Separation of Fact and Fiction
Unconstitutional: If a front-page story on April 22 is any indication, Lewiston Sun Journal staff writer Rebekah Metzler and her editors need remedial help in math and history.
Not to mention journalism.
In an above-the-fold article headlined “Gay marriage on center stage,” Metzler cites what appear to be erroneous results from a new poll on Mainers’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Unlike reports in the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald, the Sun Journal’s figures don’t come close to totaling 100 percent, nor is there any explanation of how almost 4 percent of poll respondents seem to have vanished. Metzler also neglects to inform readers of the survey’s margin of error or its reliability, even though both pieces of information are considered mandatory in most news reports involving statistics.
But the sloppiness doesn’t end there.
In the next paragraph after the off-the-mark poll results, Metzler informs her readers that “the U.S. Constitution calls specifically for the separation of church and state.”
It doesn’t.
While Thomas Jefferson made note in an 1802 letter of what he believed was a “wall of separation” between government and religion, as a result of the First Amendment’s prohibition of both a state church and government limits on worship, the Constitution doesn’t contain the phrase Metzler cited, specifically or otherwise. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that such a division exists, and that’s the actual source of the legal concept.
As of April 23, neither of these mistakes had been corrected.
Unfiled: Joel Elliott was fired in January from his job as a staff writer at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville for reasons that have generated some controversy.
Elliott told several people he intended to file a grievance through his union, the Portland Newspaper Guild, contesting his dismissal. But according to e-mails supplied by an informed source, no such grievance has been filed.
Elliott is said to be out of the country, but has been communicating with the Guild, repeatedly asking if the procedure was underway. In an April 22 e-mail, union official Kathy Munroe responded, “no, the company agreed to waive timelines....with the understanding that should the sale not go through we would proceed.”
Pennsylvania newspaper publisher Richard Connor is aiming to complete his purchase of the Sentinel and the other Blethen Maine Newspapers by the end of the month or during the first week in May. If that happens, it appears both labor and management are hoping Elliott – and the ethical questions his dismissal raised – will just go away.
And speaking of labor problems: From a story by staff writer David Hart in the April 22 issue of the Original Irregular, a weekly newspaper published in Kingfield:
“In light of an almost unionized concern from the national media reporting dismal economic conditions and a lot of gloom and doom, this western mountain community’s ‘ebb’ compared to its ‘flow’ appears to be fairly balanced according to those who responded.”
Maybe only the bosses responded.
Al Diamon can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
The views expressed on this Web site are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Down East Enterprise or its employees.
Separation Phrase Being Misused
There are a couple ways to know more about what Jefferson meant by his "separation" phrase.
1) His actions. He attended Christian worship services in the U.S. Capitol Building. He declared a state day of fasting and prayer as governor of Virginia. On three separate occasions President Jefferson signed into law extensions of the land grant the federal government had given especially to promote education and proselytism among the Indians. (http://churchvstate.blogspot.com/2008/01/jeffersons-actions-speak-louder...)
2) His other words. Jefferson spoke many times on the need for a Bill of Rights. The University of Virginia compiled quotes from Jefferson about the reason for the Bill of Rights. In that collection you find six references to "freedom of religion" and not even one to "separation of church and state." So it appears that Jefferson himself did not think that "separation of church and state" was so deeply embedded in the Constitution. (http://churchvstate.blogspot.com/2008/11/thomas-jefferson-meaning-of-bil...)
But back to Maine for a moment. Here is part of the Maine Constitution, dating back to 1820: "Objects of government. We the people of Maine, in order to establish justice, insure tranquility, provide for our mutual defense, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in affording us an opportunity, so favorable to the design; and, imploring God's aid and direction in its accomplishment, do agree to form ourselves into a free and independent State, by the style and title of the State of Maine and do ordain and establish the following Constitution for the government of the same."
(From http://churchvstate.blogspot.com/2009/01/maines-godly-constitution.html)
That last cite re: Maine's Constitution
Rather than referencing some blog, you can get the (same) text from the source at http://janus.state.me.us/legis/const/Constitution2005.htm . (For the whole document in a frames mode, see http://janus.state.me.us/legis/const/ ).
Separation of church and state is FACT
"The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State".
James Madison, AUTHOR of the CONSTITUTION.
