.
However, once again acknowledging that his article was an opinion piece, I will sum up by saying to Mr. Starr, please be sure to check and double check your facts. There are students watching and emulating you.
Kristi Peifer,
Madera
