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The first complaint was
written in response to a report
penned by Journal investigative reporter Thom Cole, and his response to my objection.I challenged the accuracy of his report, writing to him;
In your report you wrote; "The Robles and Yenson firms have received a total of nearly $288,000 since 2013 for representing APS and the Board of Education in the lawsuit",In response, he wrote;
The truth is, a significant part of the $288K was spent on Marty Esquivel's defense alone; to imply that the spending was for representing APS and the Board is inaccurate and misleading. Esquivel hired his own lawyer at huge expense to the district. Robles was Esquivel's lawyer exclusively until Pat Allen (Yenson and Allen) fired his clients (the board and all of the individually named defendants) because they wouldn't take his advice to settle their loser of a case. At that point, late in the spending, Robles took over for all defendants including Esquivel.
There are those who believe that Esquivel is one of the Journal's golden boys, and inaccurate and incomplete reporting substantiates those suspicions.
Thanks for getting in touch.So I wrote to Moses,
I am given to understand that it is you to whom I should look for a correction in Thom Cole's report on APS spending on litigation.She is yet to acknowledge my email.
I sent the following to Cole;
Mr. Cole,
In your report you wrote; The Robles and Yenson firms have received a total of nearly $288,000 since 2013 for representing APS and the Board of Education in the lawsuit,
The truth is, a significant part of the $288K was spent on Marty Esquivel's defense alone; to imply that the spending was for representing APS and the Board is inaccurate and misleading. Esquivel hired his own lawyer at huge expense to the district. Robles was Esquivel's lawyer exclusively until Pat Allen (Yenson and Allen) fired his clients (the board and all of the individually named defendants) because they wouldn't take his advice to settle their loser of a case. At that point, late in the spending, Robles took over for all defendants including Esquivel.
There are those who believe that Esquivel is one of the Journal's golden boys, and inaccurate and incomplete reporting substantiates those suspicions.
His response, "thanks for getting in touch" doesn't lead me to believe he intends to correct the report.
I look to you then, to correct Cole and the Journal's error.
Today, I penned a second;
Ms. Moses,
I write to you in search of a good faith response from the Journal over my allegations of past and current wanton violations of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics in its coverage of my struggle with the leadership of the APS over their lack of honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.
The first question I suppose, is, does the Journal admit to and accept an obligation to comply with the SPJ code?
If yes then, I would point to the following past and present violations of the code in Journal coverage of the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
The “Journal” has failed to provide accurate and fair coverage. It has failed to respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness. Journal reporters have failed to verify information before releasing it. (and) Use original sources whenever possible.
They have failed provide context. (and) Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify … They have not acknowledged mistakes and corrected them promptly and prominently. You (the leadership of the Journal) refuse to expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within your own organization. They will not gather, update and correct information throughout the life of (their) news story. They have failed to diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing. They have failed to provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.
The Journal has failed to avoid conflicts of interest, and disclose unavoidable conflicts.
The Journal has steadfastly refused to seek truth and report it. It is yet to be vigilant and courageous about holding those (in the leadership of the APS) with power accountable for their abuse of their power. It has granted favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, in failing to resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.
The Journal
is covering up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, and
refusing to report that student standards of conduct are being lowered in order that the senior most adult role models of student standards of conduct, will not be expected to model accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! or any other standards of conduct higher than the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings. and
Refusing to report that board members and senior administrators are making use of unlimited budgets in order to pay for all the litigation and legal weaselry they need to escape the consequences of their incompetence and or corruption. And that they spend in meetings in secret, without records, and without any real oversight. And
Most importantly; refusing to report that the school board knowingly permitted or negligently allowed Marty Esquivel to squander more than three quarters of a million dollars in order to buy an “admission of no guilt” in the most expensive settlement (of its kind) in the history of the United States.
Realizing that;
The SPJ Code of Ethics is (only) a statement of abiding principles … and that the code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. And that it is not, … legally enforceable.
I await your rebuttal, refutation, denial, defense, or at least your acknowledgement that these allegations have been made.
photo Mark Bralley
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