3 kudos, 1 cricket for the Star

by David Safier

No, I'm not anti-Star. Really. I'm a loyal subscriber and reader. I live in hope every morning when I open the paper. It's just that, when I see bad headlines, bad stories and bad columns, I point it out. And when I see good stuff, that deserves pointing out as well. So here are three "good stuffs" in the Sunday Star.

1. Josh Brodesky — yes, the same guy I go after regularly — wrote a heart-warming, glowingly positive front page column about TUSD's C.E. Rose Elementary School. The school, which has a low income student body — 92% on free or reduced lunch — has, according to Brodesky, turned itself from a chaotic, low performing school to a place where students are focused and achieving. I don't know the school, so I can't say if the story is entirely accurate, but I certainly hope it is. And seeing a public school in the TUSD district praised for its accomplishments on the front page of the Star . . . you can't beat that feeling.
2. The Star is a little late to the Russell Pearce Recall Election story, but then again, we're not in Maricopa County (Then again, Senate President Russell Pearce, SB1070 author, belongs to the state, not just to Maricopa). However, today it ran an excellent editorial about sham candidate Olivia Cortes and the possibility probability certainty her only purpose is to take votes away from Jerry Lewis. This story has been getting lots of coverage in Maricopa — enough, I hope, that it inspires more people to vote, and vote for Lewis — but this is the first real coverage in the Star. It's a goodie.
3. Rhonda Bodfield wrote one of those articles showing what a solid reporter she is, about the growing movement toward governments substituting private for public services. It's a trend I dislike, but it's a worthy subject for journalistic exploration, and Bodfield explores it with what feels to me like the proper journalistic thoroughness and objectivity. Someone else, not Bodfield, decided to put a pull-out quote from the Goldwater Institute's Byron Scholmach on the front page — a quote which actually ends the article. I suppose whoever did it wanted to make sure the conservative talking point was brought to the reader's attention. But that's not the fault of the article or its author.

That's a good one day track record for the paper. Combine it with yesterday's editorial slam of Bruce Ash for cheapening the civil rights movement by his outlandish comparison of Tucson's voting system to the Jim Crow south, and it's a pretty good weekend for the city's paper of record.

I would still like to see a mention of Jennifer Rawson's questionable financial and accounting practices in her City Council run, but that "sound of crickets" gripe is my only significant complaint.