Jeff Bryant notes that many in the national media were stunned when the NEA called for Secretary Duncan’s resignation. For years, they believed the Secretary’s press releases instead of investigating the festering discontent against his ill-informed policies. Many journalists are oblivious to the protests by teachers–like the one at Garfield High school in Seattle– against the use of student test scores to judge their quality. Many journalists never noticed growing protests by students against obsessive testing in cities like Providence. Many never heard about parent groups objecting to profiteering by test publishers or dismissed them as publicity stunts. Many have been oblivious to the devastating effects of budget cuts by state legislatures that at the same time that they open unsupervised charter schools that impoverish community public schools. With some notable exceptions, like the Detroit Free Press and the Akron Beacon Journal, the mainstream media has simply ignored a widespread assault on the principle of free public education, democratically controlled, open to all. Instead, they print press releases written by corporations about “miracle schools,” where every child graduates and goes to college, without bothering to check facts.
Reporters quote spokesmen from rightwing think tanks that support privatization or from groups like Democrats for Education Reform, which represents hedge fund managers even though they are neither teachers nor parents nor have any other claim to authority (DFER recently referred to NEA as “the lunatic fringe” in the New York Times for denouncing Duncan, even though NEA speaks for three million teachers and DFER speaks for a handful of fabulously wealthy equity speculators).
What is most astonishing is to see the almost total indifference or ignorance of the mainstream media to an unprecedented and well-coordinated effort to privatize public education. Reporters don’t care that certain individuals and corporations are accumulating millions of dollars in taxpayer funding while schools are cutting their budgets and closing their libraries and increasing class sizes. Reporters don’t care that state authorities are allowing schools to open whose founders are not educators and may even be high school dropouts. Nor do they care when charter corporations claim to be “public schools,” yet refuse to permit the state to audit their expenditures, and in some states, refuse to share financial information with their own board. Has anyone tried to explain how a school can be “public” if its financials are not? Reporters know, but don’t care, that major charter chains contribute millions of dollars to state legislatures to make sure that no one investigates their use of public funds. A few reporters in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida have dared to pry into the cozy relationship between the charters and the legislature, but their exposes are followed by silence and inaction.
If present trends continue, the U.S. will have a dual system in another decade. Some cities will have no public schools, only charters that choose their students and exclude those with disabilities and those who can’t speak English. The few remaining public schools in urban districts will enroll the charter school rejects. The great irony is that privately managed schools don’t get better results than public schools on average for poor students yet they are a gold mine for their founders. What is at stake is the great tradition of public schools, open to all, supported by all, controlled by the public, not corporations. This is a principle worth fighting for, yet the public cannot fight if they are uninformed. It is up to a free press to sound the alarm when private interests seek to undermine, exploit, monetize, and control our democratic institutions. To date, with rare exceptions, the press has not sounded the alarm.
I was just thinking about this and wondering how to bring attention to the few journalists that are paying attention and uncovering truths (as journalists are expected to do). One hero journalist is Gary Stern of the Journal News in Westchester County, NY (lohud – Gannet). I wonder if we should figure out ways to nominate Stern and any others for prizes in their field. Thanks for bringing this up.
Valerie Strauss at the Washing Post exposed the puppet master behind Common Core. A little late to the party is better than a no-show.
Of course the media doesn’t understand. Teachers are the little people. We don’t warrant attention from those with courtly ambitions.
Why is this news?
At the 2010 NEA’s Representative Assembly in New Orleans, the delegates passed a “No Confidence” vote in Race to the Top and Duncan.
A year later, at 2011 NEA’s Representative Assembly in Chicago, the delegates passed another item condemning Duncan for his moves toward privatization and teacher bashing.
While the calls for Duncan to resign were narrowly defeated, that laid the foundation for this year’s vote.
The Star-Ledger in New Jersey is being careful to investigate as little as possible. Editor Tom Moran functions as a full time cheerleader for State District Superintendent Cami Anderson.
Very true NJ Teacher. Tom Moran is a union hater and a robotic knee-jerk cheerleader of charter schools. Jersey Jazzman documents all the rabidly biased education reporting of the Star Ledger and Tom Moran.
