Merrow warns that Hastings is setting a dangerous precedent, where any government can demand censorship of any program that offends its laws or sensibilities. And Netflix will cave.
Merrow goes on to tell interesting insider stories about how Davis Guggenheim basically tried to appropriate Merrow’s footage of Michelle Rhee firing a principal on air to use in his propaganda film “Waiting for ‘Superman.'” Merrow expected to receive a reasonable payment for his work, and Guggenheim, with Hastings’ support, basically told him to take a walk or get lost or something. Eventually, Merrow’s production team did get paid, but he realized what unprincipled people he was dealing with. He wondered whether Guggenheim would edit his slick propaganda film which painted Rhee as a goddess of school reform, to acknowledge the cheating scandal that happened on her watch. Of course not!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Article has an interesting David v. Goliath point (pay attention Mr. Petrilli):
“A week or so later, he offered a few hundred dollars, an insulting amount–which we rejected. Then, just before he screened the film at Sundance, he had one of his assistants call to issue an ultimatum: accept their offer because he was using the footage anyway.
I was furious. Our lawyer wrote letters to Paramount, and I started calling influential people, including Reed Hastings, to ask for their advice. Reed reacted, well, pragmatically. He told me that fighting back was pointless, because Guggenheim had big money and a major studio (Paramount) behind him, and we were a struggling non-profit. I remember Reed’s saying that some battles were not worth fighting. He mentioned ‘taking one for the team’ and joked about ‘rolling over and enjoying it.’ I told him that we weren’t willing to do that.
Guggenheim may have expected us to cave, but we didn’t. Instead, we leaked the story to the Washington Post, Variety, and some other outlets. Some reporters wrote it as a “David versus Goliath” story.”
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So Davis Guggenheim, a multi-millionaire or billionaire, attempts to appropriate (steal) Merrow’s footage for peanuts. These school privatizers are amoral predatory capitalist pigs.
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IMMORAL. They know exactly what they are doing.
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Many business people are “pragmatists.” Their main objective is profit over everything else. Business people nurture relationships that may prove useful to them. They call it “networking.” Business people tend to please those that may prove useful to them at some point. Hastings would rather be on good terms with the Saudis than support the free press. Many business people are not particularly ethical, and as we know, some of them are power mongers, liars, cheaters and frauds.
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when ‘pragmatist’ is a prettier word meant to hide ‘opportunist’
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Bingo.
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Speaking of pragmatists, let’s NEVER forget Reed Hastings two latest bed partners for profit, Michelle and Barack Obama. Birds of a public school hating feather flock together. . . .
You need a jaws-of-life to pry those three apart.
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*Merrow goes on to tell interesting insider stories about how Davis Guggenheim basically tried to appropriate Merrow’s footage of Michelle Rhee firing a principal on air to use in his propaganda film “Waiting for ‘Superman.’” Merrow expected to receive a reasonable payment for his work, and Guggenheim, with Hastings’ support, basically told him to take a walk or get lost or something. *
So, Merrow had no problem as long as he got paid? Is that what he is saying?
Merrow should never have aired that piece of Rhee firing the principal anyway. It was actually sick and just gave Michelle Rhee exactly what she wanted : a means to cow other principals into doing her will. But, of course, at the time, Merrow was enamored by Rhee and thought she could do no wrong.
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That firing footage poured gasoline on the fire of “reform.”
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Great points, SDP. It’s easy to forget the Merrow used to be on the other side. Maybe the price used to be right. Grateful he’s seems to have seen the errors of his ways.
(I wonder if the Rhee-principal moment inspired a scene in the fantastic book, “Adequate Yearly Progress,” that also involved a celebrity Ed Reform city schools superintendent and one of his subordinates. SDP, this book is so up your alley. Hilarious satire of Ed Reform. Recommended for you and blog readers as well, Diane.)
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“. . .used to be on the other side.”
Used to be???
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John Merrow got paid over a million dollars for all his cheerleading for Rhee. I know because I once talked up the income totals from the 990 forms for his so called non-profit company that he set up to contract with PBS.
