Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bad News for the RHS Panthers

Panthers? Huh? If you're thinking, "Doesn't he mean RHS Eagles?" the answer is no, I mean Panthers. But you're excused if you read "RHS" and automatically thought "Richardson High School." That's understandable. It would have been even more understandable if I had left off "Panthers" altogether, as one local blogger did.

After the jump, the latest example of the old adage, "Don't believe everything you read."



There it was, bad news, in big headlines on a local Richardson blog.
RHS - Academically Unacceptable
by dc-tm
The big news today for the RISD is RHS has made it to the bottom of the list, the only RISD school to do so. Time for "No Pass-No Play Sports" at RHS?

But wait. Note the source. Do you trust this person? Follow the links. Why don't the links take you to the Richardson ISD website? Bill McCalpin's Rumorcheck.org has the story.

The "RHS" rated "Academically Unacceptable" is not our own Richardson High School, but the similarly named "Richards High School." Never heard of it? You're excused. It's in the small town of Richards, Texas, down near College Station. Its high school has an enrollment of 62 in grades 7-12.

Did the blogger who headlined the negative school rating know this? Did he deliberately mislead his readers? The circumstantial evidence is suggestive. He repeatedly mentions "RHS" and "RISD" but never writes the full name "Richardson." Unless you click on the links for "RISD" you wouldn't realize that they link to the website for Richards ISD, not our own Richardson ISD. Malice is suggested by the blogger tossing out a gratuitous insult, saying the students "are too dumb to learn how to take a test."

So, did he write a defamatory blog entry intended to malign Richardson High School, while carefully leaving himself room to deny saying anything at all about Richardson? Did it start as an embarrassing mistake, one in which his bias against the school district caused him to jump to a conclusion that suited his ideology, not the facts? We're unlikely to ever know what his motives were.

We do know that he took down the offending blog item (a cached copy can be found here). But more than that is needed. An apology is due the students, teachers, administrators and parents of Richardson High School.

For the record, the offending blog is the appropriately named, "Just My 2 Cents Worth."

16 comments:

Mark Steger said...

In a subsequent blog item, "dc-tm" has admitted to intentionally attempting to deceive readers into thinking that Richardson High School received an "Academically Unacceptable" rating. Admitting guilt is one thing. There is still no sign of remorse. "dc-tm" still owes an apology to the students, teachers, administrators and parents of Richardson High School for tarnishing their reputations with a prank gone bad.

mccalpin said...

Of course, what else could David say?. On the RumorCheck article, I show that his initial posting had no links for RISD, but that they were mysteriously added later. See the first cached image at http://www.rumorcheck.org/RISDscam.html where you can see the hypertext link for the PDF file, but no hypertext links for the phrase "RISD".

What could be the only plausible explanation for the later appearance of those links? Come on, anyone who read his initial posting knows he thought RISD referred to Richardson, which is why there were no links for his "gotcha". The links appeared only after the fact, when he realized that he had blundered.

And if he had intended this all along, then why did he take the posting down for a couple of days? Again, you people are all adults, you know what this means. He was caught making a mistake, then edited the posting to pretend something that he originally didn't intend, then removed it while he thought about it, then decided that the best thing would be to pretend that he intended this all along.

The problem that David has is that there are too many grown-ups in this City who have seen their own children go through these phases of denial when caught with their hands in the cookie jar...his explanation is simply not believable by any adult...

The proof of David's duplicity is that David doesn't address in his latest post that fact that his initial posting has no links to Richards ISD...for his fairy tale to be plausible, he's got to ignore the fact that the hypertext link to Richards ISD didn't exist in the first post...but we have visual proof to the contrary.

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Boys, The post I saw had all the details plainly presented. Jumping to conclusions without doing the homework is not the fault of others. Let this be a lesson to all about the importance of reading comprehension. No credit here. Failed the test.

mccalpin said...

Nathan, then please explain why David's initial post didn't contain hypertext links to Richards ISD...if he was going to try to play a trick on everyone, he needed to put in the links to Richards ISD from the get-go to prove that he knew all along...but he didn't...the only logical explanation is that he himself thought it referred to Richardson until someone posted a correction on his website.

