Message To Alexander Nazaryan: Teachers Held In Much Higher Esteem Than Journalists

An insult tweet from Newsweek journalist Alexander Nazaryan was sent Arthur Goldstein's way after Arthur jumped into the fray between Nazaryan and Louis C.K. over Common Core:

@TeacherArthurG People like you are the reason teaching isn't respected more.
— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) May 3, 2014

Nazaryan's been getting beaten up for a few days now after he insulted Louis C.K. for criticizing the Common Core while not being an "expert" on education.

Louis C.K. has dispensed with Nazaryan's criticism prettily handily, as is to be expected from a guy who's worked stand-up and knows how to handle drunks, idiots and hecklers in an audience.

Arthur's not worked the stand-up mike that I know of, but he's handled his share of Internet trolls over the years, so he doesn't need me to defend him against Alexander Nazaryan, but something about Nazaryan's statement really stuck in my craw, so I jumped in anyway:

@alexnazaryan @TeacherArthurG Actually poll after poll shows people still respect teachers.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) May 3, 2014

@alexnazaryan @TeacherArthurG Should add that journalists rank well below teachers in respect - http://t.co/JtmuTEWuxi
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) May 3, 2014

@alexnazaryan @TeacherArthurG 72% say teachers add a lot to society, only 28% say same about journalists.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) May 3, 2014

And here's the Pew poll results backing up that Americans overwhelmingly still respect teachers and think they add a lot to society as compared to journalists, who rank low on the respect and value-added list:

Americans continue to hold the military in high regard, with more than three-quarters of U.S. adults (78%) saying that members of the armed services contribute “a lot” to society’s well-being. That’s a modest decline from 84% four years ago, the last time the Pew Research Center asked the public to rate various professions. But the military still tops the list of 10 occupational groups, followed closely by teachers, medical doctors, scientists and engineers. A solid majority of the public says each of those occupations contributes a lot to society.

...

 Compared with the ratings four years ago, journalists have dropped the most in public esteem. The share of the public saying that journalists contribute a lot to society is down 10 percentage points, from 38% in 2009 to 28% in 2013. The drop is particularly pronounced among women (down 17 points). About as many U.S. adults now say journalists contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all” to society (27%) as say they contribute a lot (28%).

Pew is polling the American public at large, not the elite media and political circles journalists like Nazaryan run in, so he might be surprised to find out that the public at large doesn't share the elite's disdain and contempt for teachers.

He might also be surprised to find out that only 28% of the American public believe he and his journalism colleagues add anything of value to society.

When you live and work in an insular circle the way many of these elitist journalists do, it's difficult to understand that the people you chat with while sipping cucumber martinis do not share the same values as the public at large.

You can apply Nazaryan's tunnel vision over the respect the American public feels for teachers to his esteem for the Common Core as well - it's informed as much by the insular world he lives and works in as it is by anything else.

Supporting De Blasio On The Charter School Issue

Michael Fiorillo on the war Eva Moskowitz, Andrew Cuomo and the media launched against Bill de Blasio over the charter school issue:

Public school teachers, parents and students are in a tough position here. While De Blasio has not been as strong as people hoped - no surprise to many readers of this blog, I imagine - he nevertheless is making some efforts to right the grotesque inequities caused by charter schools, and can safely assumed to be under tremendous pressure by the local Overclass to allow privatization to continue.

Unless we get out into the streets to show that there is a large constituency willing to fight for the public schools, De Blasio will either give in completely or be destroyed. In either case, that could lead to the endgame coming upon us very soon.

Whatever his temporizing and shortcomings, we probably have no choice but to (critically) support him, get active and loud, and show that there is widespread opposition to the takeover of the schools.

I agree completely - sure it would have been nice to see de Blasio cancel all eight of Eva's charters and give the space to traditional public schools, but you can see from the uproar over de Blasio's cancellation of three schools why that wasn't going to happen.

As Michael notes, the corporate forces have mustered a heavy assault against the moderately progressive policies de Blasio has taken on charters and if those of us who support traditional public schools don't get vocal about supporting him on this, we're going to see, as Michael puts it, "De Blasio will either give in completely or be destroyed."

Let me go on record saying, I support de Blasio on this issue, the so-called "war on charters" is a phonied up meme that came out of Eva Moskowitz's public relations office (as I wrote last night), and we need to hit the media over and over for acting as stenographers rather than journalists in covering this story.

Start with WNBC 4 - give them a call and let them know how you are permanently shutting the channel off over their stenography on the Eva issue.

Patrick Walsh also blogged about the chop job they do on his interview with them over the charter co-location issue.