This is not about changing sides. It’s about complete lack of ethical principles. Lack of principles over firing of principals. No one with principles would ever have aired — and even ENJOYED –that principal firing like he did.
Here’s what Merrow said after Rhee left as DC chancellor.
It was GREAT FUN following her For 3 years on the (PBS) News hour — all twelve segments…including the one where she fired somebody
// End if Merrow quote
Yes, its always great fun watching someone get fired. We all get a kick out of that.
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Tallied up the income totals
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I missed this. Thanks, SomeDAM Poet.
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Thank you, SDP. These are things we shouldn’t forget. It’s fine for people – like our host here – to realize where things have gone wrong and change their minds. As you so eloquently point out, that’s not what Merrow has done. Never once has he given any kind of accounting of how he could possibly have supported Rhee and what changed his mind (if, in fact, his mind has been changed, which I’m not convinced). Diane spent a whole book doing those things.
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Wow. Blood boiling. Shameful. I knew I had a negative opinion about him, but I had forgotten just how harmful he was.
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John Merrow undoubtedly wishes that everyone would miss that.
Personally, I find it completely bizarre that some people think we should forgive (if not forget) their previous actions and simply look forward, not backward.
When journalists behave as cheerleaders (for Ed reform, war and other things) it is beyond forgiveness because it is an abuse of their power to influence large numbers of people. It also means that they are not real journalists.
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I have no respect for people who were on the wrong side and now give lip service to the right side because it is convenient or the same people who paid them to spout nonsense for one side have changed their minds and want them to spout something else. That would describe all the “ed reformers” that suddenly are talking about “portfolio schools” or whatever supposedly “non-right wing” reform they are ordered (and overpaid handsomely) to talk about.
I DO have respect for people who were on the wrong side and now devote a good portion of their time working for the right side (and not because they are paid for it) because they realized they were wrong about what the side they previously thought was doing good was actually doing (ie selfishly working for their own interests).
Diane Ravitch and John Merrow are the second type. Certainly John Merrow is not nearly as admirable as Diane, but to simply attack him as no different from the education reformers is no different than those who keep attacking Diane for actions of years ago.
I don’t care if someone offers a supposedly heartfelt apology while doing nothing. I have certainly heard no apologies from Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or HRC or Tom Perriello for helping promote the lies of education reform. But at least I know that Sanders and Warren finally took a stance against more charters — albeit one that still promoted the lie of “good” charters working miracles. At least I know that HRC actually acknowledged that the only reason charters did better was because of their cherry picking. (Tom Perriello has STILL done nothing except spout ed reformer language and I am so grateful he didn’t have a chance to turn Virginia into the pro-charter state that apparently some deluded self-described progressives were perfectly fine to have happen.
John Merrow isn’t just giving lip service because someone is paying him handsomely to recognize the failures of education reform movement. Recall how many lying pro-charter school shills claims that Diane Ravitch only supports public schools because she is getting union money.
Merrow is following the facts as he becomes aware of them. Of course he shut his eyes to the facts but lots of people were wrong about ed reform in the beginning. He was wrong for too long, but he realized it. And is DOING SOMETHING about it, which is more than I can say for the leading progressive politicians who have kept outrageously quiet on this subject except when their hand is forced (and then they still insist there are lots of “good” charters).
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NYCSP
I must have just missed it, but perhaps you can point me and others to where Diane Ravitch remarked that it was great fun following someone who had fired someone on TV.
Thanks in advance.
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And I must also have missed where Diane Ravitch filmed and then aired the firing in question.
So I would also appreciate it if you could can point me to that.
Thanks again in advance.
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My view — which you are free to criticize — is that working very very hard to show how wrong education reformers are when you previously embraced them is far better than sitting back and claiming to be a progressive politician while you can’t be bothered to care one iota about how education reform destroyed public schools and instead of speaking out about the failures of education reform, you give legitimacy to charters (the “good public charters” whatever they may be).
