In the aftermath of David Sirota’s exposé of PBS accepting $3.5 million for a series about pension reform, funded by the Arnold Foundation (and since returned), another question naturally arises: why has PBS shown little or no interest in the corporate takeover of and turmoil in public education?
I appeared on Charlie Rose last year for about 15-20 minutes. But otherwise the viewers of PBS have not had any in-depth investigation of the corporate-funded assault on one of our nation’s most crucial democratic institutions. Why isn’t PUBLIC television interested in PUBLIC education?
Here is one lead, sent to me by blogger Jonathan Pelto, who received it from Oakland parent activist Sharon Higgins. This was a letter she wrote in 2009:
It begins like this:
“Last summer you initiated a series of conversations, underwritten by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, about the “crisis” in our public schools.
“In the past nine months, it appears you have had three of these full-hour conversations: Wendy Kopp (with Bob Wise on 7/1/08), Michelle Rhee (7/14/08), and Arne Duncan (3/11/09). Have I missed anyone?
“As a longtime viewer, I am extremely disturbed that you are now limiting your education interviews to pro-charter school forces only. This clearly reveals a problem with your journalistic standards.
“I am even more disturbed, but sadly not surprised, to find that the funding for these interviews is being provided by a pro-charter school organization, The Broad Foundation. Either you have not researched how this organization is influencing the public’s view of charter schools, or you are intentionally delivering their propaganda to the American public.”
Since Higgins wrote, Charlie Rose has interviewed Bill Gates, Joel Klein, and other leaders of the corporate takeover.
Clearly, balance is needed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Charlie Rose program taking money from Broad to air interviews with those who support Broad’s agenda violates the exact same ethics rules that caused PBS to return the donation from John Arnold.
I’ve also seen reporting about a pro-reform PBS show called “Teaching Channel Presents,” funded by the Gates foundation.
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What about NPR? They hardly mention CC and Gates, yet they broadcast how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helps fund NPR programs.
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WNYC, the NPR affiliate in New York City has been nothing but a loudspeaker for so-called education reform for years.
Absolutely disgraceful…
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I know this might rub some folks the wrong way, but consider every effort to DEFUND NPR has been stonewalled by the Democrats in Congress, as they support the type of reporting
with such a narrow perspective (aka left-leaning), which leads its viewers to believe its form of journalism is based on facts.
Add to this the smugness of the viewer who actually believe they are smarter than those who do not tune in.
Its a shame an idea with the purest of intentions has become a pipe organ for partisan viewpoints.
“Journalism” has become the junk food for human intellect which we take without realizing their is nothing nutritious despite the claims and awards won by such programming.
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Was it during the Bush II years that the Public in Public Broadcasting was finally laid to rest, or was it his minions who merely hammered the final nail in the coffin. Public Broadcasting should be renamed to better define whose interests are being served.
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John Merrow has been a PBS education correspondence for about 20 years. He’s a huge fan of arts in education and a skeptic of over-reliance on traditional standardized tests. From the beginning of the charter movement, Merrow has described some of the successes and the shortcomings of chartered public schools. People can learn more about the vast array of stories he’s done by looking here:
http://learningmatters.tv/blog/tag/newshour/
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There is something strange going on with John Merrow. Damning information about Michelle Rhee’s involvement DC cheating came to light within days of the broadcast of Merrow’s Frontline film on her, but Merrow said it was too late to recut the film, and has not revised it for re-broadcast. Since then, Merrow announced he would drop the subject and not report on Rhee any longer. He also wrote a blog praising KIPP as the middle ground of the ed reform debate, and calling Diane Ravitch an extremist akin to Ted Cruz.
John Merrow has done some good reporting, but he’s not an unwavering ally of public schools.
Where does John Merrow get his funding?
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Merrow has continued to criticize Rhee. You can easily find that on his blog. In fact, earlier this month he wrote an extremely strong criticism you can find here:
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6767
You can easily find the range of funders that have contributed to him. Merrow may well be the most honored education journalist of the last 20 years because he has presented a variety of views, he digs in deeply, and he raises very tough questions.
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Do We Need More Heroes?
by JOHN MERROW on 25. SEP, 2013 in 2013 BLOGS
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6556
Joe Nathan 25. Sep, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Well done, John.
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All roads lead back to Gates:
Funding for Joe Nathan’s center for school change:
Funding for the Center has come from Cargill, Gates, Annenberg, Blandin, General Mills, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, Peters, Minneapolis, TCF, Joyce, Bradley and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Best Buy, Pohlad, and Wallin Foundation.
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Thanks for the continued reminder for folks about the range of sources of CSC’s funding.
