Michael Massing, former executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, has a fabulous article in the current Néw York Review of Books about the media’s failure to cover the political activities of the 1%.
In the middle of the article, he goes into detail about the millions of dollars that billionaires and hedge fund managers have poured into charter schools and into the campaigns of politicians who support charter schools.
Massing chides the media for its failure to follow the money.
It is great is to see the issues we are familiar with getting attention in a highly respected national publication.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Stupid question: the 1% own the media. Why would they do anything their bosses did not like?
It’s doubly surprising because of how unpopular “too much money in politics” is:
“The poll surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults over the age of 18. It found 78 percent of respondents feel the Supreme Court’s decision that “corporations and unions may spend unlimited amount on political causes” should be overturned, while only 17 percent approved of the court’s actions. Four percent were undecided.
Bloomberg Politics noted that negative sentiment toward Citizens United was strong on both sides of the aisle. Eighty percent of Republicans opposed the ruling, as did 83 percent of Democrats.”
Almost no “regular people” like this, and it’s bipartisan! Yet it gets worse every year.
I think it’s exhausting for people and they will eventually give up. You would have to research who was behind every pundit, paper, study, and “org” to figure out reliability and agenda. No regular voter has time to do all that, even if they had the inclination.
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/citizens-united-poll-bloomberg/
Even more curious than the inability of mainscream journalists to follow the money is the inability of economists to follow the money, to see what the 1 per milles really spend their money buying.
The media doesn’t want to print or broadcast, how much the financial sector costs America, in lost productivity. And, U.S. economists are too busy serving the 0.2%, to write about the financial sector’s adverse effect on the country.
The media covered the fact that Hillary Clinton picked up an endorsement from billionaire Warren Buffett. But there is more to the story for education.
Don’t forget that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is “led by CEO Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. In the United States, our primary focus is on ensuring that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and have an opportunity to earn a postsecondary degree with labor-market value.” That is from the Gates Foundation website.
In relation to education, Bill Gates is the public face and director education policy. Those policies have not been in the best interest of public education or academic freedom in teacher preparation. Gates likes a trade-school model of teacher training and training tailored to jobs in specific labor markets. Bill Gates has little respect for professionals in education who are well-educated about that profession.
His latest initiative is an “Inspectorate” for teacher preparation and four Centers for the Transformation of Teacher Preparation. All of these ventures will operate with criteria for “effective teachers” that Gates has funded including the Common Core and the teacher evaluation schemes from his (infamous) Measures of Effective Teaching Project—including VAM, multiple teacher observations, and “ customer surveys.” One of the “centers” Gates is funding, the Relay Graduate School of Education, promotes the no nonsense methodology of Doug Lemov (who has status as a board member). Lemov thinks teachers are “champions” if they command students to shut up, sit with hands folded, feet on the floor, etc. All of these new Centers promote variants of those methodologies and all are supposed to focus on the Gates-funded Common Core.”
So, Hillary’s endorsement from Warren Buffet may well mean that the Gates/Buffet agenda will continue without criticism from her.
Then there is today’s Wall Street Journal report about billionaire Eli Broad and Hillary Clinton. Eli Broad recently stalled for a moment when he was asked to give money to a pro-Clinton super PAC. Eli Broad wants to dismantle the Los Angeles public school system and has churned out “Broad-compliant” superintendents who hate teacher unions and promote market-based education.
Broad is no friend of public education, but he has been persuaded to support Hillary Clinton. How?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Eli Broad was personally reassured by Bill Clinton and John Podesta that Hillary will support charter schools. Podesta is the ultimate Washington insider and long time champion of all things Clinton.
So Eli Broad__who has played a major role in damaging the administration of many school districts and is determined to make public education market-based__ is now firmly in Hillary’s camp. The Wall Street Journal article also quotes Broad, who says that Hillary will probably be not much different from Arne Duncan.__wowzee
Clinton Views on Charter Schools, Teacher Evaluations Upset Some Democrats
My nephew Matt and his wife sarah told me to read whatever Diane is talking about….allow me to return the favor……Try her book “Follow the Money”. Sarah Reckhow. I see her…at Christmas.
Thanks, Joe. Best to Sarah Reckhow
For anyone not aware, Represent.Us is a bipartisan organization aimed at shining a massive metaphorical flashlight on the absurd levels of corruption in all aspects of government, and create change through grassroot actions. As a NYS public school teacher, I am well aware of how corruption has come to light in recent months in our state. I would highly recommend viewing their video entitled “Corruption is Legal in America.” Quite informative. They are also the people behind “Honest Gil Fulbright,” who is “running” for president under the premise of embracing the beauty of the corrupt process. As this is such a demoralizing, urgent, and serious topic, it is refreshing to see a lighthearted and satirical approach in calling out those who only care about money and power. Public education will only endure if we continue to speak out against the monied interests that aim to use corruption to “win.”
Wow, Greg! I went to represent.us. They have several videos well worth watching. They really are the first organization I have seen that seems to have a game plan for taking back our government.
Bill Clinton signed the 1996 legislation that deregulated the media. That permitted folks like Rupert Murdoch to greatly increase their power. We have way too much consolidation of power within the media. The 1% own Fox and Clear Channel and brutally subject us to propaganda–that fact–combined with Citizens United almost take the power of our democracy away from the 99%. We are being ruled by oligarchs and the consolidation of power becomes more noticeable each year.
Massing was at Columbia Journalism Review? Any connection to Columbia University?
If so, he could ask the Dean of Teachers College if the school operates as though, university research is the same as oligarch-funded think tank research and the same, as industry trade group research. The recent paper from a Teachers College faculty member, was funded by the Waltons and Arnolds. It was “embargoed” for a specific release date. And, its content, IMO, reads like a tactical marketing plan for the charter school industry.
Businesses (e.g. venture philanthropies) glom onto universities because the public remains under the illusion that university research has lofty ideals and that university researchers have virtues that make them place themselves, second to a higher calling. Lax university accrediting bodies allowed a system of university management rats, running in a maze, with a singular goal of money, to lay waste to institutional credibility.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the moneyed interests have control of our media and our government. The Democratic National Committee has just tried to kayo the Bernie Sanders movement also.
The media controlled by a few corporations controls the mindset of adults and they are trying to control the views of our children now. Teach what we tell you to teach and if you don’t you will lose your jobs and we will get people who will.
If we do not fight back what is left of our democracy will be long gone.
It’s ironic that Massing’s piece would detail all the ways that this hypothetical website/publication could effectively locate and present information on the super-rich, but then have no available contact information on the internet should someone want to personally follow up with him.