I’m not defending what Merrow did and how wrong he was. I’m pointing out that he is sure working hard to correct his mistakes, whether or not he acknowledges them.
I forgive Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Tom Periello all their previous embrace of education reform and I don’t care whether they apologize for it or not. All I care about is whether they are working NOW to make sure the education reformers are stopped in their tracks and call out their lies, or if they still give education reformers credibility by making sure Americans agree with their view that there are “good” charter schools that should be supported instead of calling out education reformers for the frauds they are the way Merrow is doing.
Does that make sense to you?
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I think Reed Hastings is a monster. He is the main one of only a small handful of billionaires who are the cause of the fact that I am not teaching on Monday, but instead striking and picketing in the rain. He bought my school board (after saying there shouldn’t even be democratically elected school boards). He bought the second largest school district in the country! Hastings filled the L.A. Board with privatization wagtails who hired an investment banker as superintendent, a pal of monstrous Eli Broad. Monster. Sorry to be disagreeable with all the commenters I respect so much, but John Merrow doesn’t even show up on my radar comparatively.
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Left Coast Teacher
I think Merrow can be judged on his own merits and that the above video pretty much speaks for itself. He was celebrating Rhee, including her firing of a principal on national TV, which he himself had been responsible for filming.
Perhaps there is a big national PBS audience out there for such stuff (like the audience for public hangings of the past) but thats hardly a valid reason for airing it. Sensationalism is something tabloids engage in.
It’s certainly not anything a legitimate journalist would do.
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You’re fired! sensationalism is what Trump engaged in on the reality TV show The Apprentice and viewers seemed to love it.
So maybe Merrow figured, Hey if worked for NBC, why not PBS?
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I would like some robust evidence in print and various sources that have Bernie demonstrating his favoring charter schools over public ones. I have not seen the evidence in print or in the moving image.
I will agree with NYCPSP that despite my extreme dislike of John Merrow, it is better to have someone reflect on a situation, see a different light AND be able and willing to articulate that analysis than to see them do more of the same. I will take a 180 when I can get one and use it to a political advantage. John Merrow would be a hypocrite, though, for having taken money to slant his reporting.
Rhee is no one who should have anything to do with public education. As long as we use narrow forms of achievement measurement and do NOT address the level of poverty coming into the schools, then all “low performing” schools will have to become community schools and source resplendent funding to pay for all sorts of wrap-around services, as is offered in Jeffery Canada’s Harlem Renaissance Zone, one of the most comprehensive systems I’ve seen. But public schools cannot afford this arrangement unless they receive far more tax funding or private funds.
Our government has failed public schools by starving them and setting up goals that do not reflect the level of poverty entering the schools. But WORSE than that is that the ruling elite in this courtly, who we vote for, have failed people by preventing poverty from growing and entering the schools in the first place. Our child poverty rate in this country is a pure scandal, and that FIRST needs to be addressed.
Look to Finland and France, Italy, and Germany, etc. A child who is not impoverished and has oral language development and experiences is a child who is ready to learn. American families are too busy being stressed out over rent, food, healthcare, etc. to really focus on their child.
In order to address this, we must, as FDR said, measure our progress and level of justice by the number of enemies we make, as most establishment officials in D.C. are indeed the enemy. Through this lens will collectivism continue to grow and Ayn Rand individualism will take a very distant back seat. And through this lens will we continue to get better people into office!
It is a lesson worth learning and living. It’s our lesson, but we can learn it and live through with strength when we stick together and lose our labels, focusing on the dignity of every human and what is means to be human and have human needs.
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Robert Rendo, thank you for making a very important point.
Just wanted to clarify one thing in case you were addressing me when you wrote: “I would like some robust evidence in print and various sources that have Bernie demonstrating his favoring charter schools over public ones. I have not seen the evidence in print or in the moving image.”
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren don’t “favor” charter schools over public schools. But they also don’t seem to see anything wrong with them as long as they are “good” and “public” (whatever that means). In fact, Bernie is supporting the UTLA teachers’ strike, which I truly appreciate. I read his statement on Facebook: “The Los Angeles teachers, and teachers throughout our country, deserve decent salaries with no pay freezes. I stand with the Los Angeles teachers in their fight for justice and dignity.”
