I replied on the site:
Welcome to another day in the world of the media and culture wars. As I indicated to Brandon from the outset (and unlike so many who would offer their opinion - I actually communicated with him prior to this becoming a major issue), this was going to be a story that would likely draw a lot of media attention because it comes at a time when people are still discussing the film in the media. Further, as part of the culture war, there would be an obvious media angle here.
What I have seen is pretty predictable. Culture Wars - The Home Game Edition. I -was- surprised at the shoddy journalism being practiced at The Oregonian which wouldn't pass muster at a high school paper. Editorial commentary in both the headline and body of the story appears to pass as straight news reporting. So much for the print press being the last salvation of hard news in this country. Whether or not Brandon "lied" is an opinion and doesn't belong in a headline. It appears to be Amateur Hour over at that particular newspaper.
The response by school officials seems more spin and damage control than fact. Had this been some great misunderstanding, I would have expected to see denials that Brandon was asked to attend community college to complete his education, but instead there was a waffle about it "not being mandatory." Then why offer it? As far as Brandon going online with his complaint, welcome to the new world of online citizenry where students can now actually practice First Amendment rights outside of anonymous messages in the high school bathroom.
The odd insertion of the threats to school officials by the reporter in the fourth paragraph was shoddy journalism as well, because it implies that Brandon had something to do with it, particularly coming just after a quote that Brandon allegedly "disrupted" the school. If this is the kind of "professional journalism" practiced by Ms. Owen, she needs to find another day job.
At this point, the uninformed blog community has gotten into it in all of the predictable ways. Line up on the side of the culture war you soak in, distribute the second/third/fourth/fifth-hand talking points, and miss the point entirely.
As I suggested at the outset, the ultimate goal here seems to be to get things back the way they were before this debacle occured - Brandon back in school (and going to class). There is no evidence of a giant publicity stunt here. Most of the comments from people arriving from the blogs do little more that regurgitate talking points based entirely on the editorial view of the blog site. How profound of the hit and run comment crowd.
I'd add to BetterMost users:
My personal motivation in all this, as I've written to Brandon, is to see some sort of compromise arrived at between Brandon's parents and school officials. It's obviously gotten harder with the media attention at this point with everyone now backed into respective corners, but compromise is the only way this issue goes away. IMHO, that means Brandon goes back to school, does some repenting for his past attendance issues and agrees to be a more responsible student for the remainder of the term, and the school drops the community college nonsense.
As I wrote in Our Daily Thoughts in my mini-blog, I've been reminded of my own high school years after being subjected to Can't Hardly Wait (which BTW has become as common on HBO as Spiderbabe has been on Cinemax/Skinamax in the past few months.) The high school years are usually annoying to people during the time you are there, but fondly thought of upon reflection years later. Spending the rest of them parked in a community college is not the best outcome to aim for here.
