IEA’s Communications Director, Charlie McBarron responds.

I received this email today from the IEA’s Communications Director, Charlie McBarron. He responds to my earlier post. I criticized the IEA for linking as a news item on our website a report attacking the Michigan Education Association. The faux news report originated with the anti-union Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The IEA linked to it through a local anti-union blogger.

Hi Fred:

I was surprised to learn of today’s posting regarding IN THE NEWS, when my friend and colleague from the Michigan Education Association brought it to my attention this evening.

In your blog, you make much of the inclusion of a particular link to an item in the daily news summary. The link is to a negative story that originated from a biased source. Generally speaking, we do not censor negative stories in the news summary because we believe it’s worthwhile for the subscribers to see what our opponents are saying.

IN THE NEWS comes out every working day. We collect a thousand or so links every month and deliver them to our subscribers. It’s a time-consuming job.

Perhaps if we took the time to research every item we wouldn’t have included this one. Perhaps. This item did include a quote from my MEA colleague, so it seemed appropriate for inclusion.

Our department produces a number of products but nothing, over the years, has received more positive responses from IEA members than IN THE NEWS. I know it is a tool you use regularly to generate ideas for your blog. We’re happy to assist.

Regarding Friday’s edition of IN THE NEWS, it is no longer on the Website, so I guess this discussion is moot.

What’s most troubling to me about what you decided to put on your blog is the suggestion that I ignored an email from you on this matter. I did not receive an email and I have checked my spam/junk files and not found any evidence of an email from you.

In fact, I always respond to member emails and have, without fail over the years, always responded to your emails.

You seem to have assumed I ignored your message. You know what they say in journalism about “never assume”? It applies here.

Please feel free to share this email with your readers. I would appreciate it if you used the entire message so nothing is misunderstood.

Thanks,

Charlie

I will leave it to my readers, members of the IEA and the MEA as to whether our website reprinting an attack on the MEA was appropriate or not. I have already made my views clear.

As to whether or not I emailed Charlie before I posted the criticism on this blog, I suppose he can check my email sent box. He would need to get in line, however. There are others ahead of him.