This is off topic but a veteran NJ teacher was recently cleared of inappropriate touching charges, thus demonstrating that teachers do need tenure. From the article: Christopher Yonitch, the 5th grade teacher who was accused of touching a girl in his class in February 2013, but cleared of the charges by a grand jury some seven months later, will be teaching again in West Orange in September, school officials said. http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/07/west_orange_teacher_cleared_on_touching_allegations_to_be_back_in_the_classroom_in_the_fall.html#incart_most-comments
Arne and Obama love, love this backlash from the unions by the way. Nothing gives neo liberals greater glee than hippie punching. Just as every national Democrat loves proving his “security toughness,” Arne and Obama never miss a chance to kick working people.
They may regret being outed as anti-union. What I am really enjoying is the befuddlement of regular-Joe conservatives on many an article comment-thread. These folks don’t know from neoliberal, & had been happily muddling along in their ‘Obama-that-socialist-union-lover-liberal’ cocoon until the NEA call for Duncan’s resignation.
Reporters can chase whichever stories they want, but it is up to the editors — and ultimately, the publishers — to determine which stories make it to print. Reporters are about as down-trodden as teachers. In essence, blaming the reporters for not printing stories about education is the same as blaming teachers for students not passing state tests.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This goes without saying. I think we all understand that the death of investigative reporting in most major journals lies at the feet of the editor/publishers– & in the bigger picture, reflects the disarray & identity-crisis of the big papers in the internet age.
My exp with the general public is that they think teachers are overpaid, underworked, union whiners.
It makes me sad that so many in the public hate teachers, and that I have such huge student loans, to be something so vilified.
Titleonetexasteacher: when you need a snappy comeback to such disparaging words, the following from a very old, very dead and very Greek guy may prove handy:
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” [Aristotle]
And Mother Teresa surely had teachers in mind when she said:
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
😎
I always had a comeback as a play on the original disparaging phrase we all have heard (“Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach”). When one of the Fox-fed, tea party types goes off on a red-faced tirade about teachers:
“Those that can, teach. Those that can’t, rant.”
Thank you Krazy…will tattoo it on my palm, then I could do a sassy, yet instructive, “talk to the hand” lol.;)
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” [Aristotle]
…and “Those that don’t know that they don’t understand, preach ideological nonsense” [Errorstotal]
“My exp with the general public is that they think teachers are overpaid, underworked, union whiners.”
And why is that? Up until the recent past, teachers were thought of as UNDERpaid, OVERworked, and heroic, deserving of respect. What cause this to change was hundreds of millions of dollars poured into a propaganda campaign to destroy the public’s faith in teachers… orchestrated by evil people who seek the profit from the privatization of public educations, and the destruction of teacher unions.
I said it in an earlier thread and I’ll say it again here:
“Teachers are the new Jews.”
Depends on where you are, Jack. I’m 41, and for as long as I can remember, the “overpaid, underworked” model has been perpetrated against Utah teachers.
Maybe in Red States, the smear against teachers has been in effect longer than in the Blue States (where I reside). I know that since 2001, the whole attack on teachers has been ratcheted up with greater intensity and greater frequency with each passing year.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Also, try this sentiment I’m happy to see surfacing more & more often on article-comment-threads: to those who criticize teachers because they themselves lack due process & have become at-will workers, turn the question around: why shouldn’t we all have such protections?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx & try this sentiment I’m seeing more & more of on article-comment-threads: to those who criticize teachers for having due process, who feel they themselves have become at-will workers without job security, ask: shouldn’t we all have such security? what ever happened to enforcing basic rights under employment law?
The days of really solid journalism and reporting have seemed to have fallen by the wayside. Today it’s so easy to just rewrite and re-phrase a press release and parrot what you’re told (another argument in favor of abolishing multiple-choice tests).
Off topic, but does anyone know of a time when public education (K-16) has been under such assault and dare I say- battered?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx hopefully another poster will help me, but I believe there’s a book out there that researches the Q, establishing that we’ve ever been battered…!
Battered, yes, but attacked by a well-coordinate, well-funded campaign by Amerca’s richest, no.
Thanks Diane! What’s also astonishing is that any expression of discontent with current education policies is regarded by the press as a view from “outsiders.”
I urge viewers of this blog to read the Jeff Bryant piece in its entirety.
