EduShyster hosts a Chicago citizen who shows what the New York Times got wrong about Rahm.
The newspaper article mostly repeated the Mayor’s talking points instead of digging to find out if they were true.
The author, Maria Moser, writes:
“Here’s what happened: Rahm systematically attacked nearly every city service through a neoliberal privatization plan. As a friend put it, *Rahm’s not so much the mayor as the guy auctioning off what’s left of our public goods.* And public goods have a disproportionate value to middle class and poor people in our city. Your library is open less and has less staff. There are fewer lifeguards on our beaches in the summer. Or you spent hours on the phone trying to activate your new Ventra card only to be disconnected. We’ve taken notice as these things have happened because they affect our lives. What’s it like to live in a city with an auctioneer at the helm?”
And read this correction:
“NYT: And many of the neighborhoods that faced schools closings were in predominantly black or Latino areas.
“Chicago: Uh, that’s a bit of an understatement. As it turns out, of 46,000 students impacted by school closures (not 30,000, as CPS tried to suggest), 88% were black, 10% were Latino, and .7% were white. So yes, predominantly. Like, 98%.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
I filed this link, under MEDIA, which, but the way, I have studied since 1961. I belonged to the Media Foundation, and introduced into my NUC curriculum (because it was MINE to create) a unit which examined the media.
In it, I read to the kids from Jerry Mander’s “In the Absence of the Sacred,” (shared values are sacred) the people who run the media insert their own values.
We looked at tv ads, back then in the nineties before the internet and phones.
I also showed them ho ‘slanting’ the news is misdirection..
We looked at how much time (how much space) was given to an opinion, or an event, and where it appeared ( top of the news hour, or at the back of the paper.)
By now you must realize why I had to be removed from talking to future voters when they were 13, and trying to figure out ho things operate. You should see what those youngsters discovered about network news back then! (remember, I have all their letters to me) .
I mention this in the context of what we see in The NY Times.
As a student of media, a teacher of language, and a journalist of sorts, I understand what balanced journalism is, and what it isn’t. It is not BALANCED when the ‘talking points’ come from the dissembler, the charlatan. It is worse than NOT balanced, when the propaganda and falsehoods are repeated at length, even if equal time is given to the observable reality. Lies do not belong on the page!
Gimme a break NY Times…. some of us ain’t stupid.
And FYI, editors at the NY Times, WE teachers number more that a few, and if YOU continue to undermine the national conversation concerning the future of education in this great nations, we will end our subscriptions. You bring some wonderful minds to the table, but along with the brilliant analysis comes pure, unadulterated propaganda intended to confuse people and obscure the truth.
Lose the teachers as readers, and you can publish the horse manure about Rahm and Jeb, and Duncan. But if you want us, then print only the news that is fit to print…. hmmm heard something similar to that…once upon a time!
LikeLike
A local advocacy group, the Raise Your Hand coalition, crunched the numbers and found that just under 1/2 of charters in Chicago are “underutilized” the excuse that was used, along with the usual inscrutable CPS math to close the 50 schools in question. Someone needs to shout out a question about this during one of Rahm’s press conferences or other election events.
LikeLike
Then there’s this bit of blatant hypocrisy on the part of Rahm. The director of the elite private school where Rahm’s kids go is against the use of testing for teacher evaluations. http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13824/director_of_private_school_where_rahm_sends_his_kids_disagrees_on_standardi/
LikeLike
That’s like..but not in my backyard. Privatization is great for other people’s children, particularly the children that already have two strikes against them.
LikeLike
Just read Diane’s previous post about the 3/10 Charter Investors Conference.
That’s CPS in a nutshell, thanks to the mayor.
LikeLike