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Newsom and more tech in schools

This page is intended to help us all understand what Governor Gavin Newsom really said and did not say on March 19 about wanting to expand technology in schools so that we can accurately and clearly communicate that information to other people. We may even decide that this is not the urgent crisis that it appears to be.

This afternoon I sent the following message to Children’s Health Defense at the contact email shown on the campaign page, which is CA.Safe.Children@childrenshealthdefense.org

The campaign and page I refer to is

I also preserved the web page for eternity on archive dot org tonight here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200327061313/https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/governor-newsom-please-do-not-deploy-5g-wireless-installations-in-our-schools-during-quarantine/

Two key documents are:

Governor Newsom’s stay at home order of March 19, 2020
; and

Governor Newsom’s letter to 4 Congressional leaders of March 19, 2020

Read more about the stay at home order including FAQs on this page:
The letter to 4 Congressional leaders is where Newsom asks for money to pay for a long list of things he wants to do to fight the virus, including “a major expansion of technology investments in our schools” and “increased funding for broadband upgrades to schools.” The CHD page misquoted both of those phrases. My point though is that Newsom did not “announce” he is going to do this or “order” it.

What I would say about this L.A. Times article is that it correctly says that Newsom asked Congress for money for a whole list of things he wants to do to oppose the virus.  The CHD campaign did not mention those and so it made it sound as if Newsom wants to do the schools tech upgrade only.


My email to Children’s Health Defense this afternoon, March 26.

March 26, 2020

Hi Children’s Health Defense,

I have the highest respect for you and your work on the whole cell antenna and EMF issue. That is the context of this letter, which is to tell you about several inaccuracies in the campaign you have been promoting regarding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push for expanding wireless technology in schools. I did a LOT of searching last night to find out where Newsom really said what he supposedly said, and there are several differences between what he said and what your website is saying he said. I thought you would be very interested in correcting them.

I am referring to your web page:

The first sentence of the CHD web page says:

“On Thursday, March 19th, Governor Newsom announced his intention to expand the deployment of wireless infrastructure in schools, during the COVID-19 quarantine.”

The hyperlink goes to this page on the website “www.militarynews.com”.

https://www.militarynews.com/news/national/gov-gavin-newsom-orders-all-californians-to-stay-at-home/article_baa55246-3311-53e2-b1be-b8b468d81f1e.html

What is wrong with that?

A few things.

  1. The statement is not really true. Newsom did not announce his intention to expand the deployment of wireless infrastructure in schools. He asked Congress for money for a lot of things, a lot of projects he wants to do in light of the corona virus. He may or may not get all of that money. If he gets some money he will have to decide where and on what to spend it. This one might not be his top priority of all the things he wants to do now.  Also he wants to do that (expand wireless in schools) but hasn’t announced his intention to Californians to do that.
  2. I have never heard of militarynews.com.  I do not like or trust the military or any military website. To me that is not a reliable source.
  3. That article / web page does not have a hyperlink to ANYTHING where the reader can check to see the original documents.  There should be links especially to Governor Newsom’s web page showing his stay at home order and his letter to Congress.
  4. omitted.

Your website (CHD) does not have a link to Newsom’s stay at home order OR his letter to the Congressional leaders either.

Bottom line

In my opinion for a person reading your website and wanting to check it out, to see if it is really true, there is nothing to show that it is. Militarynews.com could have made up the entire thing. Or for that matter Children’s Health Defense could have made it all up – and there is no way from the CHD web page to know that this is a legit and true story.

What I recommend is

. . . that you change your web page by omitting the link to the militarynews.com website and replace it with a link to Newsom’s stay at home order and his letter to Congressional leaders.  I also recommend that you put in accurate quotations from Newsom’s letter to Congressional leaders. Eliminate all the paraphrasing and inaccurate quotations of what the Governor said.

There are other inaccuracies in what the CHD web page claims that, “Governor Newsom’s office statement” said.  Newsom has a newsroom page on his website but there is no “office statement” on this issue.  I looked for it on 3 different search engines including google.  It does not exist. 

Please do not change “quotations”.  When you change a real quotation it is not a quotation any more.  What you end up with is not a quotation.  It is your paraphrased version of that quotation.  If a person is doing a web search to find what you claimed the Governor said and using the made up “quotation” he will never find it.  One word can make a huge difference.  The best example is the word “not”.  If you omit it from the original, the real quotation, or you insert it into the original, then you have completely changed the meaning of the sentence.  Reporters know about all quotations and attribution.  When you write a call to action such as this issue you are acting as a reporter.  Your #1 responsibility is to be accurate.  

When you quote something that is different from paraphrasing it. What happened here is somebody paraphrased Newsom’s letter to Congress, changing a few words here and there. They did not quote his “office statement” and Newsom does not have an “office statement” on this issue.

Thank you, best wishes, and keep up the great work,
Mark Graham
http://www.keepcellantennasawayfromourelkgrovehomes.org/