The vast majority of our Bill and Melinda Gates funding went into the creation of small district schools – schools that were strongly supported by local union leadership, and which allowed district public school teachers to create schools within schools that reflected, in some cases the kinds of schools that some of they had dreamed for years about creating. In 3 different districts, teacher unions were a great ally of these efforts.
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Sure
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And let’s not forget NPR which takes money from the Walton family and does not air the other side of our story. And how about that editorial in the New York Times yesterday on the CC$$? All of it appalling. And disheartening. Could make you weep enough to melt the snow in NY.
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Here’s part of what Diane wrote about Claudio Sanchez of NPR
“Claudio Sanchez of NPR did an excellent analysis of the tragedy unfolding in the Philadelphia public schools….”
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Joe, I have yet to see a major one-hour special on PBS about the attack on public schools and the teaching profession. Have you?
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Joe, Claudio Sanchez prepared a radio report for NPR, not a TV prime-time special for PBS.
And yes, I have great admiration for John Merrow, but PBS. Has not allowed him to produce a one-hour special on his revised view of Rhee.
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Diane, in my note quoting you about Claudio Sanchez, I was responding to Melissa’s assertions about NPR.
As to your question about a 1 hour documentary about the “assault on public education,” Merrow has documented a vast array of issues. He presents different views. Yes, his views have evolved about Rhee.
Looks like he is interviewing you at an upcoming meeting in NYC so you’ll have a chance to share your views of him, PBS and others.
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Don’t dissemble, Joe: answer Diane’s question.
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I did respond to her comment – gave her specific examples. Did you see my recent questions to you?
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No, I did not: where are the posted?
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Michael, my questions to you are at end of this exchange between you and me here:
Michael Fiorillo
February 15, 2014 at 10:56 am
Duane, for once Joe Nathan spoke honestly, if inadvertently, about charter schools: everything about them has been “obfusacted,” and intentionally so.
Joe Nathan
February 15, 2014 at 5:52 pm
Michael, this week I was mostly out of the office trying to help district high school students deal with the inappropriate towing of their cars after a snow storm (I wrote a little about this elsewhere on this list serve) and helping one of our youngsters and her husband deal with the suicide of his mother. So I did not carefully check the brief note I sent.” of frustrated families” unfortunately turned into “obfuscated families”. My apologies.
Our 3 children all attended and graduated from urban, not admission tests public schools. My wife and I together worked for 47 years for urban public schools.
Would you care to share what kind of public schools you have/are working in, and where if you have children, they attend(ed)?
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You and your wife’s vita are very impressive, Joe, which suggests to me why your funders have chosen you to be their mouthpiece.
It’s a shame that your family’s legacy as public school educators is being sullied by your willingness to front for a group of billionaires who, accumulating more and more, can never seem to have enough.
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Michael – Since you are closer to the situation than I am, why do you think this (district) principal was protected so long:
I remember hearing stories from friends/educators in NYC schools (before Bloomberg came along) that corruption was common in district school boards. Not all, but many. Then community boards were eliminated in favor of more centralized control.
Did anyone do an analysis of corruption in NYC public schools before & after the elimination of community boards?
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The problem with lovers of public education, is that we believe the world operates fairly. Just because NPR is supposed to be unbiased and unbuyable does not make it so. Maybe Network for Public Education needs to start raising serious money so that we can also “donate” towards programming of our choice. Unfortunate, that it has to be this way, but c’est la vie.
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This is how a one-party State operates while proclaiming we live in a free society. The Party Line dominates public discussion, which is why Diane gets only 20 mins on PBS and Noam Chomsky never appears. Only the Official(corporate-0Story is presented, the only view allowed to teach us what is possible, what is good, and what exists. Did our media pundits study Journalism at Moscow University? Does Putin copy them now or do they copy Putin? Or were they all classmates?
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precisely
On education, PBS = Pravda in the Stalin era
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And NPR = National Pentagon Radio (and has since ol Georgie Porgie was first installed into office)
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The 2007 Broad Foundation 990 listed a $750K donation to Educational Broadcasting Corp. Channel 13 / WNET (producer of the Charlie Rose Show). The stated purpose: “To facilitate an in-depth discussion of education reform with a national audience.”
Wish I had more time to monitor all those donations on Broad’s 990s but discovering the Gulen charter schools pulled me in another direction. (fyi, the best weekend post about that issue is @ http://www.rpnps.blogspot.com/2014/02/todays-gulen-charter-school-news.html )
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Here’s one of John Merrow’s most recent blogs about standardized tests: http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6730
He concludes, “f our schools persist with boring, undemanding curricula, our kids will be stuck at the free throw line, practicing something they will rarely be called upon to do in real life. If, however, in the name of the Common Core’s ‘rigor’ we give our kids lifeless questions like ‘Triangles,’ schools may end up turning off the very kids they are trying to reach.”