Here's the number:

866-639-7244

It is time to start talking boycott of the media outlets that carry water for the pro-privatization movement.

NBC and Comcast have carried water for the corporate education reform movement for years now, most notably with their Education Nation pro-privatization propaganda fest (literally subsidized by the for profit University of Phoenix)  and it is high time they pay an economic and political price for this.

Turn off NBC, cancel any business you do with Comcast and let them know this again and again and again.

I just called NBC to let them know.

You should do it too.

Blog it, tweet it, get the story out there - public school teachers have had ENOUGH of the pro-privatization propaganda spewing from NBC and are taking the action to shut the network OFF.

If Eva Moskowitz can get loud and shrill, so we can - WE SUPPORT BILL DE BLASIO ON THE CHARTER SCHOOL ISSUE.

Daily News Only Likes Teachers Were They're Trying To Stop People With Guns

Did you ever notice how the coverage of teachers and the teaching profession in the New York Daily News is overwhelmingly negative - unless the story is about a teacher trying to stop somebody with a gun?

Take this story of a tragedy in Nevada from yesterday:

A teacher died heroically in Nevada on Monday, using his body as a human shield to protect students after a middle-schooler opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, police said.

The name of the shooter, believed to be a seventh-grader who died at the scene, was not released. It was not clear if he committed suicide.

The slain educator was identified by his family as Michael Landsberry, a beloved math teacher and former Marine.Witnesses said Landsberry, 45, was shot after he placed himself between the kid with the gun and other students.

“In my estimation, he is a hero. We do know he was trying to intervene,” Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said.

Usually in the DN, we get stories about perv teachers, rubber room teachers, lazy teachers who don't want to be held accountable for student performance, etc.

But on days when tragedy strikes a school and a teacher selflessly puts herself/himself in harm's way to save others, the DN neo-cons swerve from the regularly scheduled teacher bashing to acknowledge that sometimes teacher do "heroic" things.

More hypocrisy from the news media aimed at teachers and the teaching profession.

Solidarity

The press is back on a teacher witch hunt once again, probably the last one of the Bloomberg years.

Articles have come from both the Daily News and the Post smearing teachers in the rubber room as perverts, criminals and/or freaks.

Those of us who work in the system know that anybody can go to the rubber room, all it takes is an allegation and an administrators who wants to get rid of you.

The allegations can be ludicrous and false, but that won't stop you from being hauled out of school, sent to an isolated site somewhere to await a hearing that just may never come, and smeared in the press by propaganda writers like Ben "Where Are The Perverts?" Chapman.

With all the craziness that is going on in the system these days, all the craziness brought by the Common Core and the ADVANCE teacher evaluation system, all the craziness brought by the 4-6 Danielson observations and the NYC performance assessments that have kids writing about how great our Dear Leader, Mike Bloomberg, is, I forget to write how I think teachers need to be express solidarity with our colleagues who have been targeted by their administrators and smeared by the press.

It's important to express this solidarity because the truth is, there but for the grace of the universe (and a sane principal and assistant principal) go any of us.

I have seen good teachers, good people targeted and sent packing on bogus allegations over the years.

I have seen some of these same people smeared in the press (a few were lucky and managed to avoid that notoriety.)

It is an awful system we have here - an allegation is enough to convict you in the court of public opinion as run by our city plutocrats at the Post and News.

For some reason, the scum in the press who write these accounts have no empathy for the subjects that they seek to destroy with their smears, no idea that given different circumstances they too could be unfairly accused and destroyed by false allegations.

But I do have empathy for these teachers and wish to express my solidarity with them.

A Coordinated NYCDOE "Perv Teacher" Propaganda Campaign In Motion

Perv teacher beat reporter Ben "Where are the perverts?" Chapman had a rubber room/perv teacher article in today's Daily News.

I dispensed with that article here.

This afternoon, the NY Post has an even more sensationalised article entitled "Abusive, Violent Teachers Let Off The Hook" that, like the DN piece, hammers away at the disciplinary process for teachers and claims guilty, violent perverts are allowed to not only go free from justice but continue teaching children.

Now if you're like me, you have one of those "Hmm..." moments when you see two separate but similar teacher-bashing articles show up in the New York tabloids on the same day.

It seems unlikely that it's a coincidence that four different New York reporters, two for the DN, two for the Post, got the idea to write up "perv teacher" articles on the same day.

Rather, it seems like a coordinated campaign coming out of Tweed to do one last "perv teacher" propaganda push to try and get some changes to the disciplinary process before Bloomberg flies off to Bermuda for good on December 31.

