In a post about Campbell Brown’s quest to find someone to take her seriously, I said that the article appears in The Weekly Standard, and I erroneously said that the magazine is owned by Rupert Murdoch. I was wrong. In 2009, Murdoch sold the magazine to fellow billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Anschutz made his billions in many industries, including railroads, sports teams, oil and gas, and movie theaters. He is a big player in fracking. So far, just your run-of-the-mill billionaire.
His political views are far, far right. He supports the Discovery Institute, which favors “intelligent design,” not evolution. He underwrote anti-gay initiatives in Colorado and California. He was a producer of the anti/union, anti-public education “Waiting for Superman.” He funds anti-environment causes. He funded “Won’t Back Down,” a paean to charters and the Parent Trigger, a box-office flop.
When I make mistakes, I own up to them. For me, that’s the best policy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Anyone could have made that mistake. Those right wing nutjobs are so much alike, who can tell them apart?
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Really pleased Ohio journalists are pursuing this, although obviously they aren’t getting the emails they need, yet:
“The ruling majority of the state school board, the inspector general, the attorney general, the state auditor and other government watchdogs have, for various reasons, refused to investigate a former top education official who acknowledged that he omitted failing charter school grades and didn’t mention it to the federal government before asking for $71 million to open more charter schools.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which processes federal information requests, denied this week the Beacon Journal’s request for emails sent between Ohio and U.S. education officials regarding the federal grant to open charter schools in Youngstown and other “academically distressed” areas.”
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/federal-government-alludes-to-investigation-in-denying-release-of-charter-school-emails-1.645062
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Members of the Obama Administration are writing op ed pieces about how they support collective bargaining:
“But today, collective bargaining is under fierce attack from the beneficiaries of economic inequality. They have aimed their greatest hostility at public employees — teachers, firefighters, home care workers and others who serve our communities. These “unreconstructed reactionaries” have succeeded in bringing a case all the way to the Supreme Court, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which threatens public sector workers’ future ability to stand together in unions.”
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/12/03/fight-economic-inequality-collective-bargaining/76661322/
7 years after the President takes office, his administration have to be dragged kicking and screaming to mouth some words about labor unions. I guess the campaign season has now officially begun.
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That is hilarious. Seven years of silence as unions were under attack,and now the Obama guys support unions? Did you see them in Madison when Scott Walker started his crushing of unions? Or in Ohio, where aka such wanted to eliminate collective bargaining. Where was Obama?
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The info. graphic below was created by ed reform now, so I am wondering if anyone can share if it is accurate, and what, if any, important info. was omitted?
https://edreformnow.org/infographic-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-every-student-succeeds-act/?utm_source=Weekly+E-Mail+Blast&utm_campaign=9e97b5057b-12_4_Weekly_Newsletter12_3_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9c5561ed71-9e97b5057b-279010193
Thanks so much!
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When I first wrote a response to this WEEKLY STANDARD puffery on Campbell Brown, I was totally unaware fact that the union-busting, privatizing Anschutz (see ABOVE) owned the WEEKLY STANDARD, and therefore basically ordered up this propaganda article like he was ordering a cheeseburger, with its writer, the WEEKLY STANDARD’s Mark Hemingway, acting as the print equivalent of Anschutz’ short-order cook.
Here’s what I wrote a couple days ago:
—————-
The WEEKLY STANDARD article puff piece infomercial promoting Campbell Brown …
http://www.weeklystandard.com/whos-afraid-of-campbell-brown/article/1070546
… sets new standards in blatant distortion,
selectivity, and bias. Reading this,
I’m taken back to Oprah introducing Michelle Rhee
as “the great warrior woman of our time,” or to that
masterpiece ‘WATING FOR SUPERMAN.’
————————————-
That parttcular “Rhee-is-a-warrior-woman” Oprah show included Rhee announcing the founding of STUDENTS FIRST (also backed by Anschutz and the other usual suspects) That show was actually or effectively one of five hour-long infomercials promoting ‘WAITING FOR SUPERMAN’ that Oprah did during the week when that Davis Guggenheim’s corporate reform propaganda-fest came out.
To quote Princess Leia, “I recognized that foul stench” a couple days ago.
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Fake archives of newspapers conceal crimes and corruption – US citizen Rupert Murdoch’s corruption of foreign governments & US law enforcement failures to act.
“better education for all” – “The Weekly Standard is No Longer Owned by Rupert Murdoch” – surely a good move for its readers. If only Australians could say the same about most of its news media. Australia’s news media, law enforcement and governments conceal their crimes, corruption and maladministration assisted by fake archives of newspapers published that have been exported to the British Libraries UK London & are sold by Australian & UK London public libraries as authentic archives of newspapers. Crimes and corruption [never prosecuted] related to events in South Australia [SA state] – where Rupert Murdoch began his media empire with the first newspaper he ever owned, the ‘News’ & maintains a newspaper publishing state monopoly – are concealed by the fake newspaper archives. More information can be viewed at https://rjrbtsrupertsfirstnewspaper.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/australian-government-law-enforcement-and-news-media-corruption-in-brief-ref-sbsa-bankruptcy-6/ Australia needs the assistance of foreign countries to deal with Murdoch’s corruption of its politicians, governments and law enforcement.
I don’t know who Philip Anschutz is but he must be bad if considered worse than Rupert Murdoch. Surely it’s just not possible. It is admirable to acknowledge mistakes when they are made. You, Diane Ravitch are worthy of respect. Concealing impropriety [crimes & corruption costing billions of dollars] & fake newspaper ‘archives’ is as contrary to a “better education for all” as the Murdoch journalism Australians have had to endure for more than 50 years. Any assistance foreigners could provide in our time of need would be greatly appreciated – & a benefit to the world in need of a “better education for all”.
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