G.F. Brandenburg Was “Rather Disappointed” in PBS Show on Rhee

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1. bbbbmer says:

   January 9, 2013 at 12:02 am

   John Merrow has been an apologist for the corporate right and charterization movement for at least two decades…

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   • susannunes says:

     January 9, 2013 at 12:10 am

     Yep. He can’t be trusted with reporting on education as far as one an throw him.

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   • Tim says:

     January 9, 2013 at 12:13 am

     How do you think PBS stays in business ? Certainly not from viewers donations!

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2. Dienne says:

   January 9, 2013 at 12:11 am

   I’m sorry, but John Merrow did not try. What he did was throw her a lot of soft balls disguised as hard balls by a good stern look on his face. It was kabuki theatre, trying to make him look like a tough interviewer and to polish her cred for having “withstood” him. In other words, it was standard media operating procedure.

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   • Tim says:

     January 9, 2013 at 12:16 am

     I may be cynical but I think this was an advertisement. I personally feel that she is going to make a big move!

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     • Dienne says:

       January 9, 2013 at 12:17 am

       No, you’re not cynical. Perceptive is the word you’re looking for.

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     • Tim says:

       January 9, 2013 at 12:28 am

       I shouldn’t have said “she is going to make a big move”. She is just an inexperienced elementary teacher, she is the willing pawn in all this! It should have been “the corporate privateers are going to make a big move”!

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     • retiredbutmissthekids says:

       January 9, 2013 at 2:04 am

       In truth, this was probably timed accordingly, with the release of her new book & her PR tour. You know–something like an actor who has a new movie coming out who goes on the late-night-talk-show-circuit?

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3. Ryan says:

   January 9, 2013 at 12:35 am

   While it needs the funding, can’t PBS occasionally use an education reporter other than John Merrow, someone who is more objective and less obviously pro-“reform”?

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4. Puget Sound Parent says:

   January 9, 2013 at 12:49 am

   I’m going to disagree with the general sentiment here. When a reporter—even one seemingly just “going through the motions in front of the cameras”—is brushed away repeatedly, by major subjects of the story, who won’t even talk to him, it makes them look like they’re stonewalling.

   What ARE they hiding?

   In all due respect to everyone who is taking a more resigned attitude, I urge you to NOT give up on seeing that justice is done. If it isn’t, this entire scandal could be subject to “revisionist history”, years from now, when Privatizers actually try and cite it as “yet another horrific scandal within the failing public school system!” (We’ve seen this happen before. We all can cite instances, I’m certain.)

   It’s not our job to bemoan the lack of diligence or fortitude on the part of John Merrow; did anyone really expect him, with his prior, fawning, obsequious coverage of Rhee, to somehow turn into Woodward-Bernstein Circa 1973?

   It’s now up to US—all of us—to help generate interest in the ground that WAS broken—intentionally or otherwise—by Merrow. We can blog about it. We can write to journalists ranging from local DC publications to nationally prominent websites.

   Remember the specific circumstances of this egregious cover up. It’s a true outrage. And it will only “fade into the distance” if we allow it to.

   Rhee is getting ready to embark on a multi-city PR tour for her new book. Parents, students and educators need to be ready and organized to greet her, and speak to the media, at every single stop on her self-enrichment tour.

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   • retiredbutmissthekids says:

     January 9, 2013 at 2:06 am

     Puget Sound Parent, you make perfect sense. Let’s stop complaining about the program and make our presence known on her book tour stops. Actions speak louder than words.

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   • Dan McConnell (@DMaxMJ) says:

     January 9, 2013 at 4:18 am

     I have to agree. If even PBS has abandoned the public to instead perform as a promotional broadcasting system, it’s time to develop truer sources of truth. Clearly this is an attempt to polish Rhee as an expert, one qualified to “reform” failing schools, and one deserving of respect and the fast track she enjoyed from nowhere to the national spotlight (with no real vetting). The damage being done is ignored, the inconsistency and lack of validity is ignored, and the money sources and motives go unquestioned in any substantial manner. PBS, in the words of the great G.W. Bush,

     “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against [the attack on public schools].”

     “A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform,”

     “Over time it’s going to be important for [news sources] to know they will be held accountable for inactivity,”

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5. "2old2tch" says:

   January 9, 2013 at 1:33 am

   I’m sure we all would have liked the voice overs asking the tough follow up questions that were never asked. The picture that was presented wasn’t gushingly pro-Rhee. We are left to connect the dots, but at least the dots are there.

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6. KrazyTA says:

   January 9, 2013 at 2:13 am

   With all respect to other commenters, I agree with Puget Sound Parent and 2old2tch. My spouse and I both said after the program that there were a number of issues brought up that made this, at the very least, a weak puff piece, if not a muted critical review of her career as a pusher of discredited eduproducts.

   Just the fact that the producers had to consciously suppress such things as the audio recording of her explaining how she taped shut the mouths of her 35 students with masking tape (and the accompanying laughter and tee hees of both her and her audience as she described how their mouths bled when they removed the masking tape) and any question related to this shameful incident, shows just how vulnerable this self-proclaimed radical is to any honest and open discussion of her actual behavior and results. **Sadly, as far as I know, apparently not one of the parents of those children failed to raise hell over this abusive treatment. I find this inexplicable.**

   And it is one thing to fire people. It is another to do so with a smirk on one’s face. Her face should go on the poster “This is what an edubully looks like.”

