After the Reagan administration Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan was exonerated of larceny and fraud charges, he coined the famous term, "Where do I go to get my reputation back?"  The innocent utters this refrain when innuendo, rumor and fear mongering utterly destroys reputations.  The AJC in April printed a headline article, "Riot at Downing Clark mirrors foster care morass," using a recent incident to illustrate a proposition to a story that was sensational, riveting and supportive of common misconceptions.   The proposition was that Georgia's foster care system is in terrible shape, that foster children are routinely mistreated and no one can be trusted, at least from the government, to take care of children properly.  The story was interesting but false.  It took a Georgia's Administrative Judge to sort through the lies, misrepresentations and innuendos to get to the truth.  The story maligned an agency caring for some of Georgia's most troubled children.  It gave a false impression of a Department that has shown important improvements in child welfare practice.

The AJC did print a retraction of some sort yesterday.  Unlike the front-page article in April, they did not use the Downing Clark name in the headline, "Foster home should keep its license, judge says."  The AJC tells the story of how Administrative Court Judge Steven W. Teate did not find credible the police statements of the events that allegedly took place that night in January.  He did not substantiate any of the violations cited by Licensing that were worthy of revoking a license to provide foster care to 43 emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children. 

DHS was maligned as well.  This Agency was held up as an example of all that is wrong with foster care.  The AJC obviously did not review the facts about neither Downing Clark nor foster care.  Virtually every data set that measures the effectiveness, safety and efficiency of foster care has improved over the past five years.  It did not fit their story and so they did not print it. 

What can be learned here?  Every statement of "truth" is not to be believed.  When people's and agencies' reputations are at stake, we should work with the best information possible.