The Los Angeles Times joins the News Literacy Project
The Los Angeles Times has joined the News Literacy Project as a participating news organization, becoming the first West Coast outlet to enroll in the effort to give middle school and high school students the critical thinking skills to sort faction from fiction in the digital age. The project aspires to expand to schools in Los Angeles in 2010.
“The Los Angeles Times is delighted to join with the News Literacy Project as it comes to Southern California,” said Jim Newton, editor-at-large.
“Critical thinking is the essence of news reporting, and it stands at the heart of an informed electorate and a democratic society,” he said. “We’re eager to do our part, in partnership with the project, in conveying that to the young people of this region.”
The Los Angeles Times is the ninth news organization to enlist with NLP. It joins The New York Times, ABC News, USA Today, CBS’s 60 Minutes, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR and The Associated Press in supporting the News Literacy Project.
The News Literacy Project has strong ties to the Los Angeles Times. Executive Director Alan C. Miller was a reporter at the paper for 21 years before departing in 2008 to found NLP. John Carroll, vice chair of the board, edited the paper from 2000 to 2005, a period when it won 13 Pulitzer Prizes.
Former Washington bureau chief Jack Nelson and Leslie Hoffecker, a former assistant national editor in Washington, are members of NLP’s advisory committee. Numerous current and former Los Angeles Times reporters and editors are among its journalist fellows.
