Whose image really suffered?
Re “Image isn’t everything,” editorial, Nov. 29
The Times thinks that the hiring of a public relations firm is a travesty. Isn’t The Times holding the Los Angeles Unified School District responsible for the city’s misfortunes rather than bringing attention to the real causes of student behavior and performance on standardized tests? It appears that, like a detached citizen, The Times expects this public agency to tackle the problems no one else can or wants to manage while taking little responsibility and offering no encouragement. Yet you expect it to prosper under those conditions.
If you were active citizens of Los Angeles, you would do more to support the efforts of the school district than supplying propaganda for parents to escape sending their children to schools with children less fortunate. I’m glad the district hired someone to counteract the obstacle that is The Times. We need to admit the inconvenient truths and their costs before we can begin to address them. Together.
Jeff Felz
Los Angeles
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I am not sure if I should laugh or cry. This is my 32nd year as a teacher with the LAUSD, and I have not been paid a regular paycheck since Aug. 3. Forget the image fixers; show me the money.
Mary Weiss
Oak Park
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This editorial proved nothing except that The Times can dish out bash journalism at its worst -- and this one packed a knockout punch. Why, the writer managed to provide (in one paragraph no less!) analogies to pederasty and cross-country illegal trafficking (umm, is it even possible to get more sensationalist than that?) and end with the grandstanding (if cliche) line “It’s a public travesty” -- ouch!
But look where this stinging editorial was directed (surprise): at public education (again). Let’s flip this around and get a lot closer to the true motive of The Times. The true “public travesty” here is journalism at its worst, transparently serving a conservative cause by hammering away at one of the few remaining unionized sectors of the national economy: public education. The Times doesn’t like it, and neither do its wealthy readers. Image isn’t everything, and if The Times thinks it can pull sick journalistic stunts like this one and maintain its integrity, it is sadly mistaken. This punch backfired.
Virginia Olive Hoge
Pasadena