Media Mutt is a Harvard Law grad, class of ???
I'm confused. Is this the Media Mutt blog or an online seminar on constitutional law?
Guild is working to help Joel Eilliott
Your assertions about the Guild's response to the firing of Joel Elliott are not correct. Your facts are not correct. I'm not going to get into the details of the situation here, but I can tell you that the Guild has been working hard trying to obtain the best outcome for Joel.
— Tom Bell
President of the Portland Newspaper Guild
I'd have to agree. The
I'd have to agree. The Constitution may not contain the exact words, "separation of church and state," but the intent is clearly there, in both the first amendment and in Article 6.
It does not appear to me that Metzler had the phrase in quotes, so she was not saying the phrase is in the document. She was merely paraphrasing the concept, a subtlety that seems to have escaped Al, if not the Supreme Court.
This is kind of like when he claimed a dateline never includes a date.
Might want to sniff around a bit before you bite there Mutt, or whatever you're calling yourself in your reformatted (badly so, I might add) column.
This blog
two things consistent about this blog are that it consistently takes a powder on the 50-odd weeklies (and Down East, the blog on their layoff read like a publisher's press release)that he writes for and he consistently is wrong. God, how many times have we read Blethen sold/maybe not sold pieces of ill-informed crap. i guess no one who pays him cares. sign me up for those checks.
Sort of
The Author states: "While Thomas Jefferson made note in an 1802 letter of what he believed was a “wall of separation” between government and religion, as a result of the First Amendment’s prohibition of both a state church and government limits on worship, the Constitution doesn’t contain the phrase Metzler cited, specifically or otherwise. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that such a division exists, and that’s the actual source of the legal concept."
I'd say that's incomplete and a bit misleading. The Supreme Court didn't just make up the idea of Separation of Church and State. While the literal words "separation of Church and State" are indeed not in the US Constitution, the meaning is firmly in the US Constitution by way if the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" The Author of those clauses, James Madison has clearly stated that those two clauses mean separation of Church and State.
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between religion and & Gov't in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history" (Detached Memoranda, circa 1820).
The Sun-Journal has been
The Sun-Journal has been particularly bad this week. (Disclosure: I read only the online version.) The initial story published online last week about the disappearance of an Auburn man made no mention of his dementia nor why anyone would be worried that he hadn't been seen for 24 hours. It appeared to be merely a police press release that no one had bothered to question or rewrite. Ditto the Sun-Journal's coverage of a Lewiston man being stabbed and his wife's subsequent arrest. Once again, the initial report appeared to nothing more than a police press release, and the follow-up seemed unnecessarily delayed.
Of course, I'm only speculating that what the Sun published were poorly written and incomplete police press releases. But I'm confident that what I saw on VillageSoup.com regarding the double stabbing in Waldoboro was in fact a word-for-word press release written by state police spokesman Steve McCausland, even if was published with a reporter's byline on it. Talk about chutzpah.
A shameful state of affairs. Before the chorus of "but all newsrooms are suffering in this economy" begins, it doesn't take much effort to insert the phrase "according to a prepared statement issued by police" into newspaper copy. It takes about as much effort as it takes to put your byline on something you didn't write.
Irregular but Original Writing in the Original Irregular
I'm starting to think it might be worth subscribing to the Original Irregular simply for the entertainment value. What a hoot!
“In light of an almost unionized concern from the national media reporting dismal economic conditions and a lot of gloom and doom, this western mountain community’s ‘ebb’ compared to its ‘flow’ appears to be fairly balanced according to those who responded.”
I think I know that the writer is trying to say in the preceding sentence, but what in God's name is "an almost unionized concern from the national media"?
Newspaper Guild
When I was a member of the Newspaper Guild's Portland local, for a couple of decades, until about a decade ago, it was a weak union. We routinely went without contracts for many months after previous contracts had expired, so that we would become increasingly dependent on management's good will to make salary increases retroactive as an alternative to a walkout. I see the Guild is not a stronger union now. But I wouldn't have thought it could become even weaker. Surprise!
—John Lovell
whatever
Metzler also neglects to inform readers of the survey’s margin of error or its reliability, even though both pieces of information are considered mandatory in most news reports involving statistics.
OMG! Maybe someone should tell the Murrow Judges!