Jersey Jazzman wonders why I have not been invited to appear on any of the national television shows, not only because I represent a challenge to the status quo but because my new book. Published September 17, will appear as #10 on the Néw Uork Times bestseller list next week.
The good news is that I received an invitation to appear on the Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show next Friday October 4.
Still hoping for an invitation to The Daily Show, as I love Jon Stewart.
Rachel Maddow is a puzzle.
The fact is that most Americans get their news from television.
I will keep hoping that the national media will give me a chance, not equal time, but a chance to refute the status quo that is harming our children and educators.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The ms in msnbc is Microsoft. ‘Nuff said.
Sent from my iPhone, with keys way too small for humans.
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alas
Reign of Error is already at #10 this week.
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2013-10-06/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html
Sadly, Rachel Maddow either 1) doesn’t understand that “corporate reform” is part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy or 2) isn’t allowed to go there by the corporate media folks who apparently control her content.
Ms Madow’s silence is quite conspicuous, and lends itself to unflattering interpretations. My guess is she wont be goaded into action, fearing “loss” of something or another. She’s already lost me and perhaps others, which I’m sure doesn’t add up to what she calculates she would lose in the alternative.
Agree, Chuck. It’s heartbreaking to watch her (I used to watch her regularly but now only once in a while just to see if there’s a change), and quite honestly, I think she’s incredibly conflicted. I suspect she doesn’t have much choice about how far she goes in reporting, but once in a while she still comes out with something a little hard-hitting (ironically, it was the destruction of “free press” she called out when Greenwald’s partner was detained in London http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/52797608#52797608). But then she runs right back into the closet (funny). I think Rachel’s got it in her to haul off and quit MSNBC and do her own thing quite successfully, and she’s certainly got the following… just not sure what it would take. Would love to see Diane with Rachel though suspect one of the reasons Rachel hasn’t had Diane on is that Diane’s pretty good at calmly calling out the kind of spin MSNBC, no doubt, requires.
Rachel Maddow is close friends with Cory Booker, with whom she overlapped at Stanford. Your positions on things educational are different than those of Booker. You can probably complete the thought. You would probably have a better chance of getting on Melissa Harris-Perry, particularly since she now lives in New Orleans and teaches at Tulane (perhaps someone else who teaches at Tulane could make the connect? Hint, hint . . .)
Respectfully, and in the name of candor I believe Dr. Ravitch does the same with Randi Weingarten.
Weingarten has been an enemy of public education for nearly a decade now. A casual survey of the rank and file UFT members in NYC will attest to this fact. Weingarten in my opinion is one of the few union leaders in history to so publicly advocate against her members interest.
I don’t think Shanker would’ve invited Gates to speak at his convention, much less throw out members who rightly dissented at this affront.
I have been vehement in my criticism of Rhee as a fraud when it comes to being an “Educator”. Weingarten falls in much the same vein, anyone in Crown Heights who attended Clara Barton during her “Tenure” there can corroborate this fact.
If Dr. Ravitch has criticized Weingarten in the past for supporting the Gates and Broads of this world I will gladly apologize.
Corporate media is corporate media…….what about Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. They are our best chance to tell the truth. I have to find a new email address as I’ve used msn since the mid 90’s. I want to find one that is not corporate owned. Any suggestions?
Amy Goodman is great. The first time I went on her show, I thought it was radio and showed up in a tee-shirt. She loaned me a scarf so I could look decent.
Keep telling stories about your wardrobe failures and I will be a loyal fan forever.
Chris Hayes likes to play ‘devils advocate’, which is fine, but please also push back and as him for specific contrary evidence to your critique, not just ‘this person disagrees’ etc. He is a pundit as well as journalist, so can’t legitimately hide behind “just seeking the facts ma’am”
Jon Stewart – have you sent him a copy of the book? Lots of folks watch him, and let’s face it: he’s more incisive than many commentators out there, even if he did give Michelle Rhee an easier time than he should have.
I adore Jon Stewart. I am waiting to hear about The Daily Show. Please tweet them. They pay attention.
Another mystery is Bill Moyers and Company. You should have been on that show a long time ago! I don’t get it when Bill Moyers is so on top of related issues like ALEC.
This is his excellent show on ALEC:
http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec-a-follow-up/
I have reached out offline to someone I know who works for Moyers. We will see what happens.
I would love to see Diane on his show. The book just hit number 10, so maybe it will happen soon. Emailing him can’t hurt.
Wonderful. Chris Hayes is smart and he gets it!
not to mention so many standard-issue NPR shows– although to be fair that was an awesome interview Diane did on Friday’s Morning Edition:
http://n.pr/1dNMt4r
But so many other NPR standards ought to be booking her– Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Diane Rehm, Here and Now. Here is a place on NPR’s site for listeners to make suggestions for their various shows:
http://n.pr/ozCEcL
let’s use it
Glad about Chris Hayes, and yes, Rachel puzzles me too. I used to adore her and thought she was one of the few who would speak for what is right. I am very disappointed.