Bernie absolutely supports public education. But he doesn’t seem to understand that charter schools — privatizing education — undermine them even if they are “public” (whatever that means). He strongly supports striking teachers in LA, but doesn’t mention charter schools and privatizing public education in his statement, which is surprising for someone who should be against privatizing public goods. Especially when charter proliferation is a pretty big issue in the strike.
In fact, the strike is about a lot more than pay raises and “justice and dignity” for teachers. It is also about the privatizing of public education.
But I do worry that Bernie Sanders — who endorsed DFER candidate Tom Periello over pro-public education candidate Ralph Northam for Virginia Governor — does not really understand why supporting a pro-charter Governor in Virginia was not a good thing. Let me make this clear — I do not believe Bernie “favors” charters. But I do believe he does not understand that their results are not what are advertised and that by cherry picking kids, charters undermine public schools.
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^^^Sorry, I would like to clarify again so no one takes offense due to my poor writing skills:
Bernie Sanders says he opposes the “privatization” of public education.
But does he understand that charter schools — all charter schools that are run independently from the public school system — are part of privatization?
I would just like to hear Bernie say “We need a moratorium on charter schools, period.” To me, that is much more clear than talking about “privatization” when too many progressive politicians seem to think charter schools are not part of that privatization movement.
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NYCPSP,
As an aside and not directed at you, I will take Dienne’s militance and lens any time, any day. She is among the most articulate and focused advocates I’ve ever known. She is an indispensable asset.
In manipulating situations for political gain (and that they can be for good or for the detriment of society), which is what ALL camps do, I would posit that we have to take whatever treasures we can find, even if those treasures once got pumped out as pure garbage from a despicable journalist who likes to think he is impartial by working for PBS.
If he says what we need, let’s use it to our advantage. Why not? Waste not, want not. It also shows the overclass that they too can be wrong and need to reverse their positions.
Thank you for the information about Bernie, and I will look forward to doing some research myself on the topic. If I find anything, I am happy to share with all. I am in the Bernie and Ocasio-Cortez camp myself.
You don’t have poor writing skills, but don’t write in a rush. You have insights.
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How utterly ironic John Merrow s claim is
Reed Hastings Values Profit Over Principle
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**Profit over principal ** also works
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Exactly. I would feel bad for Merrow, but I don’t, because he was destroying lives and careers with what he had done, and he didn’t care about that–only that he got paid. He destroyed public schools for a pittance. He is NOT a friend to public education, regardless of how many weasley mea culpas he tries to write.
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Thanks for reminding us that these are not victimless crimes.
Lots of people –both teachers and students — have paid a high price for the disruption and corruption that folks like Rhee visited on the schools.
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Did Diane Ravitch destroy lives and careers, too, when she worked in the Bush White House?
Merrow wasn’t producing those pieces believing that he was offering propaganda to the reform movement. He was wrong-headed the way that progressives like Elizabeth Warren were wrong-headed (and still are) when they believe that “good” charters can help poor students. They got played for fools. Merrow got played. When he realized he got played, he reported a story about charters that the ed reformers didn’t like and got excoriated with lies. And instead of shutting up and doing their bidding, Merrow decided he should keep on reporting what he now knew was true. Even if it was not lucrative to do so.
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Merrow stood by and FILMED Rhee firing a principal. Diane never did garbage like that. She and Merrow are NOT the same.
RIP to those who have committed suicide or died of stress way too early because of this slavish attention to test scores and blaming teachers for everything. RIP and/or best wishes to those who are suffering from such toxic stress that their lives/health are damaged because of these test scores. RIP and/or best wishes to the students whose lives were impacted because funding and staffing their schools was decimated due to “reform.”
And Merrow, with his gleeful following and advertising of Rhee, shares in that responsibility. Diane didn’t publish to the world fawning praise of people who were destroying children.