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7. Linda Johnson says:

   January 9, 2013 at 2:23 am

   Although this wasn’t the expose we were all hoping for, the facts were presented for people to make the obvious inferences. The mostly intelligent people who watch Frontline will know that it is impossible for a school to go from the fortieth percentile to the eightieth in one year. They will also know that Rhee had to know something was not right. Instead, she praised the principals of those schools and gave them bonuses. That makes her complicit in the “invalidation” of those tests.

   It isn’t that easy to prove cheating, especially if people don’t admit to it. Many of these people change answers while alone in a locked classroom or office. Even if they are discovered, they can say they are just erasing “stray marks.” Because teachers were told by the testing companies to do this for many years (It was believed that stray marks or drawings would interfere with the correcting machine) this would be an adequate defense.

   I believe the truth is now emerging in a slower, but potentially convincing way. As Merrow made clear in the program, achievement is only slightly improved in DC, one of the worst districts in the nation. And high school graduation is the worst in the nation. Even with the new and supposedly better teachers, the poor kids are still doing poorly while the affluent students achieve at much higher levels. And the achievement gap between rich and poor has widened.

   Elsewhere in the nation, charters are failing and their teachers are leaving. States with the greatest “reforms” have the lowest achievement in the country. In Florida, where teacher evaluation methods approved by “reformers” have been used, fewer than 1% of the teachers were found to be “ineffective.” This is even lower than the old methods! Knowledgeable parents are waking up to the test prep and charters that threaten their own schools and they’re starting to organize.

   Our people are not stupid. It might take time, but they’ll catch on to what is happening. I don’t doubt that for a minute. Sadly, though, when this “reform” ends, we’ll be left with a bunch of storefront academies in our big cities and those will be hard to get rid of. The poorest of the poor will be the big losers and that really is the status quo!

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8. George Buzzetti says:

   January 9, 2013 at 2:57 am

   I do not care if it was a whitewash the facts are that she is a phony and the name of their organization is Orwellian doublespeak in which every word is really the opposite meaning. There are many facts on her and just because you have big money behind you does not mean that you are what you say you are. A friends grandfather taught him this “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.” Just look at what they do and have done and that is it no matter what they try to tell you.

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9. readingexchange says:

   January 9, 2013 at 6:31 am

   I think the show did show her callousness. I think it also succeeded in showing how shrewd, albeit imperfect, Rhee is at covering her tracks. Her smile has a bone-chilling effect.

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10. rratto says:

    January 9, 2013 at 6:39 am

    What a waste of an hour. I would have been better off watching Comedy Central!

    Merrow’s whitewashing of the data is typical of Rhee’s nonsense. Not once did Merrow show any educational strategy used, or recommended by Rhee.

    The only strategy Rhee used and tries to continue to use is slash and burn. The evidence shows that that strategy clearly didn’t work in DC.

    Merrow glorified an egotistical liar who worked the local DC political circle until it caught on to her. Currently Rhee is trying to do the same nationally.

    The veil of absurdity and corruption is being raised as we speak. Mark my words, Rhee is slowly being exposed.The nation will catch on to her, thanks to the great works of Diane and others who continue to demand Rhee’s own accountability for her charade.

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11. Dienne says:

    January 9, 2013 at 6:50 am

    With all due respect, I think many of you are (naturally) looking at this piece from the perspective of educators who have been following Rhee for years. I think to the lay public, Rhee came off smelling like a rose. The lay public doesn’t know what information was suppressed. They don’t know the tape story, or Rhee’s affiliation with the Broad Academy (or even what that is) or how much money Rhee is spending on right-wing candidates.

    Merrow failed nearly every opportunity to follow up and press Rhee with available information, like he just threw up his hands because people were unwilling to be interviewed. He could have, for instance, confronted Rhee with the emails and letters proving that she did indeed stonewall investigations into the cheating scandal. But instead, he left it as just, we can’t prove anything.

    Whatever dots were put out there were connected by giving Rhee and her biographer the last word. As far as the general public is concerned, sure, cheating apparently did go on. But what can you expect of those lazy, wily, devious union people? How was Rhee supposed to be everywhere and prevent everything when those union people did whatever test changing they did at night in locked rooms?

    I think Merrow did a reasonably convincing act as a “tough” reporter for those who don’t know all of what he left out. Now Rhee looks even better for having stood up to him and she came out looking like the victor (which was intentional). Honestly, I’ve seen too much in the last decade to believe for a minute that the average American public will see anything other than what the Rheeformers want them to see in this (puff) piece.

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12. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

    January 9, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Totally disappointed by Merrow. Something is up. What goes unsaid, says a lot.

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13. Lehrer says:

    January 10, 2013 at 6:04 am

    I was disappointed in the program as well. I kept waiting for the hardball questions which never came. In fact, I disgustedly turned off the TV halfway through. I wonder how the old “60 Minutes” team would have handled this story

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    • dianerav says:

      January 10, 2013 at 8:10 am

      Read John Merrow’s blog, which I am posting in a few minutes, and you will see the hard-hitting questions that were left on the cutting-room floor.

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