I wrote to Rachel, as I am sure others did, about getting you on Education Nation and about the funding crisis in Philadelphia, and heard nothing. She seems to be consumed with the Va governor race and Bob McDonnel, and nothing else these days.
When you are on with Chris Hayes please remind him of his interview with Mayor Nutter last summer and how Chris could only stare speechless at Nutter as he defended the Corbett administration and bashed the PFT. Chris seemed to be in shock.
Also, I fail to understand how Ed Schultz hasn’t booked you yet. He was with us in Wisconsin, unlike our President, and he is the only consistent voice for public education on MSNBC.
Diane, remember who the press is now since Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunications Bill which wiped out the “Free Press.” This was not an accident as the republicans and their backers knew that it would take democratic presidents bought and sold behind the lines to pull off Fascist Amerika completely and with Clinton and Obama they have them. Both are smart and know what they are doing. Therefore, Hillary is not Eleanor Roosevelt who was a correction factor to FDR. Neither Hillary or Michelle is a correction factor they are full in on the raping of us with their husbands. For instance, Bill Clinton got over 1/3 of all his donations to his foundation from one source Guasti, who is a Canadian Mining Venture Capitalist, donated about $140-160 million which is not listed on the donations I have which are over 2,300 pages. They made sure no one knew when she ran for prez. Cure isn’t it and where did I find this? Well, one Friday on the front pages of the Washington Post and the N.Y. Times. Gee, no one reads them, right?
No more dynasties like the Clintons, Bush’s or Kennedy’s. We do not need them we got rid of kings not to bring them back. Not only that she is not for us but for the billionaires. Like my friends grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.”
Amen George!
Keep Asking Jersey… Maddow is a puzzle isn’t she… She should be all over this!
I think we should all start tweeting at people like Maddow and Ed and the daily show. Tens of thousands of people support Dr. Ravitch that will put some pressure on them.
“Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.” [Dr. Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator”]
Diane Ravitch/REIGN OF ERROR (hardcover), accessed 9-29-13, 1:27 PM, PST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy
#1 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
#1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Children’s Studies
Michelle Rhee/RADICAL (hardcover), accessed 9-29-13, 1:29, PST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#29 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Educators
#36 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Philosophy & Social Aspects
#46 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Administration
Going strictly by the numbers—and merit is all about the numbers, right?—which author is a MSM darling and which isn’t?
Hint: the darling is the one that is 30,000 below the other. Makes cent$, right?
🙂
KrazyTA, thanks. I wonder why you did not include Dr. Steve Perry’s book in your ranking.
My bad. How could I forget “America’s Most Trusted Educator”?
😦
Diane Ravitch/REIGN OF ERROR (hardcover), accessed 9-29-13, 6:38 PM, PST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy
#1 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
#1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Children’s Studies
Michelle Rhee/RADICAL (hardcover), accessed 9-29-13, 6:39, PST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#14 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Philosophy & Social Aspects
#16 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Educators
#18 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Administration
Dr. Steve Perry/PUSH HAS COME TO SHOVE: GETTING OUR KIDS THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE–EVEN IF IT MEANS PICKING A FIGHT (only paperback edition listed), accessed 9-29-13, 6:42 PM, PST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
To go strictly by the numbers, Dr. Steve Perry beats Michelle Rhee beats Diane Ravitch—if by “beats” you mean “beats out for the last spot.”
“Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.”
Even the Kraziest of KrazyTAs could not do more damage to the edufrauds than they do to themselves.
Go figure. [a numbers/stats joke]
🙂
I second pursuing Melissa Harris-Perry. Maybe Rachel Maddow needs a twitter deluge. As someone who benefited from a public education (that served her very well) she should be reporting on this.
I just left a message on the Maddow Facebook site. I encourage others to do the same.
That’s great Diane, I guess I can stop bugging him for a while. Don’t forget to take a shot at Steve Perry while you are Hayes’ show.. he has had himon too many times
RRatto, Perry takes so many pot shots at himself that I don’t need to.
Too funny
I like Chris Hayes. He is brave enough to cover truly Progressive issues. I would also suggest Ed Schultz. I believe his mother was a teacher and he champions unions. I would think he would want to cover the story of how this is also a way to wreck teacher’s unions and destroy the State pension systems to benefit those on Wall Street.
Schultz knows about this but doesn’t talk about it anywhere near enough.
Oh, but I bet that Amanda Ripley (who poses as an “investigative journalist”) will get plenty of air time. She already has…on Morning Joe (which poses as a “news” program).
If you’ve not read her latest piece in The Atlantic, here’s the link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/
Here’s one of the big lies Ripley conveys to readers:
“America has not found a way to dramatically improve its children’s academic performance over the past 50 years, but other countries have—and they are starting to reap the economic benefits.”