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ANd NYC, he doesn’t have to worry about money if he got $1 MILLION just for that clip of Rhee firing the principal. That means he’s probably got all kinds of money squirreled away. I don’t think Diane got wealthy by selling this evil, either.
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I did not say that Diane and Merrow are THE SAME. They are not.
Just like Merrow is not the same as people who cheered on education reform and then shut up and refused to speak the truth about it.
If you want to blame anyone, blame Barack Obama because the buck stopped with him when it came to education reform. Filming a principal firing someone is not the same as creating the system which enabled that principal to do what she did.
Of course Merrow SHARES in that responsibility, just like Tom Periello, DFER’s politician of the month, and Elizabeth Warren shared in that responsibility when they could have spoken out against it.
The only difference is that Merrow is actually doing something NOW about it, and he’s not doing it because someone is paying to do it.
I sure wish some of the other former cheerleaders would do the same.
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“I did not say that Diane and Merrow are THE SAME.”
Hmmm. Now do you know how it feels when people put words in your mouth?
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Like it or him or not, the man has a national pulpit, and he is now using it in support of public education. Call it pragmatic, but I am not ready to disown him because he once held and acted on a viewpoint with which I disagree. He has not shied away from changing his opinion publicly. Wouldn’t it be easier to just remain silent? Maybe I am being played. It won’t be the first time or the last.
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dienne77,
You might notice that I didn’t whine “you put words in my mouth” and go on to attack “Threatened Out West” and try to get him banned.
When I think I am being misunderstood, I try to write more to clarify it. That’s because I believe that whining about your critics misunderstanding you when they call out innuendoes is right out of the right wing playbook in which we are supposed to believe that what Trump and other right wing politicians say isn’t appealing to racism and xenophobia and hate. The right wing loves to whine that the nasty innuendoes their leaders make are not really what their critics are accusing them of. Because when a person can’t defend what he is saying, it’s always easier for him to whine that his critics are being unfair.
I quoted exactly what someone believed that I said and I made my best attempt to clarify exactly what it was I believed in when I thought their description was wrong.
That seems like a reasonable way to have a discussion. When someone misstates your views, post again to clarify exactly what it is you do believe. Don’t just say “you put words in my mouth” without explaining exactly what the person is wrong about.
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speduktr,
That seems to be Diane Ravitch’s POV also, and it is mine as well.
I wish I had a copy of the manual that lists which politicians (and journalists) who were too friendly to charter schools in the past are allowed to be given the benefit of the doubt even if they have done almost nothing for public schools except not keep being charter cheerleaders, and which ones will be forever excoriated even if they have spent years specifically trying to bring more light and truth to the education issue?
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Oh FFS, NYCPSP, you are a fine one for talking about not whining and saying you don’t go on the attack. You are the most “persecuted” person on this forum, at least in your own imagination. In reality, however, legions of us here have been attacked by you. Own it.
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Dienne and NYCPSP,
Please don’t quarrel. We have common goals here. Try to stick to what needs to be done.
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“You are the most “persecuted” person on this forum, at least in your own imagination. In reality, however, legions of us here have been attacked by you. Own it.”
If Threatened Out West believes that there was something in this discussion in which I “attacked” him, then I am sure he will be sure to post about exactly how I victimized him.
I truly don’t understand why you keep claiming that I do what you keep doing and claim to be a “victim” whenever someone posts something that disagrees with me. I am not a victim of Threatened Out West. I believed I was misunderstood and so I posted again to try to explain myself more clearly.
I didn’t just whine “you victimized me”.
When you believe you have a strong case, you will try to present it instead of calling other people names and claiming that they are picking on you because you apparently don’t have a strong enough case to actually defend yourself from what they claim you are doing.
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“Reed Hastings Values Profit Over Principle”
Fine example of a “No Shit Sherlock” statement.
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Merrow criticized St Louis, MO parents that resisted the hiring of Alvarez and Marsal.
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Alvarez and Marshall were a disaster in every district they worked.
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If Merrow is a real journalist, he would not be criticizing anyone.
