Media: Will Journal Star look into anti-Catholic comment by school board member?
Background: Someone who used an email address known to belong to the family Peoria School Board member Jim Stowell commented on an actions of the Peoria City Council, and mentions a “Catholic contingent that is running everyone else out of town.” This happened in the comment section of an article posted on the Peoria Journal Star Website.
I reported on it here, but don’t bother looking it it on the PJS site. The offending remark and my reply have been removed. I still have a copy stored on my hard drive though.
Question: Will the Journal Star have a reporter look into this? The PJS assigned reporters to investigate whether a school board member earned the degrees she claimed during an election campaign.
Is it NOT important to determine whether or not a sitting member of the school board makes comments that can charitably be called insensitive toward Catholics? Do not Catholic voters need to know this? Do not resident of the city AND the school district need to know about something that could affect how the city and the district work together?
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
I say no. First of all, is the allegation true in any way? Is there any way to prove it’s inaccurate? I don’t think you can answer yes to either of those questions, nor can you answer a definitive “no”.
And so what if the comment was “insensitive”? BTW, I didn’t think it was that insensitive. But be that as it may, wouldn’t you say the diocese has been pretty “insensitive” to the families that had members suffer abuse at the hands of their “employees” over the years? So words are going to be deemed as more insensitive than actions again?
Also, is this the same Jo Stowell that works at the Peoria Civic Center, and if so, could it be said that Billy’s anti-Civic Center bias is showing through here?
Oh, and sorry I didn’t call you today, we got kinda buried in snow up here in Kewanee and between digging and scraping and sweeping, I was kinda bushed. Just logged on here before bedtime to do some fantasy baseball stuff and remembered I was supposed to call. I check ya tomorrow.
For the record, I’ve seen a helluva lot of racist statements on the PJStar comments sections that were infinitely more “insensitive” than that poster’s comment about the catholics. But nothing was done about those. I can’t wait to hover my mouse over an email address on a racist comment and find out it came – possibly – from an important member of the community.
And I forgot to add on the last comment…are we certain that it was a comment made by a member of the Stowell household in question, or, as one commentor said on the other thread, did someone simply use her email address? And if so, was it done in an effort to “set her up”?
Too many questions for there to be any concerted effort to “look into this”, IMO.
Quit speculating. Call Managing Editor John Plevka on Monday and ask him. All he can do is say no.
Plevka, John
managing editor
news and editorial department
jplevka@pjstar.com
phone:309-686-3159
It is true that there’s no way to prove definitively that the post came from the Stowell family unless the PJStar knows their IP address and can check where the comment came from, which I imagine is more legwork than they’ll do.
Now perhaps the PJStar should switch to a system like that of Engadget and several other big-name Weblogs Inc. blogs and require you to click on a link in an email message which is sent to the email you enter, and only then post the comment. That would be far stronger proof, but again, people could easily enough sign up for a free email account to troll with.
As stated in my earlier post on this topic, school board members are elected officials and as such, arguably, are held to a higher standard of behavior. Board members have not only the responsibility, but the obligation, to make decisions that affect the lives and futures of the children of Peoria. These decisions often deal with ethical behavior, lawful behavior, and social responsibility.
For a publicly elected official (or a member of his household) to make such blatantly bigoted public comments is not acceptable. How many of the students of District #150 are Catholic? How many teachers, administrators and support staff are Catholic? Is it unreasonable to imagine that they might feel discriminated against by one of the Board members based on the comments printed in the paper? If this remark had been racial in its orientation rather than religious, there would have been a much greater outcry of public sentiment. But the basic premise is the same.
To the best of my recollection, in this country one cannot discriminate on the basis of race, creed, religion or national origin. There is a reasonable expectation that our public officials will not uphold the laws of our country. That is not what happened in this case.
To expect the Peoria Journal Star to be objective and assign a reporter to investigate this is wishful thinking. In my opinion, they do not have a very good track record when it comes to fair and impartial coverage of local issues; in fact, it seems to me that they engage in disparate treatment depending who is involved.
It might be more interesting to phone other members of the BOE to see if they have heard from Stowell about this matter and whether or not he might have apologized to them for any embarrassment he may have caused the district.
bjstone,
If you can find one racial comment that the Journal Star has ignored, report it.
The fact that you found insensitive comments on pjstar.com doesn’t mean the Journal Star ignored it. Our editors monitor comments daily, and I monitor comments every day, seven days a week. We do not ignore reader complaints about comments. We do actively remove comments, including those that readers report.
If it is too difficult to click on the links asking you to report insensitive or abusive comments, you may call me instead. My desk phone is listed below.
Jerry Smith
Online Editor, Journal Star
jsmith@pjstar.com
desk: 309-686-3120
ba-da-bump.
Jerry, I didn’t speak eloquently enough or you didn’t quite grasp what I was saying (I’m guessing it was the former).
What I was referring to was the fact that anytime racist comments appear on pjstar.com, I don’t see the pjstar staff running out to investigate where they are coming from. Billy was suggesting the staff should investigate further on a comment that really wasn’t all that insensitive, compared to others I’ve seen. You do indeed delete racist comments (I’m thinking of the huge blowup when the young lady was killed by the brick thrown from the overpass as one specific example). Good for you guys, and it’s appreciated, btw. If my post implied to you that you “Ignore” racist comments, that was not the intent.
Not to say you HAVEN’T missed some, because no one’s perfect. And I’m quite capable of “clicking on links”, so that shot was a little uncalled for, donchya think?