Dont be put off by the beginning.
Early on he replays Jonathan Chait’s description of teachers unions fiercely sparring with Democrats. And from whence proceeded this feistiness according to Chait? The “inspiration for their growing disenchantment: education historian Diane Ravitch.” In other words, a personalized, sensationalistic, and bizarrely incorrect description of what is well documented but apparently unknown to almost the entire MSM and pompous political pundits.
Bryant follows this journalistic pettiness with a cogent paragraph:
“One wonders where these people have been. Dissatisfaction with Duncan and the President’s education policies isn’t anything ‘new’ at all. The conflict didn’t start with Diane Ravitch, although she is certainly a prominent voice. And recent actions by teachers’ unions are not as much a sudden lurch toward a more radical position as they are a reflection of frustration and resentment that’s been building in communities, in the teaching ranks, and beyond, around the country.”
Near the end he refers to remarks by Randi Weingarten re Vergara and civil rights and racial integration and equity and accountability. His last three paragraphs bring it home:
[start quote]
That’s the story journalists who haven’t been following education don’t get. Behind nearly every protest to the status quo education policies are common grievances about resource deprivation, inequity, and widespread feeling that ordinary Americans no longer control their children’s and community’s education destinies.
Despite how the particulars of the debate pivot to issues about content standards, to assessment results, to school choice, to teacher tenure, grievances with inadequate and ijequitable [sic] funding and lack of democratic control are what’s driving the debate – not teachers’ unions, Diane Ravitch, or the inner dynamics of the Democratic Party.
Reporters and pundits who would prefer not to see their write-ups about the education debate parodied in public had better get that.
[end quote] [material in brackets mine]
Journalism worth reading is often hard to find. Don’t miss this piece.
😎
The media remains asleep because 90 percent of them are owned by six major corporations. It would be interesting to see what ties the Gates, Walton, Broad, and other foundations have with those six corporations and education reform.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I so agree. But I do believe they’re on their last gasp. No amount of billionair inoculations can save the Big 6 from the internet.
So true, since Pittsburgh Public accepted Gates money, the Post Gazette education articles (even the “editorials”) are all in favor of whatever agenda the Broad trained superintendent is trying to pass.
Almost everything written is pro central office and anti teacher and anti union. Even our union seems strangely anti teacher and anti union as well, since our last president hopped in bed with Gates.
Teachers are left in a dire situation as the local media turns the public against us. You wouldn’t believe how many pro TFA editorials were published over the Winter here.
Finally follow-up to the concerns mentioned by the Akron Beacon Journal reporter…Former Ohio charter school teachers share bad practices with State Board of Education.
Here’s the link…
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/07/15/19-charter-schools-to-be-investigated.html
I spoke too soon…Now the charter school whistleblowers are coming under attack!
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/07/18/allegations-of-child-abuse-in-dayton-charter-school-investigation.html
I was going to say “Only in Ohio”, but that would undoubtedly not be true!
I think more will come out as scrutiny over which legislaturers took trips to Turkey and the Gulen school lobbying.
Stunned was all I could think yesterday.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/07/18/ohio-department-of-education-threatens-action-against-charter-school-whistleblowers/
Thanks for the link Oh Music Teach.
Follow the money. The same folks who want to privatize education own the media. When a handful of people control about 80% of what everyone sees and hears, of course, the result is an “oblivious” press.
Finally someone who gets it. The media has been bought and compromised for over 50 years now. The same oligarchs who have most of this world’s wealth concentration at their fingertips also control the information which is dispensed to the public on a daily basis. Wake up people there are no choices at the ballot box either; they also bought both parties along time ago as well. It’s getting kind of hard to distinguish between R’s and D’s these days ain’t it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I don’t know about 50 yrs ago. We have investigative reporting to thank for Viet Nam War truths>> LBJ’s declining to re-run in the late ’60’s, & for Watergate/ Nixon’s resignation in the early ’70’s, & Seymour Hersh’s 1975 revelations that led to knocking down at least some of the pins from under the CIA.
But I knew investigative reporting was completely dead when Dan Rather was forced out in the mid-2000’s.
