The ‘more to the story’ story

There are a couple of intersecting stories in the news today; the thread between them is that there’s always more to the story.

Item #1

The story: Katherine Kersten’s article “Teacher questions Muslim practices at charter school,” documented the experiences of a substitute teacher to conclude that Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights is “an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.”

The “more to the story”MinnPost’s David Brauer reports the sub was a conservative Republican activist in college, who had been shown a previous Kersten column on the school by her parents.

Item #2:

The story: During the presidential debate on Wednesday in Philadelphia, a video of a woman was shown, in which she asked Barack Obama if he “believed in the American flag.”

The more to the story: McClatchy reports that the woman appeared in a feature in the Washington Post awhile ago, critical of Obama for not wearing a flag pin. ABC tracked her down specifically to ask the question, as opposed to having randomly submitted video questions from which this was plucked.


For the record, the “more to the story” doesn’t render “the story” false. But when the full story isn’t told, it makes it far too easy to question the motives involved, even though they may be pure. Plus, in the age of blogs, it’s really a dumb idea not to disclose these things.