SUMMARY: It looks like tonyskansascity.com, the area's most-read blogger, has scooped the local news media on the story that former embattled KCMO school superintendent Anthony Amato has been cleared of charges that led to his termination. 05-02-2008
TKC EXCLUSIVE: AMATO COMES UP CLEAN!!! ALLEGATIONS THAT A FORMER KANSAS CITY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT USED SLURS WERE UNFOUNDED!!! Late last year Former Kansas City School District Superintendent Anthony Amato faced allegations that he called two school board members "bitches." There was a press conference, a lot of righteous indignation and ultimately it all led to Amato stepping down despite some solid gains he had made for the district. Now, TKC has learned the following: THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AMATO HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO BE UNFOUNDED AND WERE DISMISSED BY LEGAL COUNSEL ASSIGNED TO THE ISSUE!!! So what does it mean? It means that the many African-American leaders who used this tidbit as political leverage were ultimately wrong and they played the media like suckers. See, the issue is a personnel matter so traditional reporters have no way to check up on the complaint even under the Freedom of Information Act. But TKC doesn't need to bother with crap like that because people in Kansas City are happy to talk when there's bad info being used against a public figure (and when they know their identity will be protected because I'm all about not snitchin). Anyhoo, and I can't repeat this enough, the complaint was found to be without merit. Sadly, so many in the local media ended up going along with a smear tactic in order to inadvertently give control of the School District back to many of the same people directly responsible for its continued failure. As we've seen so many times before, the allegations (like most bad news) spread quickly across the mainstream media but don't look for a retraction now that Amato was quietly vindicated. In fact, I've heard that he doesn't really want to talk about it in order to keep the whole thing from being dredged up again. And don't look for the many people who made impassioned pleas against the Former Superintendent to apologize now that it turns out they were wrong. And yes, I know the temptation here to to take this information and apply it to Mayor Funky's current EEOC "Mammy-Gate" complaint even though the situations involving slurs don't have much in common. Remember that Mayor Funky's wife already admitted to using a slur only under a different context. The point here is that there is little time for follow up in the corporate media and corrections or clarifications aren't nearly as exciting as documenting initial public outcry - Understanding this is an essential part of media literacy. Additionally, this instance shows that nothing is ever going to change at the School District if the current leadership came to power using questionable tactics and what turned out to be bad information. Now more than ever it's important to be realistic about the Kansas City School District and understand that it's an institution that is faulted at its very core. The place is run almost completely on political maneuvers, racial politics and bad data and there is no alternative to remedy this lamentable situation other than stripping power away form the people now in charge and simply starting over. LINK: http://tonyskansascity.com/
