Scholastic News is distributed to our children in the public schools. Scholastic News has a subtle pro-war bias. Please send an email to complain.
My ten year old son noticed the bias in Scholastic News, and brought their January 31 issue to me out of his concern. I found similar stories about war against Iraq on their website.
Much of the information that they provide is true, or is mostly true. However, they frequently leave out important parts of the story, thus leaving a wrong impression about the issues.
They mention the embargo, for example, and they mention some of its negative impact. But they don't mention the United Nations UNICEF report that hundreds of thousands of children have died because of the embargo.
They mention plans for military action against Iraq, but fail to mention that many thousands of civilian casualties are likely.
There is no discussion of plans to destroy water systems, nor of plans to employ our own weapons of mass destruction against Iraq, nor of the depleted uranium issue, nor of the constant attacks by our aircraft against Iraqi targets over the past eleven years.
They mention "growing support for overthrowing Hussein," when the opposite seems to be the truth-- at least, as far as U.S. military action is concerned.
I couldn't find any mention of anti-war activists' beliefs that the pending invasion of Iraq is for empire-building, or an oil-grab.
They don't mention the anti-war movement at all; Congressional criticism is described as resulting from being left out of the war planning.
Here are a couple of links to their Iraq coverage:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/iraq/gulf_war.htm
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/iraq/kids_in_iraq.htm
Please check these and the other linked stories carefully, and provide feedback if you agree that they should provide more balance. Calm, reasoned, and specific feedback about a particular issue on a particular page will be the most productive, I think. If enough of us respond, we can cover all the important issues.
Here is their contact form:
http://www.scholastic.com/custsupport/pcomment.asp
If you are a parent of school-age children, mention that.
best wishes,
richard in Denver