That’s not a journalist s job.
That’s the biggest issue I take with Merrow, who seems to believe that he knows more than anyone else and is therefore in a position to be The Decider about this or that education policy.
If we are to believe that he has all the answers, which answers should we take? The ones he had when supporting Rhee? Or the ones he has now?
Or maybe having ALL the answers literally means having all of them: right and wrong, even when half conflict with the other half. Ha ha ha.
But is it even the job of a journalist to propose answers?
Really?
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SomeDAM Poet,
Can you please help enlighten me as to why Gov. Jerry Brown in California spent so much effort helping to enable public school privatization and encouraging more and more corrupt charter schools and so little effort helping public schools?
I’m not being snarky –I really want to know whether Gov. Brown was one of the greediest and most corrupt Governors in California history when he embraced charters, or whether he was just really, really stupid?
I think that John Merrow, like Gov. Brown, was just really, really stupid. The only difference between them is that John Merrow actually realized he was wrong and DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Gov. Brown hasn’t done one thing except continue being wrong. You can either give him the benefit of the doubt and say he is just continuing to be stupid, or acknowledge how completely corrupt and evil Jerry Brown is and wonder what evil is inside Jerry Brown that would make him intentionally destroy the lives of the most vulnerable public school children because destroying those childrens’ lives helped him get richer.
Compare John Merrow to Jerry Brown (or Elizabeth Warren or the myriad of other “progressive” politicians like Tom Perriello) who have yet to endorse the NAACP’s moratorium on charters or even acknowledge that charters by their nature have the power to cherry pick kids who are easiest to teach.
I’m not defending Merrow, per se. I just find it odd that some politicians are given a pass when they enable and encourage the myth that there are “good public charters” helping so many poor kids and they should be applauded and cheered on. I find it odd that some politicians are given a pass when they talk about good “public” charters and leave out the very important fact — the very fact that the charter movement does not want progressive politicians to mention — that every supposedly “good” charter cherry picks students. I just find it odd that some politicians use their progressive bully pulpit to continue the very harmful myth that there are “good public” charters instead of using their bully pulpit to educate the public about the fact that the only “good public” charters are those who cherry pick their students.
We need progressive politicians willing to stand up and say “charters cherry pick students”. Instead of progressive politicians promoting the myth that there are “good’ charters that are just good (which is understood by the public to be because they don’t have union teachers to contend with.)
If Gov. Jerry Brown or Sen. Elizabeth Warren do what John Merrow does and start fighting FOR public schools and pointing out that every “good’ charter cherry pick students, I will thank them for finally seeing the light.
I would not spend the next 10 years continuing to attack Sen. Warren for not seeing the light sooner the way John Merrow did.
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Congratulations
You have managed to misconstrue the entire point of my comments here.
My criticisms are aimed specifically at someone who claims to be a journalist.
If you can’t understand why it is wrong for a journalist to behave the way Merrow did — effectively as a cheerleader for this or that policy, there is nothing I can do to help you.
Simply put, it’s not the job of a journalist to be an advocate of ANY policy or ANY side in a debate.
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Merrow was not “proposing answers” or “advocating” as a journalist. He did not start doing that until after he retired, when he realized that any reporting that depicted charter schools in a negative light meant he was accused of “advocating”.
It is like Donald Trump insisting that reporters at the Washington Post are “advocating” for the Democrats if they report any truthful facts that make him look bad.
As a journalist, Merrow did some inept reporting, but not because he was an “advocate” but because he was fooled by for the same ed reform propaganda that far too many progressive politicians also fell for.
I just don’t understand why – with all the progressive politicians who still seem to believe the myth that we can privatize public schools with “good” ‘public charters’ and that doesn’t hurt public schools at all — you believe that a former journalist who has seen the light and who is trying to do something about dispelling these myths would be the focus of your criticism. Why?
In my opinion, we need to keep the focus on progressive politicians who should be on the side of public schools and should be making it absolutely clear that charter schools — even the “good public charters” — are not the answer.
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