Dear Friends, I wanted to share with you the coverage by News-O-Matic, one of our media partners on the attack at Charlie Hebdo this week. Please see below and click through to see what they posted to their kids daily newspaper. I’d like to take a minute to explain why — and how — News-O-Matic made the choice today to cover the recent event in Paris, France. We did not cover the initial attack on the Charlie Hebdo in Wednesday’s edition. At the time, the news was focused on the killers and the ensuing manhunt. “It’s scary,” our child psychologist, Dr. Ohr, said. But what followed was too important to ignore — the outpouring of support for free speech. As the first daily newspaper for kids, we recognize that it is part of our mission to instill a value of the press to young readers. This horrendous tragedy provides a chance for students to learn about the need for free speech, as well as the global community that came together to support it. More importantly, our audience deserves the opportunity to understand what’s going on. After all, 9-year-old Thelma wrote this note in our News Room: “Hey Russ. Did you hear what happened in Paris yesterday? It almost made me cry when I heard it.” Ultimately, we decided to focus not on the attack itself but on the unifying message that the press cannot and will not be intimidated. It’s why our article began with the concept of a free press and ended with the fact that journalists will print a million copies of the next edition of Charlie Hebdo — on time. And what did Dr. Ohr say about our final copy (linked)? “It’s developmentally appropriate and sensitive to the emotional reactions of children.”
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:41:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015