Merrow currently IS trying to raise money to continue the work that he does for PBS. Some of you may wish to help.
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Do We Need More Heroes?
by JOHN MERROW on 25. SEP, 2013 in 2013 BLOGS
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6556
Joe Nathan 25. Sep, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Well done, John.
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Rose does no cross-exam of any person on his show. He merely lets a bunch of wealthy people on his show spew bs.
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All of you need to do what our family has done. Turn off Charlie Rose and never turn him on again until he presents a balanced approach which is not controlled by donors contributions. I asked for him to organize a REAL DEBATE between Rhee and Prof. Ravitch, but never heard any mention of him actually doing something in regard to the biggest reforms of our Public Schools in our history. I guess no one would pay him enough to do this debate. It is sad to see the number of people who have been respected in the past by so many, and now have been paid large sums to repeat ideas and research that is questionable at best and in many cases is absolutely not true but helps a certain group get their message to large groups of easily influenced individuals usually for the purpose of making money and gaining power.
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From an unscientific review of Charlie Rose guests, I’ve noticed a very high percentage of older white men, including many CEOs, Wall Street types, and white male journalists and pundits. Charlie Rose’s most frequent guest is billionaire everyman Tom Friedman.
Interesting review of Charlie Rose’s ties to business interests, including Bloomberg, here: http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/25/magazines/fortune/charlie_rose.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009092813
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Rose is a true believer in Liberal ideology. He refuses to let facts change his view, nor offer an objective journalist approach to reporting on issues. Put, at least if you prefer to watch Rose on PBS, and contribute to this unholy alliance between ‘journalism’ and taxpayer funded broadcasting….you will receive a tote bag.
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Bob Somersby, one of the first on Michelle Rhee’s lying, takes Charlie Rose down with regards to his “interview” with Wendy Kopp:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh071508.shtml
ENJOY EACH THRILLING INSTALLMENT: Charlie Rose and Wendy Kopp may have staged the worst interview ever:
PART 1: Charlie Rose rolled over and died. Kopp seemed like a music man. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/10/08.
PART 2: Kopp told Rose some pleasing tales. But were the pleasing tales accurate? See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/11/08.
PART 3: The studies say TFA ain’t all that—so Rose avoided the studies. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/14/08.
In part 4, Kopp gives the worst answers ever
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Freedom of the Press is obviously a guarantee of free speech for those who own or control media outlets. Shameful.
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I used to donate to PBS. Not anymore. Maybe PBS should die.
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PBS is not what it appears to be. While proudly taking the ‘high ground’ it “bends over frequently” to appease its contributors and screw the American taxpayers. PBS needs no Federal funding, it could do quite well without it.
The concern you have with this particular report needs to be duplicated when PBS has reports on issues some support
and others do not.
Lets stop funding PBS as this blog entry is sufficient reason it should not receive govt. funding.
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PBS says it relies on us, the viewers. How can the Average American compete with corporations and foundations? It’s always about the $$$.
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Love the title of this post, BTW! Can you guess? LOL
Diane Ravitch comes up with many of these gems.
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Joe Nathan, you seem to be under the impression that PBS has given equal time to the Gates-Broad-Walton-Bloomberg-Rhee view of education and to supporters of American public education.
Your evidence: I spoke highly of Claudio Sanchez’ NPR radio show about the destruction of Philadelphia public schools, and the fact that John Merrow is having a conversation with me at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan in late March, which will not be broadcast or televised.
Also, you note that John Merrow has been critical of Rhee on his blog.
You know, of course, that John acknowledged having featured Rhee on PBS twelve times. I have no count for the number of times that PBS on various programs has featured Duncan, Gates, Kopp, Klein, Rhee, the “miracle” of New Orleans, or the “crisis” in education as paid for by Gates and Broad.
I do not want air time personally.
But I do want air time for the mean-spirited destruction of public schools and communities, for the widespread, federally funded, Gates-funded, ALEC-inspired privatization of American public education. For the attacks on public schools and the teaching profession in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, and other states.
I would love to see a media count of hours between these two narratives. My guess: Corporate reformers have received 100 hours for every one devoted to the hostile takeover of public education.
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No Diane, I made no assertion that PBS has “given equal time” to various viewpoints..
* In response to Melissa’s assertion that “And let’s not forget NPR which takes money from the Walton family and does not air the other side of our story,” I cited an NPR example that you praised.
* I could have listed in response to other Melissa, a number of other stories done by Mr. Sanchez, including “Critics say Schools Common Core Standards Rollout is Rushed,” and “Decade-Long Study of Big City Schools Finds Better Reading and Math.”
