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New York Times: Internal Debate About Louise Mensch’s Opinion Article

By dianeravitch
March 20, 2017 //
5

Buzzfeed reports that an internal quarrel has broken out between the news room and the opinion pages of the New York Times about an article featured on the editorial opinion page by journalist Louise Mensch. (I posted Mensch’s article).

A civil war between news and opinion has broken out at the New York Times.

In a Times op-ed posted online Friday, Louise Mensch, a writer and former member of the UK Parliament, gives her suggestion for what questions the House Intelligence Committee should ask as it holds hearings on Russia’s influence in the US election. Mensch offers Times readers reason to trust her expertise: “In November, I broke the story that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court had issued a warrant that enabled the F.B.I. to examine communications between ‘U.S. persons’ in the Trump campaign relating to Russia-linked banks,” she writes.

On Twitter, Times reporters lashed out.

“Please note that the NYT newsroom disagrees,” national security reporter Charlie Savage tweeted. Savage highlighted from his report this month knocking down the FISA claim: “To date, reporters for The New York Times with demonstrated sources in that world have been unable to corroborate that the court issued any such order.”

The core of the dispute is whether the FISA court granted a warrant, which the Times and Washington Post have not reported, though the BBC and McClatchy have. The Guardian reported about a June FISA request but stopped short at confirming the supposed October one was granted.

If the Congressional hearings are thorough, we should learn the answer to the issue in dispute. Chalk another round of the Trump Chaos Presidency.

Categories Media

If Federal Funding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting is Enacted, the Public Media System Will Collapse

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2017 //
8

Media experts warned that the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will bring an end to public media in small and rural communities. The giants in large markets like New York City will survive, but not the smaller markets.

“Public radio and television broadcasters are girding for battle after the Trump administration proposed a drastic cutback that they have long dreaded: the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“The potential elimination of about $445 million in annual funding, which helps local TV and radio stations subscribe to NPR and Public Broadcasting Service programming, could be devastating for affiliates in smaller markets that already operate on a shoestring budget.

“Patricia Harrison, the corporation’s president, warned in a statement on Thursday that the Trump budget proposal, if enacted, could cause “the collapse of the public media system itself.”

“But the power players in public broadcasting — big-city staples like WNYC in New York City — would be well-equipped to weather any cuts. Major stations typically receive only a sliver of their annual budget from the federal government, thanks to listener contributions and corporate underwriters. Podcasts and other digital offshoots have also become significant sources of revenue.

“Rural affiliates, however, rely more heavily on congressional largess, which can make up as much as 35 percent of their budgets. Mark Vogelzang, president of Maine Public, called the Trump proposal “the most serious threat to our federal funding” since he started in public broadcasting 37 years ago.

“We’re always living on the edge in this ecosystem of public broadcasting,” Mr. Vogelzang said in an interview.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting supports about 1,500 stations that carry a range of educational, journalistic and arts-related programming. The corporation dates to the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. Its funding, while a minuscule part of the federal budget, has been under regular peril since the 1970s from conservative lawmakers, who often denounce what they view as the liberal bent of public media.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Media, Trump

As Feared, Trump Proposes to Eliminate Federal Support for the Arts and Humanities, Public Radio and Television

By dianeravitch
March 16, 2017 //
22

Trump has proven himself to be a true barbarian by proposing to eliminate the modest federal funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Why should there be a partisan divide over the funding of public programming for the arts, history, drama, museums, and public media? Don’t Republicans visit museums and listen to history programs on radio and television? Do they enjoy music and dance? Don’t they appreciate art as much as Democrats?

A deep fear came to pass for many artists, museums, and cultural organizations nationwide early Thursday morning when President Trump, in his first federal budget plan, proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

President Trump also proposed scrapping the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a key revenue source for PBS and National Public Radio stations, as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

It was the first time a president has called for ending the endowments. They were created in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation declaring that any “advanced civilization” must fully value the arts, the humanities, and cultural activity.

While the combined annual budgets of both endowments — about $300 million — are a tiny fraction of the $1.1 trillion of total annual discretionary spending, grants from these agencies have been deeply valued financial lifelines and highly coveted honors for artists, musicians, writers and scholars for decades.

Nothing will change for the endowments or other agencies immediately. Congress writes the federal budget, not the president, and White House budget plans are largely political documents that telegraph a president’s priorities.

Yet never before have Republicans, who have proposed eliminating the endowments in the past, controlled both Congress and the White House and were so well-positioned to close the agencies. Reagan administration officials wanted to slash the endowments at one point, for instance, but they faced a Democratic majority in Congress (as well as Reagan friends from Hollywood who favored the endowments).

As for 2017, it is unclear whether Republicans who are friendly to the endowments will fight their own party’s president on their behalf. Mr. Trump went ahead with the proposal even though his daughter Ivanka is a longtime supporter of the arts, and Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, has been a staunch advocate for art therapy for years, being a painter herself.