So true, since Pittsburgh Public accepted Gates money, the Post Gazette education articles (even the “editorials”) are all in favor of whatever agenda the Broad trained superintendent is trying to pass.
Almost everything written is pro central office and anti teacher and anti union. Even our union seems strangely anti teacher and anti union as well, since our last president hopped in bed with Gates.
Teachers are left in a dire situation as the local media turns the public against us. You wouldn’t believe how many pro TFA editorials were published over the Winter here.
“Militance trumps Billitance”
Militance trumps Billitance
Like teachers’ pates trump Gates’
Diane’s say trumps any day
The baits of Johnny Chaits
TAGO!
In case anyone cares, that is inspired by Jeff Bryant’s piece:
“Ravitch, Chait insisted, “Has depicted education reform as a plot by corporate elites to privatize schools and destroy unions.” Her “militance” is turning leaders of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – into vehement opponents of what Chait appeared to endorse: opening more charter schools, extending school days, curtailing teachers’ job protections, and evaluating teachers by students’ test scores. Of course Chait didn’t bother to explain why these policies are supposedly so good for education – just that anyone disagreeing with them is a “militant.”
Of course, “militance” means whatever Jonathan Chait chooses it to mean.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” — from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
PS I’m not really advocating “militance”, just mocking Chait’s silly use of the word
Chait, who has a particular fetish for calling feminist women “sexist,” would never in a million years think of describing a connected white male who held convictions similar to Ms. Ravitch’s as “militant.”
Mr Chait is deeply lacking in self-knowledge.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx well you turned that into a dam good verse– well above a ditty!
Also, while we’re playing the “Pretend game” , where Bill Gates pretends to be a real education “expert” and Jonathan Chaits pretends to be a real journalist, I’d just like to say that I’d really appreciate it if folks would address me as “Albert Einstein”.
I am pretending to be a teacher larry. Let’s see how long the charade lasts.
I used to rely on MSNBC for journalism that countered the Fox News narrative and, especially when Ed Schultz went to Wisconsin and helped in the fight against Scott Walker I was encouraged that the story about what was being done to public employees and their rights to bargain was being reported. But more recently what I see, and why I have stopped watching as intently as I once did, is that the hosts of most MSNBC shows are interested only in reporting, if that is the correct word, on politics, who is up and who is down and whose strategy to get elected is working and who will control Congress after the midterms and how Hillary’s book tour is going. There seems to be no recognition by people like Chris Matthews and. Rachel Maddow that the last 20 or so years of gridlock have demonstrated that what they are focusing on is for the most part irrelevant to the lives of working Americans and that politics only becomes relevant insofar as it addresses and is capable of effecting in a positive way the concerns of workers, like teachers, and their families. So, in my estimation, MSNBC hosts may think they are accomplishing something with their emphasis on politics, but by ignoring issues, they are losing audience and not serving the public good. I hope Chris Hayes and MHP, if they read this, will take note. Rachel, I am afraid, is a lost cause, especially when it comes to privatization, since she is buddy of Cory (sell out Newark) Booker.
Ms Maddow is perhaps the most disappointing of them all, given that she is quite bright and creative. Her silence on this issue is conspicuous. Is it really due to a friendship with Booker? In any event, by taking a pass of this massive assault on a bedrock institution of our vanishing democracy, she has lost all credibility as a representative of the values she purports to represent.
Once media types get invited to court and to the inner circle, they are bought and paid for. There’s just no honesty in the establishment press.
Chuck, here’s a good example of how Maddow goes out of her way to protect her friend Cory and his ties to hedge fund operators.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/05/22/rachel-maddow-does-12-minute-interview-cory-booker-without-asking-his
Thanks, GST and yes, Andrew. Rachel M=sellout.
Do not blame me Chuck. I voted for Lonegan.
Also, it’s my understanding that she is a good friend of Eva Moskowitz. And THAT would explain a lot!
Out of everyone, I’m sad to say that Rachel Maddow has been my biggest disappointment in the media today.
