Photo by Jack Prior
A good story by Jack Prior and Martina Jackson in the Fig City News covers a protest and counter-protest on the Newton Centre Green on Thursday about today (Friday’s) scheduled Newton North student run drag show.
Have a read and let us know what you think.
p.s. As the weeks and now months go by I’ve become increasingly impressed with the job that the all-volunteer Fig City News has been doing covering local news and events. If you haven’t already, sign up for the email version here
This does not deserve balanced coverage. As soon as the protestors equate drag performers with pedophiles are should be invalidated. Good for the students, the adminstration, and the parents for standing up to this hatred.
Agree with Dave B. Why don’t the protesters cross the river and protest at Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club? Some of their alums haven’t turned out so badly.
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/7-famous-men-drag-hasty-pudding-theatricals/
Follow-up questions are key when someone makes some of the statements in that article. You can report on the event without including such statements as well. Or provide a context statement. the video at the end of the article doesn’t make up for the hateful statements at the beginning without confirmation of the true name of the person being quoted. Tough article to write for folks without journalism training to be sure.
As for the protest, when your biggest supporter and loudest voice is someone who calls himself “Turtle Boy” who runs a right-wing website, and most of your protesters are people from outside our community seeking to advance cultural war nonsense, perhaps your views on this issue are not in the mainstream.
On the plus side, all the protestors have done is made the event today at North a packed house. And any student who doesn’t want to go doesn’t have to (and that seat will be filled by someone else). Much ado about nothing…
Martina and Jack are exceptional journalists and it’s worth noting that formal education and training may not always be indicative of one’s skills and expertise. However I am curious as to why Fignewtonville comes across as so condescending.
Hi Lisa – I believe that the Newton Beacon will be reappearing soon and may be rebranding itself as “the online paper with REAL journalists,” to distinguish it from Fig City News.
Both Fignewtonville and the Newton Beacon are pro-Mayor, and Fignewtonville may be trying to help with this rebranding by writing Fig-City-directed potshots like “Tough article to write for folks without journalism training to be sure.”
People without journalist training: Ida Tarbell and Ida B. Wells and Jack London ….
Debra, I have no connection to the Beacon, and I assure you if they included that paraphrased quote I would have called them out equally.
I also have no idea if I’m supporting the Mayor in the next election. It will depend on who runs and what happens with the school budget.
I do remember you’ve had it out for the Beacon from the beginning but this has nothing to do with them. I called it like I saw it. Look at the Globe article on the same protest and compare.
I was surprised by how much bigger the “blue team” was, considering how much noise was generated prior to yesterday by the “red team”.
was great to watch Turtleboy trigger the pretentious, limousine liberal ,Newton virtue signalers and the whiny Antifa clowns
Is that what happened? Funny, seemed to be like Turtleboy was outnumbered and no one cared he was there. And again, I’m surprised Newton people wanted to be associated with that guy.
He’s just in it for the clicks, JGranbo. The product is the outrage. I’m sure he live streamed it and took kudos from his followers. The rest of us don’t care. He doesn’t care about Newton kids. It’s all about triggering the libs and such nonsense.
I remember a time when Turtleboy was funny. They stopped being funny once they hitched themselves to an audience of political rubes and got addicted to the ad revenues.
Newtoner:
Best not to confuse online noise with reality. Similar to the academic excellence/DEI committee, where a few online posters made a ton of noise, and then the people supporting the academic excellence were outnumbered 10 to 1 in the actual meeting…
Lisa::
I’m sorry you feel I was condescending. I don’t mind the personal insult, just don’t let it obscure the issues with the article in question. As I said, it is a tough article to write, but I actually felt I pulled my punches. I’ve enjoyed Fig City News. I think it is an excellent addition to our local news. But if they are going to be journalists, I question the decision to include the following paragraph:
“Among the original protesters, a Newton man who gave his name as Avraham Avimilech (but mentioned it was just one of the names he goes by) was concerned that, as he believes, there are drag queens that have criminal records as pedophiles. He questioned why the school would not also bring rapists and murders”
Formal education and training isn’t always required to be a journalist. But standards are. That’s just a hateful statement. And without a quote! If you are going to put that type of hateful statement in an article, get the name, get the quote, don’t paraphrase. And the follow-up question would be “can you provide an example of a drag queen that is a pedaphile? Do you think equating drag queens with rapists and murderers is accurate?”
Fig City tends to just present both sides as if either side has its own truth. Here is this side, here is that side. Sometimes, like this article, that leads them down a bad path.
And Lisa, if they are going to be a community newspaper, criticism is part of it. I wasn’t being condescending and this isn’t personal to Jack or Martina. I’m also confident that others in our community found that quote and how it was presented to be offensive. Feel free to defend your friends and insult me. That says more about you than me. But Fig City will be better if takes honest criticism to heart.
An editor of mine many years ago used to tell me when I’d get pissed off about criticism (letters to the editor back then, phone calls) to view it as a conversation with the reader. And then to ask myself if I could see their point of view. And then ask myself if they could be right. I viewed him as a condescending jerk for not taking my side. But like most editors, he was right.
(maybe Fig City needs an editor like him right about now. Or any editor at all…)
And Lisa, take the criticism in this context:
Fig City News in the last week has published a news article with a statement comparing drag queens to murderers and rapists, and saying that some of them are pedophiles. And it has published a letter to the editor comparing drag queens to whores, and asking if we should accept bringing our kids to brothels.