According to Ripley, the “investigative journalist,” there’s been absolutely no increase in “academic performance” over the last 50 years in the U.S. But that’s simply not true. Okay, it’s a flat-out lie. And, our “investigative journalist” invokes the big lie about economic performance being tied to student test scores. Another whopper.
It seems that everybody from Arne Duncan to the U.S Chamber of Commerce, from the Business Roundtable to the Broad and Walton Foundations, loves this lie. But American economic competitiveness is not tied to test scores; it is inextricably linked to stupid decisions made by politicians and corporate America.
When the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in the 2010-11 World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, four factors were cited by the WEF for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.
Last year (2011-12), these major factors were cited by the WEF: (1) a “business community” and business leaders “critical toward public and private institutions;” (2) a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and (3) “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.”
And this year (2012-13) the WEF dropped the U.S. to 7th place, citing problems like “increasing inequality and youth unemployment” and “the United States is among the countries that have ratified the fewest environmental treaties.“ The WEF noted that in the U.S.,”the business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions” and “trust in politicians is not strong.” Political dysfunction has led to “a lack of macroeconomic stability” that “continues to be the country’s greatest area of weakness.”
But what does our “investigative journalist” say?
She blames high school sports.
Green Lacers will help with the Daly Show. Post is going up in a bit.
OOh, green laces! Opt out footwear.
I think March 17 is actually our first MCAS test day this spring, in Massachusetts. And I just realized, it’s also St Paddy’s Day. Cue the leprechauns.
I think we are going about this the wrong way.
We need to find a nexus between America’s love of sport and the issue of public education. There needs to be a pay-per view style showdown between Dr. Ravitch and Michelle Rhee.
Something along these lines.
Ravitch VS Rhee: JUDGEMENT DAY
$39.95 call your local subscriber
A countdown special, pyrotechnics, the friday face-off.
This can’t miss.
I have read in several places that Rachel Maddow is good friends with Eva Moskowitz–yes, THAT Eva Moskowitz! That would explain things.
If true, that’s disturbing. Sorry to hear that.
Unbelievable!
Moskowitz embodies the perverse nature of these individuals who exploit poor children for the benefit of millionaires/billionaires.
When Moskowitz was petitioned to have her schools audited she refused claiming they were “PRIVATE” schools.When she is rightly criticized for receiving public money for maintaining private schools they suddenly become “PUBLIC” institutions of learning.
There could be another explanation for Maddow’s silence. She is strongly identified with the left, while Diane’s positions are essentially fact based which these days is dumbed down to “centrist” in the media. If Maddow knows about and supports the anti-deformer side of improving education in America which I suspect she does, then being as smart as she is, she realizes that even though we are steadily gaining ground, it is still too early to risk making the anti-deformer movement into a leftist effort by association. Giving those on the right any reason, not that they actually need a reason or even use reason, but giving them any pretense to reframe this as a partisan issue at this point is not good. And yes, I think that Maddow is in a different class than others on what is called the left.
Diane, if you are not on these shows, you need a publicist, and quick! Or a good PR person. Anyone know someone in the field who would do pro- bono?
Hayes has been very vocal in his distaste for the privatization of Americana education., I would also love to see you on with Big Ed. I’ll do what I can to make this happen.writing, posts, and tweeting)
You aren’t being asked because of the cloak of secrecy around education reform. Parents are the last to know/understand what is going on, and your presence would open up the dialogue about the transformation taking place in our schools. Both high and low performing schools will undergo this transformation, and those in higher performing schools – if they understood the goal – just might fight back.
Just look at NYS. The high-performing schools are waking up. Unfortunately, the low-performing schools have been raided already for the profit they reap. Next stop – – the suburbs.
Diane, I am so glad that you will be interviewed by Chris Hayes. Please bring up the Gulen charter school network with him. He is somewhat aware of it, having tweeted on 3/28/2012:
“How has no one done the big, investigative piece on Turkish Imam Fetullah Gulen and his movement’s global school network?”
Screen capture of that message and discussion about the GM’s free, guided, propaganda-delivery trips to Turkey for US politicians is @ http://hellenicleaders.com/blog/how-the-turkish-lobby-influences-american-policy-free-vacations-for-the-powerful/#.UknFzD-ymSo
Excerpt: “While there have been some decent articles about the influence of Gulen on America’s charter school system, the issue hasn’t received nearly as much attention as it deserves (and one could argue that Hayes, with his MSNBC show, has the perfect platform to launch such an investigative piece). Without the press drawing attention to the issue of foreign influence in America’s school system, it’s not surprising that so many lawmakers in so many states are eagerly accepting free vacations to Turkey.”
The purpose of those trips is to recruit GM sympathizers and they have been very effective. http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-gulen-movements-subsidized-guided.html