I recently sent info to Rachel Maddow begging for some coverage of these issues, especially in Indiana as the first state to dump Common Core, and the infighting going on amongst the governor, his boards, and the elected Supt. of Public Ed. I am highly disappointed by the lack of coverage on this issue at well. As big of a fan as I am of hers, there are times when her sensationalizing of the trivial gets old.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Yes, but: the Ed Show at 5pm! Don’t give up on Maddow: she was for quite a while the only reporter taking Michigan’s crazy Emergency Manager system national. And you have to give Maddow, & especially Steve Kornacki, credit for picking up & running w/local Boburg’s Bridgegate coverage in early 2014.
Diane, remember Michael Winerip? Willful ignorance by major media such as the NYTimes.
Winerip was a great education writer, now assigned to write about “boomers”
The “Boomers” column/blog was retired a while back. Lately Winerip has been reporting about Rikers.
Really, they can’t convince me that not one member of the media doesn’t have a kid in public school. Even Louis CK is on the ‘get rid of CCSS’ bandwagon. Of course maybe (and I’d probably agree) he is much smarter than most in the media!
It is a lack of integrity rather than a lack of intelligence.
And where xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This I believe. The NYT reporters I’ve known have integrity, but where else will they get such a gig? They’ll put in their time until they can get their own desk elsewhere, & a little more editorial control.
The media are not totally indifferent. Today, July 18, 2014 the Wall Street Journal had a sort blurb that caught my attention—a new report on education from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD is the source of almost all of the reports about our terrible system of education compared with other nations. Here we go again.
I have looked at the executive summary of this report, “ Measuring Innovation in Education,” and a four-page summary on the US “innovations-in-education.”
The Wall Street Journal said that school systems do best with “rapid all-at-once change.” I suppose this is an endorsement of “disruptive” and “transformational” change for education (if there is plenty of room for tax-subsidized for-profit education).
Neither the Wall Street Journal nor OECD doubts that innovation is a great strategy for improving education. Of course, the prime measures of “improvement” in the OECD report are scores on the international math, reading, and science tests administered under the auspices of OCED, along with some additional data it collects about higher education for it new Composite Index of Innovation.
These international tests, with data from 2000 to 2011, are the major proofs that OECD offers for the success of “an innovation” and also, it seems, some sort of proof that an “innovation imperative” exists within the education sector of the global economy.
In the four-page summary report for the USA, you will find a bar chart (17.1) that seems to place the US way, way, way behind in the innovation-in-education race—the sixth worst innovator-in-education among 29 entries.
Leading the innovation–in-education race are Denmark, Indonesia, Korea, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, and Hungary (in that order).
A closer look at this chart reveals that the Index is picking winners among 22 nation-states, and all are in the same race with Hong Kong and Singapore, also three separate provinces in Canada, plus the United States, plus Indiana, Minnesota, and Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is not likely to pleased it is in actually in last place.
Here are few more of the amazing insights about our “innovations” in the United States, offered in a bulleted list, as if all of these top innovations are perfectly wonderful and somehow arose spontaneously from the ingenuity of teachers.
According to the OECD, “The top five US innovations in pedagogic and organisational practices (most between 2000 and 2009) ” are (drums and trumpets please):
(1) More use of student assessments for monitoring year-to-year achievement.
(2) More use of student assessments for comparing school performance to district or national performance.
(3) More use of achievement data over time by an administrative authority. An increase for the USA from 76.2% to 96.9%…”the largest increase in this metric of any educational system analysed for this report.” (Notice the extreme importance OECD has attached to cut off scores with the difference of only .1%.)
(4) More frequent observations by inspectors or other persons external to the school to evaluate teachers (2003-2011).
(5) More parental invitations to join school committees (well above the OECD average).
Although the full report may tell a more ample story, the Summary is silent about the policies, politics, and money driving these “innovations.“ It is also silent about the history of test scores and why their many uses should be considered innovations.
And of course, there is no mention of OECD’s own role in creating rhetoric and policies that forward an international competition based on test scores and the consequences of that for well-informed and comprehensive thinking about education here and in many nations were educators are sick and tired of being subjected to OECD and other ratings.
Find the US summary at http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/Measuring-Innovation-in-Education-USA.pdf Other links to the full report and methodology are in this summary.
See also http://online.wsj.com/articles/report-finds-u-s-schools-rank-below-average-in-innovation-1405635683
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Disgusting– & predictable. Their agenda is hanging out there so far into the public eye that their credibility may begin to diminish in other media less discerning than this blog.
