Paper boycott is simple and effective

Your article entitled “Parents target PS 24’s critics” was an ambitious effort to explain and tie together several current local events. As one of the parents who has been doing the targeting, I want to attempt to simplify what can be a complicated story.

Here are the facts:

1) A small cadre of malcontent PS 24 staffers have an information pipeline to the Riverdale Review, where a publisher with a clear political agenda and a desire to smear the reputation of our local schools stands ready to give them an anonymous platform. These few staffers are accomplices to the damage the Review has caused our school. That damage extends to: a) the vast majority of their colleagues whose sole concern is delivering the best education to our kids, b) the administration that has a 93 percent plus approval rating with the parents of PS 24, and most importantly, c) the children who have openly questioned why a newspaper would “say such bad things” about their school, “week after week after week.”

2) Nearly one thousand local residents have signed on to the Recycle the Review boycott. Thousands more are sympathetic. The vast majority of signers have no connection whatsoever to PS 24. Andy Wolf’s Review has attacked, bullied and maligned so many organizations, individuals and institutions over its 18-year history that it should come as no surprise that the movement has grown so quickly. It includes parents at MS/HS 141 RKA, PS 7, SAR, AmPark Neighborhood School, and everyday citizens who understand that the Review is not a newspaper. It is one man’s attempt to exploit the fear, hatred, and prejudice that resides in the recesses of our community.

3) Review advertisers are pulling out. By my count, more than a dozen have already left. Some were driven by their own distaste for the Review’s brand of yellow journalism. Others may have been motivated by the prospect of offending thousands of potential customers. And some were convinced to pull out because of the arguments made by the boycott. But, the fact remains that the roster of advertisers is thinner now than it has ever been.