Lazy reporting leaves the timeline cloudyToday's story by Sean O'Sullivan gets some details right, but neglects to include the culture of Christian sectarianism created by the board and State Reps and the recent pronouncements of success by the Stop the ACLU Coalition - leaving the impression that the right-wing intimidation tactics used to drive the Dobriches out of the IRSD were no big deal.
Several national Web sites this week -- including the popular Daily Kos -- began chattering about school prayer at the Indian River School District, an issue that's been on the U.S. District Court docket in Delaware for more than a year.(snip)
A group calling itself Stop the ACLU Coalition posted a phone number and address for the Dobrich family as part of an "Expose the ACLU plaintiff" project. But the information was incorrect. The American Civil Liberties Union arranged representation for the Dobrich family in the case.The Dobriches court case (a year old) is linked to the "Expose the ACLU plaintiff" project leaving the impression that the "chattering" websites are bringing up something that is old news.
The fact that Nedd Karieva of Stop the ACLU set off the firestorm when he acknowedged to the Jesus General that he was "pleased" to have had a role in instigating the flight of the Jewish family is never mentioned. O'Sullivan is similarly dismissive of the taunts and death threats directed at the Dobriches, saying only that they "claimed" they were "harassed" because of their religion. Instead he focuses on more timeline confusion in the blogs.
While some blogs generally got the facts right, others botched the details. A Daily Kos posting reported -- and the Web site Jesus' General implied -- that the recent posting prompted the two families to flee their homes.
Not true. The Dobrich family moved out of the district before their lawsuit was filed in February 2005.This is the type of thing you would expect from a defense attorney trying desperately to create "reasonable doubt" in a jury's mind. Not an objective reporter.