If I had to make a bet about where they go from here, I bet we'll get a Campbell Brown emergence from Galt Gulch or wherever the hell she lives these days to do some public appearances declaring the UFT pedophile defenders and a Chancellor Walcott appearance before some cameras to say how horrified he was to learn of all these instances of abusive and violent teachers still working in the system and how he needs to be given the tools to rid the system of these violent criminals and perverts right away!

Never mind that if these teachers were guilty of any crimes, they would be arrested and put in prison, which makes it hard for the UFT to defend them since, you know, they'd be in prison.

Never mind that it's clear the coordinated propaganda campaign emanated from Walcott's office in the first place, so why should he be surprised about any of these stories when it's his people planting them in the press?

This is the usual smear campaign stuff they do in Bloombergville, but it also has echoes of the Bush strategy over the Iraq war.

Remember when the Bushes, via Scooter Libby, planted the story in the NY Times via Judy Miller that Saddam had WMD's, then used that story as proof positive for why there must be an attack on Iraq - Dick Cheney himself announced this on Meet The Press?

Well, Walcott and the Tweedies are doing the very same thing here.

They're ginning up another perv teacher campaign, with compliant corporate press people happy to give them the space to hawk their agenda, then they'll point to those newspaper stories as proof positive for why the disciplinary process needs to be changed and any teacher accused of a crime should be fired right away regardless of guilt or innocence.

Perhaps with the sun setting on Bloomberg's corporate empire, they think they have one last chance to get something done before the end of the year.

Or perhaps they're just laying down makers for the future, getting ready for another heavy perv teacher blitz when de Blasio takes over.

Either way, these stories are part of a coordinated campaign meant to mislead the public into supporting a revision to the teacher disciplinary process that will give the DOE the power to fire a teacher accused of misconduct without a fair, impartial hearing.

Ben Chapman Goes Back On The Perv Teacher Beat

Daily News reporter Ben Chapman loves to hunt perv teachers.

It's an obsession with him, perhaps stemming from a message he gets from his superiors at Team Zuckerman that this is a story they want covered every few weeks, perhaps originating from something darker and more Freudian.

In any case, it's a subject he comes back to over and over and over.

Today, he and Rachel Monahan have a rubber room piece in the Daily News that reports the city spends $29 million a year on salaries for 326 teachers and administrators who have been "accused of abusing kids, breaking rules or just being lousy educators."

Daily News Wants "Death Penalty" For Schools Too

They applaud Governor Cuomo for saying "failing" schools deserve the death penalty, then point to a Bloomberg Philanthropy- and Gates Foundation-funded research group study that pats the Bloomberg administration on the back for its school closure policies, replacing large schools with smaller ones.

See here for how MDRC works is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropy even as it works in concert with the Bloomberg administration on various free marketeer social programs.

The study the Daily News is pointing to was funded by the Gates Foundation - which of course pushes small schools to replace large schools

Gotta love a Bloomberg-funded research group that pats the Bloomberg administration on the back for its education policies.

Gotta love even more when the Daily News uses this Bloomberg-funded research group's Bloomberg-and Gates Foundation-funded school closure study as proof positive why the Bloomberg closure policies ought to continue without acknowledging where this research group gets its money from - namely Bloomberg Philanthropy and the Gates Foundation.

Mad Max In Bloomberg's New York City

Thirty bikers surrounded a man in Upper Manhattan yesterday after a fender bender on the Upper West Side, caused when one of the bikers stopped short in front of the man's SUV, and pummeled him in broad daylight in front of his wife and 2-year-old.

The Daily News reported:

Politicker: Here's How Many Times The NY Post Attacked Bill De Blasio This Week

Colin Campbell at Politicker has a partial rundown on how many attack articles and editorials the NY Post has run against Bill de Blasio this week.

It's a lot:

De Blasio asks for Wall Street donations

De Blasio ‘fixed’ pal’s water bill on council

So what does de Blasio believe now?

De Blasio suddenly scarce on campaign trail

De Blasio helped pal reduce $9,000 water bill

De Blasio’s favorite countries have dismal human-rights records

De Blasio’s bleary, dreary eyes of youth

De Blasio ignored Nicaragua anti-Semitism

The meaning of Bill de Blasio’s radical past

De Blasio’s ticket-fixing past

De Blasio’s warped world view should set off alarm bells

De Blasio among legislators who honored African tyrant

De Blasio vs. the 99 Percent

Obama to meet Sandinista-supporting de Blasio

Parents to rally against de Blasio’s charter school attacks

ACORN sowed seeds for de Blasio

Critics slam de Blasio’s trips to Cuba, Nicaragua

Getting to know Bill de Blasio … belatedly

Two New Yorks: 2013 v. 1990

De Blasio holds strong to Red Sox roots

Daughter proud of ‘badass’ de Blasio

De Blasio’s Cuban vision for New York City

And these aren't even all of the attack pieces they ran against him since Sunday.