Beside, "RISD", as I pointed out, doesn't refer to Richards ISD...just ask the Richards ISD...

No, the truth is either that Mark is right and David tried to play a dirty trick on the people of Richardson or that I am right and David made a mistake and then made up this preposterous story to pretend that he knew all along...with no proof. In either case, David has shamed himself and given people in Richardson ample reason not to trust anything he says...after all, would you want your car repaired by a guy who either deliberately deceives you or who makes a mistake then produces a cover-up story to try to avoid taking responsibility for the error? I wouldn't want that guy within 100 miles of my car.

Oh, maybe that's why you moved to San Antonio ;-)

So, Nathan, just explain to us here...why did David not include the links on the initial post...and see if any of the adults here believe your explanation...

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

I am not in the business of making excuses for your ineptness. The shame goes to you and your invariable pension for insisting people are wrong if they cannot, or will not, agree with your twisted interpretations.

Your friends in your imaginary "gotcha-gang" got you on this one. Face it. You are a sucker for something to attack your detractors about.

This, like so many other examples in your rants, is simply a display of how you are more than inclined to misread the message and misrepresent it in launching an attack on the messenger. Easy to explain, in my view.

Mark Steger said...

In yet another blog post (on a different subject), "dc-tm" blames readers for his own attempt to mislead others into thinking bad of Richardson High School:

"How about a version of 'Don't you dare say anything insulting about my mama!' type of thing? Perhaps saying that in the RISD that RHS is rated Academically Unacceptable while including a link to the TEA website which describes the PEG and what its ratings mean, along with specifically which schools and school districts are on the list. Is that enough to send some people over the edge when they jump to the wrong conclusion by use of erroneous assumptions? It seems so."

It's a further admission that his post was misleading and insulting. But still no sign of remorse or an apology to RHS students, teachers, administrators and parents.

Nathan Morgan said...

Mark,
I think you missed the point. That being, people make a fuss about potentially tarnishing the reputation of RISD while perfectly comfortable with public servants pillaging the treasury.

mccalpin said...

NM: "I am not in the business of making excuses for your ineptness."

Of course, not...because you can't explain why David didn't include the links the first time around...the truth is that David blew it, and decided that the "Grosse Lüge" (the Big Lie) was the best defense - continue to repeat as loudly as possible something so preposterous that people would assume that nobody would be so shameless as make such false statements.

The people here want to know, Nathan, why did David not have the links on the page the first time? What other explanation is there than that he fouled up and thought that Richards ISD referred to Richardson?

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

You are a broken record, skipping back to the same worn out grove, repeating yourself. Is there an echo in here?

No matter how many times, or how many ways the information is presented, you still seem to not get it.

Where did you say you went to school?

mccalpin said...

I am repeating myself because it is you who do not get it...why can't you explain why David didn't include the links the first time around? It's obvious to any adult living in Richardson (which excludes you, Mr. San Antonio) that he himself thought that the report referred to Richardson and didn't realize his mistake until later...and no matter how many times we go through this, you weave and you dodge and you do anything to avoid addressing this point...

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

How about this point. Have you asked David yourself?

mccalpin said...

Nathan, you claimed above "The post I saw had all the details plainly presented."

Great, show us where David explained why he didn't have the hypertext links in the first version of his posting. Hmmmn, you know, he doesn't, not even through his "anonymous" postings in response.

The truth is that David has explained nothing and hopes that continuing to insist at the top of his lungs that I am wrong will sway weak-minded people...fortunately, the people of Richardson are much too intelligent for this...

The truth is that David "screwed up" and doesn't have the maturity to admit it...and you are in the same boat...

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

You'll have to do your own homework for a change. So far, what you have turned in gets a failing grade. Thanks for the entertainment, but your lines are growing stale. You will have to do better than this if you want people to pay you any mind.

mccalpin said...

"You'll have to do your own homework for a change."

I.e., "I [Nathan] can't defend what I said, so I'm copping out."

Yeah, we all understand exactly what you're saying...

Bill

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

Nice try. Do your homework. When you are finished you will be graded. Stop trying to pass off your disabilities on others.

Nathan Morgan said...

Willy,

There you go again.