Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler is a watchdog of American journalism.
He regularly criticizes the media, and is especially good when he looks at education. He recently dissected the misleading and overly negative coverage of international tests.
In the past few days, he has been on a roll. He was incensed by the Washington Post‘s fawning coverage of our greatest “education celebrity.” Over the past weekend, trying to immunize Rhee from the renewed uproar about cheating, The Washington Post ran a long article about Rhee’s celebrity, an editorial defending her, and an opinion piece by her admiring biographer.
Here are a few choice comments by Somerby: “A true journalistic disgrace: Over the weekend, the Washington Post was at it again. It was doing the thing the Post does best. The Washington Post was peddling Rhee. This newspaper simply won’t stop.”
And this: “…she’s the dream girl of the world’s billionaires—and the Washington Post won’t stop peddling.”
Read The Daily Howler pieces here, here and here.
A word about the Washington Post. It continues to run Valerie Strauss’s invaluable blog, which has provided a voice and a platform for critics of corporate reform, including critics of Rhee. And an editor there invited me to review Richard Whitmire’s biography of Rhee. That said, the newspaper’s editorial board has been Rhee’s most unflinching defender and whatever she does and says.
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