Amazing.

Epoch Times Joins The Media Attacks Against De Blasio

Take a look at the way they frame this story about de Blasio's "re-emerging" from hiding
 after a week of negative press over his past support for the "far-left" Sandanistas.

The anti-Communist crazies at the Epoch Times join the barrage against de Blasio.

This is a glimpse of what a de Blasio mayorality will look like.

The press will not let him govern,

They will undercut him at every turn.

They will magnify every mistake, they will focus on every flaw, they will make things up and they will frame every story so that it will have an anti-de Blasio gloss.

Again the message is - do what the rich white men want in this city or they will destroy you.

This is what we can look forward to if de Blasio is elected.

The plutocrats will not lose.

BLOOMBERG LP forever.

When Does The NY Times Do The Hit Piece On Joe Lhota?

They did one on Quinn.

Did one on Weiner.

Did one on Thompson.

Now they've done one on de Blasio.

When do they do one on Lhota?

As I have blogged over and over and over, this guy's got anger management issues.

He challenged a 77 year old man to a fight last year at an MTA board meeting he was chairing.

No, really.

Back during the Giuliani administration, he got into a shoving match with a reporter right outside City Hall.

Those are the two stories we know about.

I bet there are more.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Times looked into it?

They've done their hit pieces on every other candidate.

Isn't it time Joe Lhota gets his 15 minutes?

Another Day, Another Negative NY Post Story On De Blasio

He's a commie pinko ticket-fixing, transcendental meditation-loving, document-shredding, cop-hating Marxist member of the Sandanista Party and New York City will be DESTROYED if he is elected mayor.

That's the message, day-in and day-out from the Posties.

Gee, they really sound threatened.

After 20 years of corporatist mayors, they seem to be worried that somebody might take power who doesn't automatically side with the plutocrats.

Now I dunno if that's going to be true or not.

I'm a bit cynical in my middle age, so I tend to think whatever a politician promises on the way, he/she must be held accountable for those promises once they're in.

And there are plenty of examples in de Blasio's past of his working with real estate or corporate interests and giving them what they want.

So I dunno exactly why the Posties and other corporatists in the city are so scared of a de Blasio as mayor.

Perhaps they are concerned because they think they will get a mayor in power who won't accommodate them 100% of the time.

After 20 years of always getting what they want from City Hall, that may scare them a bit.

But seriously, the hyperbole over this is a bit much.

NY Times Hit Piece On Bill De Blasio

Read Alex Pareene's take on the NY Times hit piece on de Blasio as a closet Sandanista.

Here's a bit:

The New York Times dropped a bombshell last night: As a young man, Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Bill de Blasio was… pretty left-wing. And he supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. And he once was in favor of democratic socialism. The Times presents this information as something they uncovered, as if de Blasio had somehow hidden it.

In fact, de Blasio has spoken publicly about his time in Nicaragua as recently as last December. But the story of de Blasio’s youthful activism is interesting and not that widely known — I didn’t know about it, and I have actually been paying a decent amount of attention to this race — making it great material for a brief biographical sketch of the candidate as an idealistic young man.

This brief biographical sketch, though, sounds a bit like opposition research, or at least like an attempt to “shake up” the race and force the candidate to answer questions about his Commie past. It’s got hints of that very sober but slightly inflammatory tone that the Times puts on when it’s causing trouble. De Blasio, we’re told, “went to Nicaragua to help distribute food and medicine in the middle of a war between left and right. But he returned with something else entirely: a vision of the possibilities of an unfettered leftist government.” Unfettered! I don’t like the sound of that.

The Times says “[de Blasio's] time as a young activist was more influential in shaping his ideology than previously known” (this is the declaration that the information in this article is relevant news and not just old stories) “and far more political than typical humanitarian work.” Yes, because it was… activism? I mean what is “typical humanitarian work” here, exactly? De Blasio was working with the Quixote Center, a Catholic social justice group that fights poverty and economic inequality and that is inspired by liberation theology. This is actually very typical humanitarian work, and Catholic groups in particular have been doing it for years.

I'm surprised the Times didn't launch this against de Blasio in the primaries. 