Slightly, but not completely off-topic: around 40 Utah teachers just returned from touring schools in Finland. One of the local newspapers has several essays comparing education in Utah to Finland, although most of the insight is transferable nation-wide. It’s nice to see Utah FINALLY having a real conversation about this. Here is the link to a list of the articles: http://www.sltrib.com/cat/education
Threatened out West: great link!
I urge viewers of this blog should read the articles.
Thank you.
😎
My pleasure. I’m pleased to see the discussion, because while Utah is horribly funded in education and everyone knows it, but there have been no real productive discussions about what to do.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Great post! I just had to correct a commenter on the thread at an Atlantic article (http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/07/why-poor-schools-can-t-win-at-standardized-testing/374287/)– the poor fellow was bemoaning all the ‘media and political discussions’ that were putting down CCSS, stdzd testing, VAM. Glad to see he’s reading the Atlantic (or Huffington or Salon), but “the media” – NYT, PBS, etc etc– are hardly progressive & have been a mere rah-rah section for Obama/Duncan; ‘political discussions’ on ed policy have so far been talking-point repartee between Tea Party/ libertarians & mushy-mouths.
If you don’t work in education, or have a kid who is a teacher or a student, this isn’t on your radar. That is pretty much the situation. Newspapers that are 80% owned by the wealthy print what is “allowed.” Thank goodness for all of you. Keep truth telling. Keep on doing what you do. Everyone needs to know.
What a great discussion. I’ll just mention the two recent New Yorker articles I linked to on another discussion thread on this blog. Both articles give us hope that there are enough good journalists in high places to show that under all that icing the “ed reform” cake is rotten.
Rachel Aviv’s story on the Atlanta teaching scandal
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/07/21/140721fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all
Russakoff’s article on how Newark school leaders wasted millions donated Zuckerberg’s
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/05/19/140519fa_fact_russakoff?currentPage=all
As a former journalist (laid off several years ago), I take umbrage at the comments I’ve read so far. First, I need to admit that I haven’t read Bryant’s post. Sorry, no time right now. But the post here skips a lot of nuances that might help readers better understand what they see.
Rather than being elitist puppets of their corporate managers, the journalists that I knew–know, since I’m still in touch with some periodically–are good, honest, smart, knowledgeable, dedicated people. The newspaper industry has taken some incredible financial hits in recent years, leading to widespread layoffs and cutbacks. The people who remained were given reductions in work hours and, thus, their pay. They were told to pick up extra assignments or beats. Meanwhile, the new hires are mostly young, inexperienced, and poorly read (they’re products of electronic media). Reporters receive little or no on-the-job training because editors don’t have time to provide it, and some of the best trainers were, yes, laid off.
All journalists have been told to write stories shorter, as today’s readers want everything quickly because there’s no time to read. Papers are smaller because ad-to-news ratios have gotten extremely tight in order to shore up profits. The Web is everything; stories are produced to go online, which means fast and short. Nobody has time to get out of the building to report; nobody has time to even think. “Enterprise” stories, the ones that take months and require digging and lots of reporting, are disappearing.
In short, today’s journalists are, as a group, a lot like teachers–overworked and underpaid. Because of today’s circumstances, it’s much easier to grab a quick story off a press release, and of course this does not promote discerning the overall trend. Yes, the newspaper industry is dominated by conservative corporations and executives, and I’m sure that plays a part in the stories that some journalists cover (or don’t) at some newspapers. But please don’t tar all journalists with the same broad brush you apply to the corporate moguls. I believe the reporting lapses you see are due to business pressures. Those won’t improve any time soon.
I think it has more to do with what the journalistic outlet will allow and what “side” that outlet is on, and who owns the outlet. More than inexperience and short space and an effort to get the story out “quickly and efficiently,” its my guess that those who are free to blog the facts, without bias, or even with bias, have the autonomy to so do.
I find it refreshing for instance, when a kid does a stint with TFA, that they are able afterwards to honesty state what went on – that is, of course, those who didn’t get brainwashed and further their “teaching career” with a position of power within TFA, or go to the Broad Supe school or found a charter or get assigned position of principal, etc. within a charter. The kids who come out and say…it was grueling, it was cult like, more damage was done to the students than good, etc., those kids have balls and integrity and aren’t afraid to ruin their futures by telling their truth and showing the ugly underbelly of what her Koppness’s program is really about. For years, we never heard that side of the story.
