In Sunday’s News & Observer’s Business section, one of the main articles detailed the growing use of "backup daycare" centers and how this was becoming an increasingly useful benefit to employees to reduce absences.
The article cites polling data from our friends over at Public Policy Polling that "80 percent said they have missed one to five days of work because they lacked backup care."
Then, the article cites solutions being offered by a company called Workplace Options and their CEO Dean Debnam.
What the article doesn’t point out is that Debnam is also the President of Public Policy Polling, whose poll is cited earlier in the article. Now I’m sure he did not intentionally conceal that fact from the reporter, but didn’t the reporter and the News & Observer have a duty to report it?
And apparently providing day care options runs deep in the Debnam household. His wife, Stephanie Fanjul, is the President of NC Smart Start.
Whoa, Nelly! And the media say our polls are biased… Somebody’s got some s’plaining to do.
Dean was fully transparent with the reporter about his connections to PPP and WPO. Perhaps next time you would like to check with him before making any insinuations; he doesn’t have anything to hide.
On the issue of disclosure, I find it amusing that while media outlets always feel the need to attribute our polls to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic company, they do not feel the need to attribute your polls to the Civitas Institute, an affiliate of Art Pope’s right wing propaganda machine.
This is a non issue.
Tom,
If you go back and read the post, I think you’ll find the insinuation – if such there be – is directed at the N&O reporter, rather than toward Mr. Debnam.
So, Tom, what do you think, as Chris asks:
“didn’t the reporter and the News & Observer have a duty to report it?”
(Methinks thou dost protest too much.)
It would seem to me that an “objective journalist” would have a duty to report such a relationship. Of course, it is quite difficult to find a true “objective journalist” sometimes, at least in the mainstream media.
The News and Observer is not an objective source of news. It may be objective in one particular instance or another, but as a whole, they have a worldview that reports news from a generally left-wing point of view.
As for a “duty to report” the connections that Chris found, I would argue that they OUGHT to have one. That being said, the reason for the tremendous growth in alternate media is precisely because of the bias that exists in the N&O and their main stream media fellow travelers. They do not feel a duty to report on matters from an objective point of view. I would advise you not to hold your breath while you wait for them to change their behavior in this regard. The market is sending signals, in terms of revenue, to the mainstream media, and particularly to daily newspapers. While paid subscriptions dwindle, newspaper publishers reject the idea that it may be because of the obvious bias that is displayed in their pages. They blame other causes for this change, but generally refuse to point the finger of blame where it ought to fall – on themselves.
It does tickle me that Tom gets worked up about what Art Pope does with his own money. The lefties are not bashful about the mainstream media or government agencies using their resources to present their (mostly) left-wing views. Somehow, that view changes when a conservative has the audacity to use some of his own money to try to engage in public dialog about the issues of the day. Instead, any organization that is engaged in countering this lefty world view with actual facts gets angrily labeled as a “propaganda machine.”
So, settle down, Beavis. Oops, I mean, settle down, Tom.