Meanwhile, at the vomitorium

GREENSBORO, NC -- While Yes!Weekly's Jordan Green was digging into the proposed City Council redistricting plan, the News & Record regurgitated as "news" the City's press release. Here is the News & Record article, attributed to "staff reports." The highlighted portions are copied from the press release.

Greensboro City Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw has recommended a plan to redistrict the current City Council district boundaries.

The plan would affect [impacts] 11 precincts, converting 10 full and one partial district into new boundaries.

U.S. Supreme Court decisions suggest that if the variance between district populations – when comparing the lowest populated district with the highest – is 10 percent or less, redistricting may not be necessary according to guidelines in the 14th Amendment.

Greensboro’s total variance rate is 9.2 percent, with the greatest variance existing between Districts 4 and 5. [Councilmember] Rakestraw’s proposal creates a population balance of 7.0 percent.

The recommendation must be approved by [requires the approval of] City Council and the U.S. Department of Justice.

When the News & Record posts to its website material under the byline "staff reports," it suggest that some original reporting--some verification and fact checking--has occurred. When it obviously hasn't, they are just serving as a pipeline for propaganda and it is a lie to represent that material as original reporting. It is not reporting, it is vomit from a propaganda machine.

If the News & Record is going to continue this practice, and it has become common on their website, they should stop labeling these materials as news and stop crediting them to News & Record staff. They should just come clean and identify the material as a press release with the source fully identified: the name and contact details as are in the press release. Anything less is an intentional and gross misrepresentation. It is professional malpractice and it must end.