I think we are at a place right now where more truth-tellers are taking to the internet. Journalists can only write what they are allowed to write when someone is paying their salaries. Understood.
Yes, there is no argument with what you have said, but I have followed journalism and the media as it reports education for over a decade, and I can tell you that the absence of the media — as the teachers were taken out en masse by the simple process of suborning the due process procedures in the contract- was a contribution g factor to the failure of the INSTITUTION of Public Education. They didn’t just take out the schools, they took down an American institution, and they did it with a propaganda war that was carefully planned and executed IN THE MEDIA.
THus, to finally have a light shone into the darkness created by the media’s total absence. is a great relief.
Teacher, I don’t think that most of us (or even ALL of us) here are questioning the print journalists’ integrity. We’ve witnessed the censorship/movement (Winerip to the nethers, the firing of Sirota, the down-dirty-rotten Murdoch dictatorship). Stories are whittled down to nothing, or are simply not printed. We see it over & over again in the editorial pages of our city newspapers–so much editorialization & printing of letters from the 1% and their policymakers (in Chicago, for example, the stink-tank known as the ILL-Annoy Policy Institute, the Civic Committee of Chicago, etc., ad nauseum. That having been said, I will continue to take issue with television & radio news content, and what is being broadcast. These well-known commentators are making a WHOLE lot of money–a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY. I, for one, think they can AFFORD to be courageous, to speak out. THAT’s what GOOD, HONEST journalism is, & for those of you out there who eschew it, shame on you, & we’re turning you off.
My favorite news programs used to be 60 Minutes, 20/20, Nightline & A/C 360. Honestly, if Ted Koppel were NOT alive, he’d be spinning in his grave–Nightline is nothing but a piece of insignificant fluff entertainment, whereby Ted used to report REAL news. Same with 60 Minutes–all you have to do is see the movie Inside Job (think that’s the name–you know, the one w/Pacino & Russell Crowe about the expose of the tobacco industry?) And I, for one, wonder what Barbara Walters thinks when she views (if she even bothers to!) current episodes of 20/20! And last–but not least–CNN. It really wasn’t all that very long ago when Diane was put to task for about all of 5 minutes w/some rigged, ridiculous questions, while Michele-she-whose-name-should-not-be-mentioned-so-we-can-acknowledge-that she-does-NOT, in fact-exist was interviewed
multiple times & in the most positive of ways. (&, remember who was, then, the WorldWide President of CNN? Why, noneother than a Walton!). Unfortunately, THAT’s our reality. But–we DO have–
Bill Moyers, In Chicago, we’re lucky enough to have Carol Marin.
I’m sure there are many others in many other places throughout the U.S., and it’s YOUR job to REPORT the news–the REAL news.
Let’s see if any national news outlet covers the BATS March on Washington, D.C. this weekend. I’m betting against it, but I love to be proven wrong!
Most media reporters are clueless simply because they are working for giant broadcast corporations whose CEO and president control everything–like notorious NHK(Japanese public broad cast) dictated by a jerk CEO and governing board selected by PM’s office?
I spent 25 years as a journalist and 20 years as a high school English teacher and I have nothing but respect for the integrity of those who toil in both professions, but mythical CEOs do not dictate news stories nor op/ed pieces. When I see comments blaming the media, I see someone who has failed to get his/her message out effectively. We need to do a better job of communicating.
Ohhhhkayayay….dream on, coach. “Mythical CEOs?”
(Yeah, like the Kochs, the Waltons, the fool who refused to sell The New Orleans Times-Picayune so it could go on woth it’s excellent journalism. the Gates, the Broads–we could go on & on…). Here’s some info. for ya:
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). B: 1971. Celebrated 40 year of existence last year in Chicago–AND there was a WELL-attended protest, but was it covered by the media?
Well, no, & you KNOW why not–& so we go ’round in circles again–Kochs, Waltons, Broads, Gates….)
