We Focus on the Wrong Races - & Its the Media's Fault

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice the obvious in this town. We have a really bad habit of focusing on the wrong races.

Since the media is so good at pointing fingers lately, I think they need to take a little blame here. Its largely the fault of the media that our collective attention is misplaced.

Barrels of ink and tons of air time are spent on a congressional race to elect one person that will be part of 400+ other people who make decisions that may or may not impact our daily lives.

Yet while the media is going after EPISD with both barrels blazin' – as they should be – they haven't always done a good job of covering the school board races. So if you are complaining about crappy leadership, take a bow because its partially your fault.

Myself included. I focus more on the billboard races too. But I at least head to forums and post interviews for my readers. So, I have to tighten up the screws myself.

The congressional race was an important one, that is for sure. However, when you think about it there is much less daily impact on our lives from the federal level than there is from city council, county commissioner, and yes, school board decisions. The school board budget for EPISD, which has only 7 people making decisions as opposed to more than 400, is larger than the budget for the County.

Yep, thats right. The school board president has influence to how more dollars are spent than County Judge Veronica Escobar.

Think about it, can you name all the school board members for EPISD without looking it up? I can't, and I know almost every elected official in the county.

Real media have a job to inform their readers and viewers. Not just after the fact when they screw up, but they should be doing the rigorous vetting of candidates before they get elected. An engaged and vigilant media may have helped prevent some of the corruption they are now having to report on. An engaged and vigilant media may have made it impossible for Dr. Garcia to prey upon the “weakness” of the board members.

There's blame to go around for everyone and I think EPISD is completely screwing the pooch in media relations. Rather than absorbing the criticism and making improvements accordingly they are scrabbling around playing defense and trying to explain things away. I've said it before and I will say it again...

IN POLITICS, IF YOU'RE EXPLAINING YOU'RE LOSING!

Their tone should be accountability and improvement, not dismissal and blame-projection.

And the media should bear a little accountability as well. Most voters get information about candidates from the news. I think its time the media scrutinized those campaigns a little more so that their readers can make better decisions and then there won't be the need to be calling for resignations.