I am reposting this because I immediately discovered I left off the link. No excuses!
I have said in the past that I am dismayed that Education Week takes money from the foundations it covers, like Gates and Walton. I have said that I am dismayed at its shameless advocacy for the edtech shlock and profiteering now inundating the schools.
But Education Week has great reporters, who tell it like it is.
In this blog, Mark Walsh reports on the controversy over NBC’s biased selection of participants. Why in the world would NBC invite the CEO of Goldman Sachs as an “education expert?” Why in the world is the list tilted towards governors on the far-far-far right? Why are there so few educators?
How can there be a debate when only one side is represented?
How can a national discussion of American education take place with no discussion of poverty and segregation, budget cuts and privatization? Why no panel on equitable distribution of resources to the neediest children? Why no discussion about the remarkable growth in the for-profit management of public schools?
Thanks, Mark Walsh. You restore my faith in EdWeek.
Thanks for reporting on this, Diane!
News organizations are complex. On the one hand, they are often staffed by hardworking, dedicated journalists with lots of integrity. On the other hand, they have owners, and they have executive leadership with vested interests, and conflicts often arise. The MSNBC Education Nation program is shockingly one-sided. This is advocacy and propaganda disguised as reporting. It’s great that Education Week is allowing both sides of the debate over national education policy to be told. Their reporting on this, for some time, was quite one sided. Great to see that that is improving.
Unfortunately, you’ve been all too correct in characterizing the current chaos in education as having less to do with true and necessary educational reform (THAT would required the “educators”) and nearly everything to do with privatization and profits, and THAT requires politicians and CEOs. It would be interesting on a state-by-state basis to reveal the backgrounds of the heads of the state education departments to discover how many actual educators are involved with the direction the current “reform” movement has taken vs political appointees from business with limited or no educational experience!
I would love to have each panelist disclose their higher education backgrounds and their direct experience in schools on air. It’s okay to be a dilettante if you acknowledge that is what you are. It’s okay to acknowledge that your experience is limited. It is not okay to represent yourself as someone who should be involved in major decision making from such a position.
May I recommend the “Columbia Journalism Review” to see what the plight of real journalism is today. In my opinion, past editions, a few years ago are better than the newer editions but this is important because journalism is perhaps even more important in “educating” the public and as is well known, 5 major corporations control about 80% of the “news” that the public receives. Guess where there interest lies. Also, reviewing the effect of the people who own our “news” organization over the years and perspective can be gained on what is happening now. Sad! There are still great journalists out there but way too often they have no jobs. Money has supplanted journalism.
YUP. The media have always been partisan, but I’ve never seen anything like what we’ve had in the past few years. Most people are aware–it’s REALLY obvious–that the major media in the U.S. are now propaganda organs. But there are some things that are happening, there, that are as insidious but that few know about. For example, most young people, these days, get their “news” from Internet sources, and almost all of the “news” that appears there is free stuff from a few large aggregators that basically package press releases and recycle these to online publications as news stories. It’s a very cheap way for online publications to fill space.
I wrote to Rachel Maddow, asking her to invite Diane Ravitch to speak on her TV show. No response! I think people are intimidated by NBC Universal/Comcast. I am in NJ and also asked someone from the Newark Star Ledger to investigate the corporate people behind this. I got no response from the Ledger. What are these people afraid of? This is certainly a bizarre lineup. I guess Goldman Sachs didn’t do enough damage in the financial sector; now they can whack away at public education,
Maddow is worthless.
Again, Maddow is said to be good friends with Eva Moskowitz.
Rachel–please write this blog & deny if not true!
Diane was on All In With Chris Hayes tonight. It can be viewed at:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/10/04/diane-ravitch-schools-are-not-doing-well-because-our-society-is-not-doing-well/
Good interview. Chris Hayes asked the important questions and allowed Diane to answer them.
Hey Diane, I just saw that the top of the line news channel NBC has a little propaganda/promotional piece on Tony Bennett and his school. Wow. The journalistic integrity is unbelievable. NBC is the biggest joke on television. I thought CNN and MSNBC were bad, but this just takes the cake. Thank goodness Tony Bennett is involved in education because we’ve never had the arts or music in our schools. (so dumb)
So ludicrous to the see the Rightwingnuts Jindal and Bush, coupled with the crooked bankster Lloyd Blankfein, on the same panel. This should be a wakeup call for America, but most folks will be watching reruns of Dancing with the Stars instead of this pretend education group drivel.
Yes, Goldie Hawn may indeed be the most worthwhile speaker there. Who does NBC think they are fooling?
How about some parents to represent?