Rather than focus on my tone, could we focus a bit on that…
@fignewtonville, can you add a link to the Globe article covering the NNHS show that you referenced in another comment? Thanks…
I liked the article in that it gave me a little sense of what it was like to be there. Honestly, the chances were pretty small of getting any real hard hitting news or newly insightful opinions from the people who just showed up to oppose or support drag in general.
The real news potential was with someone who helped organize *this event* or at least was a student at the school.
I did find the pedophile comment from the protester somewhat telling, though. I would assume any “pedophile with a criminal record” has a legal restriction about being anywhere near a school. And if that level of rational thinking weren’t enough, does it have any connection to *this* event? Or are we “just telling you something I heard”?
People have the right to say what they want to say about almost anything, but a little skepticism and reflection go a long way toward being less chronically upset.
What a shit show Trump unleashed on this country. The rest of the Republican party is not much better. Their foundational beliefs are built on ignorance and bigotry.
I like Fig City News a lot. They’re wonderful, and I appreciate what they provide to the community. But I agree with fignewtonville about this particular article. Letting people use your platform to spew hate, without attaching their [real] name to quotes or challenging them with follow-up questions, is just not a great idea.
For the record, I like Fig City a lot too. I read it regularly. Part of my reaction is due to that. It just caught me by surprise.
On another note Wayland has hired David Fleishman as their acting Superintendent.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/14/metro/wayland-school-committee-appoints-new-acting-district-leader-finalizing-replacement-superintendent-omar-easy/
That Globe article was hilarious. They reported that the Wayland school committee checked all of his references and nobody could say a negative thing about him. I guess they don’t read V14. Why is it the same people just get recycled from job to job?
Since this is a one-year acting position, my guess is that none of the references had anything negative to say about using him as a temporary placeholder.
But it is interesting to note that he left NPS last year to take a permanent position as CEO for JVS and then 6-8 months later they have appointed an new there.
@Bruce – interesting point. That does make the references thing even more curious.
Kudos to Fig City News for the video of Newton North Sophomore Rhiannon Esposito, who was truly inspiring. She spoke so intelligently and genuinely. I’m thankful that she and others like her will be our future leaders – the day can’t come soon enough.
I’m more and more impressed with the thoughtful quality of what Fig City News is producing and disseminating to an increasingly receptive readership. The factual reporting and the paper’s passionate moderation just keep getting better and better. I think a lot of the frustration here reflects the fact that it is impossible to engage with individuals who hold hateful and crackpot views which they have picked up from some out of the way website. I know several individuals who have fallen into this trap and there is absolutely no sense arguing with them. The most productive and emotionally sound way of responding is to stop engaging with them and put whatever effort can be mustered into canvassing or telephoning the millions of voters throughout this country who are approachable and persuadable. A lot more bang for the buck than beating my head against the wall arguing with people who have tripped into the dark zone. I’m deluding myself if I think I can change what they have come to believe.
^^^This!!!!
Thanks Jerry and all for the support of Fig City News. The Beacon founders and Fig City staff have discussed each other’s platforms many times together and as far as I know the two groups have always been friendly and supportive of one another. As has been pointed out here, they are two different things. And both feel the same way aboutV14 as well.
Regarding the protest/anti-protest, I believe had any journalist selected a more sanitized quote from a participant, they would be criticized for whitewashing or trying to soften what actually occurred.
Thanks all for reading, and suggestions for improvement always welcome. Write a Letter to Editor!
Adam, thanks for doing a great job reporting. Your school coverage has been the best we have seen in 20 years. Better than the Globe and Tab. It is critical that we get good coverage now. There is a lot going on and school committee meetings have become more consequential than in the past. You are an asset to the community. Thanks.
It was great to see freedom and love overwhelm denial and fear.
Yet again, the young people demonstrated more poise, maturity, compassion, and self-awareness than the adults.
Horrible Missed Opportunity – The Newton Nomadic Theater just ended its run of the Theater Cabaret Mashup this afternoon at Dunn Gaherins. The show featured twelve different short form acts that wandered all over the map from short plays, to Shakespeare, to musical performances, to improv and on and on. The final performance was a brilliant drag performance of You Gotta Have a Gimmick from Gypsy.
If I wasn’t asleep at the switch I would definitely have gotten our our troupe down to the Newton Centre Green on Thursday for an impromptu performance. Alas, I squandered a great opportunity for some good fun and cheap publicity.
That may have been the first drag show in the history of the Auburndale Community Library, and whether or not, it was a fabulous finale to a wonderful show!
I’m glad you enjoyed the show Nathan.
It was a very different process from our typical shows. This was twelve separate pieces with nine actors, so rather than the cast rehearsing together for five weeks which would be the normal process, for this it was dispersed rehearsals between individuals and pairs of people with some of it on Zoom.
The first time the entire cast actually met each other was at the dress rehearsal, the night before the show opened.
It was a treat to see them all seamlessly meld into a real troupe at the last minute.
Just to close the loop, I was glad to see that Fig City News updated the news article in question, adding additional quotes, context, and additional descriptions of the event.
They also updated their editorial policies.
This may just be because some time has passed, but I thought the updated article was considerably improved.
I do wish they had posted more information about what had changed. They seem to be updating their news articles when new information comes up, somewhat more like Village14 does than a newspaper. But they did eventually post that the article had been changed. I’d ask for as much detail as possible when they do, especially since most readers don’t go back and re-read the same article twice. If it is wrong the first time, the damage is largely done.
But all in all, it was good to see that changes were made, either due to the feedback here or elsewhere. I appreciated the effort to make it better.