Oh. Em. Gee! ClusterFox lied! There goes their stellar reputation:

Arlington, MA, June 30, 2010 – School officials responded today to recent misleading reports regarding the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in the Arlington Public Schools, a public school district in suburban Boston serving 4,700 students. This response followed the release of stories by Fox News incorrectly maintaining that the Arlington Public Schools had banned the Pledge of Allegiance.

It’s a good thing ClusterFox so rarely errs. They’re usually so on top-o’-the news, so ready with the facts, what with their crack anchors and all.

It must have just been a bad day. Maybe they were all busy watching Glenn Beck reruns.

Contrary to Fox News reports, the School Committee did not ban the Pledge of Allegiance in the Arlington Public Schools. Rather, the Committee left discretion in the hands of building administrators. Currently, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited in all seven of the District’s elementary schools and in the middle school. In some cases, this is done over the loudspeaker. In others, individual teachers lead the recitation.

Or perhaps the Foxers just don’t understand English.

Gasp! Deport them! Now!

[School Committee Chairman Joseph A. Curro, Jr.] noted that while the student has at times requested a formal voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, last week he unexpectedly and explicitly demanded that the School Committee enforce a state statute that was ruled constitutionally invalid by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1977. This statute threatens teachers with monetary penalties for failure to recite the pledge or to force the students in their charge to do likewise. The Arlington School Committee was specifically advised in a memo from Town Counsel Juliana Rice that this law is unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Curro pointed out that the motion before the School Committee was for a new policy, and that it should probably have been ruled out of order. .

Curro comes out and says it. Fixed Noise distorts, misinforms, messes with the facts, going so far as to smear a school. In other words, it’s business as usual:

“It is unfortunate that the national media has chosen to distort this very serious debate in a manner, which so badly misinforms the public. Recent reports have done little to present the facts about our school system and our community, and have been seized upon by many people throughout the country to target our dedicated school leaders with unwarranted hate mail and threats.”

Shorter Curro: Hey, ClusterFox, you lie!

H/t: realitygal