Finding faults with ‘pointless' Nu Juice story

After spending over a month fielding questions from reporter Regina Medina about my PR client, Nu Juice Foundation, and its president, Eric Ward, I feel compelled to address some of the details she left out.

The thrust of Ms. Medina's article was Philadelphia School District Inspector General John Downs' statement of opinion that Eric Ward, because of past transgressions, should have been "barred" from receiving contracts with the district.

But, as I pointed out to Ms. Medina, that's a baseless premise for a story because Mr. Ward never had contracts with the district. The Nu Juice Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization of which he serves as president, did. I stressed to Ms. Medina that if she insisted on proceeding with this story of non-news, it would be incumbent upon her to differentiate between Mr. Ward providing a paid service to the district as an independent contractor and Nu Juice doing so as an organization.

I urged her to ensure in her story that Mr. Downs clarify his position, since Nu Juice, as a six-member board and four-person staff, had nothing to do with the events that transpired in Mr. Ward's personal life over two decades ago. She refused to do so, and what resulted is a confusing and essentially pointless article.

Glaringly absent from her story was any specific school-district policy or provision in the Pennsylvania School Code substantiating Mr. Downs' position. It's amazing how Ms. Medina just accepted Mr. Downs' position on this issue yet questioned Nu Juice at every turn scrutinizing accomplishments, staff resumes, tax returns, letters of commendation and partnerships with other local districts.

As I stated to Ms. Medina, the danger of Mr. Downs' statement and her article is that both are tremendously counterproductive to all efforts to change the culture of Philadelphia as it relates to ex-offender reentry. But, of course, that never made it into her story.

Regarding the contract the district awarded Nu Juice to provide West Philadelphia High School students with mentors, Ms. Medina reported that district spokesman Fernando Gallard said that Nu Juice "couldn't demonstrate through hard data that the work was having an impact on students." But Nu Juice provided Ms. Medina with a mountain of letters from the district's own principals, teachers and students to the contrary. Why didn't she cite any of those letters in her article?

Mr. Gallard also said that West Philadelphia High's principal, Mary Dean, "made it clear" that Nu Juice's services on the contract "were no longer needed" in July 2011 and criticized the organization because it "continued to call and ask for meetings" thereafter. But I provided Ms. Medina with emails Nu Juice received from district officials in the central office advising the organization to proceed with its contract by taking direction from specific individuals who were newly assigned to work with Nu Juice.

Finally, Ms. Medina reported that I "couldn't name a single person whom Nu Juice had confirmed as a mentor" for the contract in question, giving readers the impression that I couldn't name them because they didn't exist. But I explained to Ms. Medina numerous times that I couldn't reveal the names because they were considered private information,

Ms. Medina reported that "Nu Juice hasn't complied with an agreed-upon payment plan" to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. But despite asking me why the payment plan fell through and receiving an explanation, she never included it in her article. I stated that Nu Juice remains committed to repaying DCED immediately upon receiving unrestricted funds in the amount owed, as mandated. Apparently, this information fell into the category of things she didn't want readers to know.