It is clearly a hit piece meant to damage him, as they deploy unnamed critics and some anonymous sources to tar de Blasio as a commie pinko.

But I'm with Pareene here - the story makes me like de Blasio even better.

Frankly, I always assumed he was some DLC Clinton-type just talking the progressive talk to get elected.

He may be doing that anyway, but it's good to know that he once did humanitarian work down in Nicaragua and stood against Apartheid and Reagan's illegal Contra war.

Also, as Pareene points out, there are plenty of Republicans out there who supported apartheid, Pinochet, and a host of other evil things back in the day and that stuff never gets reported as "So and so supported racist Apartheid policies and CIA assassination squads."

It's interesting how having a "lefty" past is a crime to the Times but flirting with fascism back in the day just warrants a yawn.

Daily News Bases Anti-De Blasio Story On One Anonymous Facebook Commenter

Those fine journalists at the Daily News are at it again.

Dante de Blasio’s Afro — which has been the subject of fascination and admiration — became an issue after his dad’s campaign made it the focus of a new social media blitz, urging supporters to tweet the hashtag #GoWithTheFro, to build momentum for the Democrat.

Scoffers accused the lanky liberal of exploiting Dante’s ’do.

Critics chided the elder de Blasio on Facebook. One wrote that the whole social media push “makes me uncomfortable. Please stop running on your son’s hair.”

De Blasio, who is white, and his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is black, have two children.

The elder de Blasio already has featured Dante in two television ads, a spotlight that appears to have helped the candidate politically.

 Indeed, the new Quinnipiac poll found de Blasio drawing more support from black Democrats than any other candidate, even Thompson, the only African-American in the race.

Several black leaders brushed aside the criticism of de Blasio.

“I thought it was extremely touching,” the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, said of one of the de Blasio ads featuring Dante.

“Is he using them as props?” asked Queens Councilman Leroy Comrie, who supports Quinn. “Hell, yeah. But they’re effective props. And they’re willing props.”

Classic Daily News journalism - they base the "critics are angry that de Blasio is exploiting his son's fro" story on one anonymous Facebook commenter.

How do they know that anonymous Facebook commenter doesn't work for Quinn or Thompson?

Quinn has been known to hire sock puppets for her Internet work.

But the DN runs with the story anyway because if it's anti-de Blasio, it's fit to run.

We're getting a good indication of what the tabloid coverage will like be if de Blasio is elected mayor.

Daily News Screws Anthony Weiner

Yesterday that fine paper known as the New York Daily News published an interview with Anthony Weiner conducted by DN columnist Denis Hamill.

That interview made news itself when it seemed from the transcription that Weiner was evading a question Hamill asked on whether Weiner was currently sexting with any strangers he met over the Internets.

Here is the passage in question as posted yesterday by the Daily News:

Q. There is no one you are sexting now?
A. You can quibble about beginnings, middles and ends but what we're talking about is over a year ago.

That interview set off a 36 hour media frenzy as almost every political reporter in the city followed Weiner around trying to get him to say whether he was sexting with anyone at the current time.

It turns out, however, that the geniuses at the Daily News transcribed that interview Q&A wrong.

According to Politico, here is how the audio Q&A went:

Hamill: "And it was over a year ago? There’s been nothing else?"
Weiner: "I mean, oh yeah, all that stuff is behind me. You can quibble about you know, beginnings, middles and ends, but it was basically a year ago."

Wow - that's a big difference from what the DN first posted yesterday.  From this exchange, it's obvious that Weiner is NOT evading the question and is unequivocally saying he is not sexting with any and hasn't for around a year or so.

The Daily News, being the quality paper it is, went with a front page apology to Weiner, begging his forgiveness for setting off that 36 hour media frenzy and...

Nah, just kidding - the scum at the DN went with a little note at the bottom of the interview:

On Wednesday, the Daily News posted a "clarification" at the bottom of Hamill's interview: "In an interview with Anthony Weiner in Tuesday’s paper, a question posed to the mayoral candidate and his answer were transcribed incorrectly," it read. "A question about sexting should have ended with: 'There’s been nothing else?' Weiner’s answer was: 'I mean, oh yeah, all that stuff is behind me. You can quibble about beginnings, middles and ends, but it was basically a year ago.'”

Classic DN - smear somebody either purposely or through a careless mistake, then basically ignore the whole thing by putting up a "clarification" that nobody will see.

I've been beating up on Weiner for a while now and did so after the DN interview appeared yesterday morning.

Let me take this opportunity to retract this post -given the new realities around the interview, it's wrong.

I want to take responsibility for my words.

Shame the DN doesn't do the same.