Stupid AP Reporter
I am really not optimistic that our media is going to get any better. When someone gives you a quote which actually has nothing to do with the issue at hand, you should either leave it out or point out that the quote is irrelevant, rather than positioning it high up in the article to give it any credibility.
Example:
Congress last weekend included more than $131 million for abstinence programs in a $388 billion spending bill, an increase of $30 million but about $100 million less than Bush requested. Meanwhile, a national evaluation of abstinence programs has been delayed, with a final report not expected until 2006.
Ten state evaluations, compiled by a group that opposes abstinence-only education, showed little change in teens' behavior since the start of abstinence programs in 1997.
The president has been a strong proponent of school-based sexual education that focuses on abstinence, but does not include instruction on safe sex.
"We don't need a study, if I remember my biology correctly, to show us that those people who are sexually abstinent have a zero chance of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease," said Wade Horn, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) in charge of federal abstinence funding.
The issue is not of course whether actual abstinence will reduce STD and pregnancy for those who follow that path, but whether abstinence programs generally or any particular abstinence education program will lead to... actual abstinence.
If, on the other hand, abstinence education has little impact on teen sex rates, it will likely lead to increases in STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
arrrrgh
(via americablog)
He commits another sin by concluding the article this way:
Horn and Unruh acknowledged a paucity of data. "So many of our programs are in their infancy. The jury is still out," Unruh said.
Horn said, "The research is not as adequate as it needs to be."
Still, he is not willing to wait for more evaluations, calling abstinence education "something that parents and children want."
Is that true? Is abstinence-only education something parents and children (!!) have been clamoring for in great numbers? Do a majority of parents and children want abstinence-only education? I have no idea, but I doubt Horn does and I know the AP reporter who wrote the article doesn't.
Don't let people just make stuff up because they're "administration officials."
Posted at 01:57 pm by blog swarm