Categories Arts Education, Media

Peter Greene: Claudio Sanchez of NPR Sends a Love Note to the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
March 2, 2017 //
48

Peter Greene reports on an NPR program explaining charter schools. Perhaps you thought the program would give equal time to charter advocates and charter critics. Perhaps you thought you thought the program might explain why charters are controversial. Perhaps you thought that NPR–supposedly a bastion of liberalism–might explain why Trump, DeVos, the Koch brothers, the Waltons, and every red-state governor–loves them. Or why blue-state Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly not to allow more of them.

http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/03/npr-explains-charter-schools.html?spref=tw

If you thought that, you guessed by now that none of those things happened.

Claudio Sanchez of NPR interviewed three charter cheerleaders and tossed them softball questions.

Maybe this is what NPR had to do to justify the subsidy it gets from the Walton Family Foundation.

For shame.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Hoax, Media, Privatization

I Watched Donald Trump’s Press Conference

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2017 //
63

This man is unhinged. The theme of the press conference was blame the media for any problems. The mainstream media reports “Fake News.” Despite what you read in the fake, failing mainstream media, this administration is functioning like a “fine-tuned machine.” The travel ban was stopped by a very wrong judiciary. It will be rewritten and issued again in a form that reinstates the ban on immigrants. Nobody believes the fake media anymore. They lie. He rebuffed any questions about Russia and once again boasted that he was tougher on Russia with Hillary ever would be. He reiterated that his electoral college win was the greatest since Reagan (not true). He pledged to fix the inner cities by dealing with education and crime. He continually ridiculed the media. Bottom line: Trump is always right. Everything is going well, better than ever. He lies and bullies with impunity.

For this president, the First Amendment was a big mistake.

Categories Media, Trump

Trump Claims Media Doesn’t Cover Terrorist Attacks: New York Times Responds

By dianeravitch
February 9, 2017 //
21

More alternate facts from Trump. He accused the media of not reporting terror attacks. To support his claim, the White House released a list of terror attacks that allegedly had been ignored or under-reported.

The New York Times responded by fact-checking the White House list.

What was interesting was that the White House list did not include terrorist attacks on Muslims. Nor did it include terrorist attacks by white supremacists, like the Charleston Massacre of nine African Americans by Dylan Roof.

Another ironic angle to this story: the Times recalled that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had criticized the media for paying attention to terrorists, thereby giving them the publicity they sought.

Categories Education Reform, Lies, Media, Trump

Outrage! Trump Says Media Cover Up Terrorist Attacks

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2017 //
80

Trump speculated that the media doesn’t report on terrorist attacks.

He was probably thinking of the Bowling Green Massacre, which never happened.

““You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”


“The comment immediately harked back to comments from senior adviser Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC last week.
“I bet it’s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” she said. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

In this statement, he implied that terrorist attacks occur and are never reported because the media have their own agenda. To protect terrorists? Could this delusional behavior be caused by his hair growth drug?

Categories Media, Trump

Poor Kerri O’Grady! Professor Mistaken for Secret Service Agent!

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2017 //
3

Kerri O’Grady is a professor of communications at NYU who teaches corporations how to protect their reputations.

But she has the same name as a Secret Service agent who posted in her Facebook page that she would not take a bullet for Trump.

Professor O’Grady soon became the target of hateful Tweets, emails, and Facebook messages.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/27/how-a-secret-service-controversy-turned-an-innocent-professors-life-into-an-online-nightmare/

It is one of those stories that could only happen on our time.

She will be teaching her own experience!

Categories Media

Peter Greene’s Favorite Bloggers

By dianeravitch
January 26, 2017 //
5

I don’t know how Peter Greene finds the time to teach (his day job), read reports from government and thinky tanks, and write brilliant posts.

 

To stay informed about education everywhere in the U.S., he reads blogs.

 

Here are Peter’s favorite bloggers. Mine too. 

Categories Education Industry, Media

Trump’s Disregard for Truth “Threatens His Ability to Govern”

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2017 //
131

Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has been obsessed with two issues of fact. He asserted repeatedly that the crowd at his swearing-in was larger than the crowd for Obama in 2009, despite the fact that aerial photographs showed this was not true. At one point, he ordered the National Park Service to stop issuing estimates of the crowd. Photographs take along the parade route, as his car passed, showed empty spaces, barely a single row of spectators.

 

The second fact that obseeses him is him is that Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million votes more than he did. He keeps repeating his claim that 3-5 million “illegals” voted, presumably for her. This is his attempt to claim the popular vote.

 

The Washington Post says that his failure to tell the truth threatens the credibility of his presidency.

 

Republicans are puzzled. Why is he questioning the legitimacy of his own election?

 

The New York Times did something it has never done before: it had a headline on the front page saying that Trump lied about the vote totals.

 

what does all this mean? Trump’s a spoiled child who needs to be told that whatever he does is the biggest and the best. Trump can’t tell the difference between fact and his own opinions. Trump is a narcissist. Trump is delusional. Trump can’t be believed.

Categories Media, Trump
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