Three thumbs up for Star, Citizen Editorials

by David Safier

In the past few days, the Star has written two strong, important editorials, one criticizing Horne’s wrongheaded ELL policies and another condemning immigrant bashing. Meanwhile, the Citizen went after Jan Brewer for the latest salvo in her unending crusade against election integrity.

This kind of advocacy by our local papers deserves notice. I’m more likely to blast the papers for their poor or slanted coverage of the issues, with the Star getting the lion’s share of criticism. But today, it’s a pleasure to give both of them credit for taking strong stands on important issues.

• Tuesday’s Star editorial praised the Tucson School District along with Sunnyside and Sahuarita for standing up to Horne on his ridiculous edict that ELL students should spend 4 hours a day in intensive English instruction. Horne’s plan may be to crank out students who are fluent in English but have little education beyond that. If that’s not his plan, it sounds like those are the results he should expect. If over half of ELL students’ days are spent in a curriculum-free environment, how can they take the courses they need to progress to the next grade, pass Horne’s beloved AIMS test and graduate? Three local districts are challenging Horne, and the Star supports them.
• In a surprisingly bold Sunday editorial, the Star praised the Washington, D.C. nonprofit, The Hispanic Institute, for launching a boycott of CNN because of Lou Dobbs’ hate-filled immigrant bashing. The editorial includes radio talk show host Jon Justice as well as Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly in its rogues’ gallery. It also applauds Media Matters for putting together a pamphlet, Fear & Loathing in Prime Time: Immigration Myths and Cable News, debunking the myths and misstatements repeated by the hatemongers ad infinitum. (You can read it in Spanish here.)

  The Star even issues a call to action:

  We encourage other groups — whether they represent minorities or not — to let CNN and other news outlets know that unwarranted attacks that demonize a particular group of people will not be tolerated.

  Paging the Pima County Democratic Party. The Star is calling you. Are you listening?
  

• Speaking of the Pima Dems, their successful lawsuit to allow all political parties to have access to the county’s election databases, and the County’s unanimous decision not to challenge Judge Miller’s verdict, have thrown Jan Brewer into a defensive frenzy. In a press release and an 11 page letter, she tore into the County and the Dems. The Citizen got right back in her face in its editorial, Brewer wrong to blast county over election security fixes. The Citizen complimented the Dems for their persistence and the County for recognizing the need for election transparency and election security.

You go Star! You go Citizen! Keep up the good work! (he said, hopefully.)