Sure there are many good journalists out there working hard to maintain its high ethics. Unfortunately, it’s been crumbled so fast due to corporate media ownership and/or conglomerate– especially at the mainstream level. They have money and power to establish strong connections with private reformers, billionaires, and politicians. That’s the reason why a lot of media are having a serious conflict of interest in journalism today.
Da Coach,
Ever heard of Murdoch?
So we failed to get our message out?
OK Boss, what steps are you recommending we take?
The only solution I have found is reading blogs.
“…mythical CEOs do not dictate news stories nor op/ed pieces. When I see comments blaming the media, I see someone who has failed to get his/her message out effectively. We need to do a better job of communicating.” Yes, exactly! Thank you for saying that. People who have not worked in newsrooms don’t understand that many (OK, not all, but many) have policies and procedures in place to control management interference in news coverage. I cannot remember one time when the publisher insisted that we publish or not publish a particular story. I really don’t think it happens that often.
As a group, educators need to do a better job of communicating our story and our position. If we have information that can help journalists tell the education story more accurately and in-depth, then we need to do that. Obviously, organizations have big PR operations, but we can do this individually too. I regularly send news stories, links and tips to the reporters I used to work with.
So you believe that teachers didn’t communicate effectively with Michael Winerip (NYTimes) who was very critical of the educational reforms and was suddenly removed from his educational column????
Sounds so rational, and of course, your experience influences your outlook. We educators need to get our stories out more effectively.
Over two decades the activists who have told the story on their sites, Betsy Combier, Joan Wiener, Lenny Isenberg Norm Scott, Leonie Haimison, Karen Horwitz, Lenny Isenberg, rene Diedrich, Dania Hall, and myself, no tot mention Anthony Cody who covers ed for Ed news.
Karen Horwitz (whose NAPTA site contains the stories of the teachers who were thrown to the dogs on the first assault on tenure, when on hundred thousand professional, experienced teachers were removed from the public schools, ensuring their failure. TV new thrives on human interest stories but the only stories about teachers were when a one was engaged in some dirt. And this was because we teachers do not get our side across effectively?
Fact: during this time no media told the story, the trauma to the teachers but the media across the land put forth stories of those perverts and dead-wood… and this was because the teachers could not effectively explain what happened?
And then there is the incredible voice of Diane, and her books.which nail the conspiracy and war on public educate , “Diane who.” is a common response when I mention her name as I camp and travel around the nation…and she has been on MOyers and The Daily Show, and no one is more prominent that she is.
Let’s get real about scheduling of the news stories… the papers and the broadcast media have been silent about education, unless they are pushing the Duncan rant about evaluating ineffective teachers, and testing, and now Common Core.
50 states 15,880 districts and teachers, isolated from each other have no idea what is afoot behind the scene in their own state legislatures let alone in states across the country or folks would know they are gunning for the LA schools (2nd largest district in the country, once they discovered that charter schools could replace public schools in NYC and use tax-payer money, too.
IN case you missed this when it did not get coverage in the newspaper three years ago, here is how the billionaire’s club did it in NYC.
GRASSROOTS AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH WAITING FOR SUPERMAN: A fabulous film!
https://vimeo.com/4199476
and more about it
Can you spell CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE!
COULD IT BE THAT THEY OWN LITERALLY ALL THE MEDIA IN AMERICA?
NO, it’s our poor communication skills.
You Go Girl 😉 This is a note worthy rant!
Betsy–Just curious–to whom is this addressed–Diane?
Thank you so much Diane. I have been writing about the silence of the media for 16 years. At last, there is a hint of the conversation that needed to take place years ago, when the billionaire’s club that owns the media turned the national conversation to those bad teachers and the need for testing and evaluation… which brought them zillions.
I wrote these a decade ago:
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/08/subverting-the-national-conversation-a.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Learning-not-Teacher-evalu-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-111001-956.html when I wrote “Bamboozle Them”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
.
But it is YOUR voice that makes the difference. Thanks.
Cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Jeff-Bryant-The-Media-Doe-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Education_Media_Media-And-Democracy_Media-Corruption-140719-954.html#comment501352
“The few remaining public schools in urban districts will enroll the charter school rejects.” This is already happening, as every February we have an influx of students who weren’t succeeding in charter schools. In true public schools, we do our best with all of the students in our classroom; we don’t try to get rid of them.