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=2101122
* In response to your assertion that PBS ignores (your word) “the assault on public education,” I cited a variety of programs in which John Merrow PBS Education correspondent has covered various controversies in public education. As mentioned, he has covered (and questioned) Common Core, reliance on standardized tests, promoted use of the arts, highlighted examples of outstanding public schools, etc. etc.
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Oh, Joe, the proportion of time devoted to praising charters and lambasting public schools is easily 100-1, maybe more. And there has been almost nothing–nothing to my knowledge–about the charter school thefts, fraud, corruption, nepotism, etc.
Give it a rest.
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Diane – Your assertion of 100 to 1 is based on what research?
As to your assertion that “there has been almost nothing – nothing to my knowledge about charter school thefts, fraud, corruption, etc”….Merrow was one of the first national journalists to raise concerns about that very issue.
Here’s a link to a typical John Merrow PBS program, this one from 1997 – that explores the complexities of charters. Some encouraging examples, and some disturbing examples.
Click to access CharterGamble.pdf
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Charlie Rose is a huge fan of Rahm Emanuel.
In 2004 John Merrow did a piece spporting Alvarez and Marsal/ Roberti closing of twenty schools in St Louis.
Last I checked, pbs news hour has given no coverage of Gulen charter schools. Even the pro-privatization new york times has covered gulen charters.
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I guess the BS in PBS has a new meaning.
Kind Regards,
Nick Penkovsky
Please excuse any typos or terseness, this was sent from my Sprint BlackBerry®.
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Here’s a link to a Bill Moyer’s PBS program from 2013 in which he skillfully describes the influence of ALEC, including but not limited to its work to promote vouchers in education.
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec-a-follow-up/
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Just saw a Craigslist ad for a Minneapolis principal…only need three years of teaching experience. Scraping the barrel, must be getting desperate for “leaders”.
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This past week, as the deadline approached for states to make their submissions to Arne Duncan’s Department of Education requesting monies appropriated under the Race to the Top initiative, we were reminded that the DOE has decreed that no proposal will be considered where the state government has put a cap on charter schools. In other words, the federal government has put its thumb heavily on the scales of local deliberations as to what approach toward charter schools best serves their communities’ interests. Penalties are being imposed on those who choose to limit, in any quantitative way, the charter school movement.
This heavy-handed use of federal leverage by the Obama administration should not come as a surprise. After all, Obama himself has been a consistent, highly vocal advocate of “privatization.” He has travelled the country from coast to coast, like Johnny Appleseed, sowing distrust of public schools and – especially – public school teachers. They have been blamed for what ails America – the young unprepared for the 21st century globalized economy; the shortage of engineers; high drop-out rates; school districts’ financial woes, whatever.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/17/american-public-schools-rip/
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At first I thought you yourself had written the two paragraphs posted above, but then I find that you have lifted them unchanged without putting them in quotation marks from the article whose link you provide.
Although I perceive no effort to deceive, it is still technically plagiarism.
Does it make any difference?
It really remains a fundamental puzzle that so socialist a President as Mr. Obama should be pursuing privatization.
Do you understand it?
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One is not socialist when one is subservient to the corporate interests that control this nation in oligarchic fashion. And yes, Obamacare even reinforces this notion. It was written to preserve our private health insurance industry.
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I don’t think you are strictly right here. The essence of socialism is government control of as much of the economy as possible (so the controllers can get rich). Private businesses often cooperate with socialist regimes because they get money diverted to them by the government. Do differentiate between true private oligarchic control and true socialist control. It’s a possibility that the ACA was intended to destroy the insurance companies so the country could be moved to a single payer system, and that the insurance companies were hornswoggled to sign on by guarantees of being bailed out from losses. Who knows? But I think that is what is happening, whether intended or not. The ACA is failing dismally. Bailouts will be necessary. And when the insurance companies have become dependent on government payouts to survive, then the government can eliminate them and extend Medicare downward. If I remember correctly, under Hillarycare, private medicine would have been outlawed. If she is elected, I suspect she may try again to implement a single payer system. Then everyone will be equal, equally badly served. Even President Obama’s rhetoric has turned fundamentally socialist in promoting income equality. I’m afraid, liberal teacher, that liberal policies will continue to make life worse for the majority of the productive people in the society. But if you can’t be defeated at the ballot box, the best the rest of us can do is endure. Since Orwell is their hero, it continues to puzzle me why liberals don’t understand the lesson of his ANIMAL FARM. Of course, I suppose, if one is a liberal, s/he expects to be one of the public sector workers, bureaucrats, who run the farm, and turn into the pigs adumbrated in the book, where eventually it is impossible to tell the difference between the capitalist exploiters of labor and the labor exploiters of labor and everyone else.
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Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
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