Teachers to protest ABC's John Stossel - hatchet job on education system

[flygal]

http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/delegates_ok_petition_drive/

snip

The UFT delegate body overwhelmingly approved on Jan. 18 a plan to organize a petition drive and rally outside ABC headquarters to protest a 20/20 segment that maligned the union and its members.UFT President Randi Weingarten, who motivated the motion, said the one-sided TV episode, which aired on Jan. 13, demanded an immediate response.“We want to make sure that they hear the voices of incredibly hard-working teachers,” she said. “ABC needs to hear how unfair and biased those of you in the trenches believe their broadcast to have been.”The 20/20 report, which was produced by John Stossel, portrayed the New York City school system as a “union-dominated monopoly” where “hundreds of teachers that the city calls incompetent, racist, dangerous, guilty of sexual misconduct have been paid millions” because the union contract makes it “almost impossible” to fire them.Stossel held up as a model the management practices of Jack Welch’s GE, where the best workers are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent “have to go.”Of a city teacher’s work day, Stossel snidely asks the television audience, “How many of you work a uniform six-hour, 40-minute day?”Murmurs of outrage rippled through the delegate body after they viewed an eight-minute clip from the show.


“My blood was boiling,” said Lynne Cohen, chapter leader of IS 227 in Queens. “I joined < Stossel’s> message board just so I could response to the spurious things he said. It’s yellow journalism. It’s unbelievable.”

snip

Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group, writes that Stossel “often excludes evidence that doesn’t support his point of view. That makes it propaganda for his side, and that’s not good journalism.”

Among his personal ties to the right wing, Stossel sells videos of his reports to educators through a conservative foundation called the Palmer R. Chitester Fund. He further supplements his income with outside speaking engagements before right-wing organizations, including the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute

[bluestateguy]

1. Stossel is going to end up on Fox someday

It's only a matter of time.

[rucky]

14. Anybody who aspires to be like Geraldo Rivera

moustache and all.

of all the heroes to have.

[Hissyspit]

2. Good for them. Stossel is a jerk. n/t

[bliss_eternal]

3. It's about time someone stood up to this idiot!

There are times I've wondered how he manages to keep a job as a reporter, he is completely biased in every report he does. If I know one of his reports is coming up, I change the channel. I dislike him that much.

I hope those teachers give him hell!

[laheina]

5. I'm totally with you.

I've always disliked him, but once I found out that he was a product of the right wing "reporter" training program, I started avoiding his segments like the plague.

[bliss_eternal]

7. Really--where did he train

or go to school? I don't know much about him, other than the reaction I have to his biased, idiotic reports.
:hi:

[depakid]

8. I doubt he trained anywhere

The guy outright falsifies data and other "reports."

ABC has already had to apologize for the guy on more than one occassion. Of course, that was before straight up lying became acceptible behavior in the news media.

Here he makes up a story about organic food

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/stossellies.cfm

and here's more unsubstratiated things he's done:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/stossellies.cfm

ABC should have its broadcast license yanked for keeping him on.

[bliss_eternal]

9. OMG--they could be sued...

what a clown!

[laheina]

10. I just opened up "The Republican Noise Machine" to refresh.

I was actually a teenie bit off. Stossel is actually a frequent speaker to the college groups that the conservatives use to indoctrinate young "journalists." One notable product of these programs is Ann Coulter.

He does speaking engagements for several of the foundations that are part of this movement, and has even spoken to groups such as the Federalist Society. They pay him to speak, and then he plugs their objectives on his segments. He's even spoken in front of Congressional committees, spewing their ideological nonsense.

Apparently, he started off doing consumer awareness and corporate watch dog stories, but through the eighties, as he started making progressively more money, he started looking out for number one.

David Brock devotes an entire (short) chapter to him at the end of the book. It's a very informative read.

:hi:

[rodeodance]

19. thanks, I heard/read about that segment from teacher friends of mine.

They were not pleased

[acmavm]

17. Reporter? Funny, Stossel doesn't fit my picture of what a reporter has

tradionally been seen to be. He's more like a 'propagandist' for corporate America and the bush** admin.

[sandnsea]

4. Oh yeah, a news protest!!!

About damned time!

[BOHICA06]

6. Bias or not .....

none of these organizations are touting the improvement in their product. The dollars versus the outcome does say something.

[Reader Rabbit]

23. Specious argument...

None of the teachers touts the improvement of their "product" because they don't work with "products," they work with children—living, breathing, thinking human beings. No business model will ever work in a public school, because none of them take this into account.

To look at standardized test scores and deem our public schools "failing" is to fall into the conservative trap. If you truly believe the public schools in your area are "failing," then I suggest taking some time and going in to visit them and possibly help out.

[BOHICA06]

27. No ... I'm helping them out by not ...

burdening them with my children, but assisting with teen-parenting programs, scholarship programs and fund raising activities that goes directly to the local high school.

If you can't measure or don't want to measure an outcome, you are doomed to fail.

[WinkyDink]

35. So true! Now, why don't you peddle that line to Dubya about IRAQ??

[BOHICA06]

38. * - don't take my calls! n/t

[LostinVA]

24. You cannot put a "bottom line" on learning!

The fact is the huge majority of schools are seriously underfunded, and NCLB just makes that worse. Billions more should be poured into our education system -- and our health system AND our economy -- because all of these are tied together.

I agree with the other poster: it's a specious argument at best.

[laheina]

11. One guy from the Cato Institute

Said that every segment that he does is like $1,000,000 worth of publicity for the conservative movement.

[kurth]

12. Stossel is an anti-consumer moron

It's a shame that ABC is keeping him on the payroll.

[stevietheman]

13. He also rails against government waste/fraud while pretending...

there's almost no such thing in the corporate world. A real buffoon he is.

[kurth]

30. Exactly. He's a corporatist

and a huge hypocrite.

[anitar1]

15. Stossel has long been a liar. It is a matter of record.

He is a longtime Repug. I read stuff about his facts being skewed on many segments of 20/20, at least 3 years ago. He has been in trouble in his early days over lying. I never liked him and quit watching that show a few yrs ago. Stossel is a total pig.

[LizW]

21. He was exposed years ago as a fraud

He did a report full of lies about organic foods, claiming they had more pesicides and bacteria and other bad stuff than non-organic. He was roundly discredited. ABC only keeps him on as a sideshow. They are well aware he has no credibility anymore as a journalist.

I'm not surprised he did a hatchet job on public education. It's true to his right-wing devotion.

[phoebe]

36. here's an article dated 1996 re: Stossel + phony patients

http://www.mcsrr.org/pressreleases/prabc96.html

snip

Dr. Grace Ziem (MD, DrPH) today denounced John Stossel of ABC News for trying to discredit the diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) as part of an upcoming special he is hosting on "junk science." She revealed that Mr. Stossel sent her two phony patients--an ABC News staffperson, Deborah J. Stone, and her sister-in-law--who pretended to suffer from the disorder by lying about their symptoms and medical history. Dr. Ziem is a Harvard and Johns Hopkins-trained physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of MCS and cares for hundreds of chemically-injured patients. She is also the president and medical director of MCS Referral & Resources (MCS R&R), a Baltimore-based organization devoted to furthering public awareness of MCS disorders. Dr. Ziem expressed outrage that Mr. Stossel would resort to such a deception when there are so many genuine MCS patients who suffer daily from exposures to the many toxic chemicals found in products such as pesticides, paint, carpeting, carbonless copy paper, and perfume.

snip

In support of the chemical industry position on MCS, Mr. Stossel has already interviewed Dr. Ronald Gots, the founder and president of the Environmental Sensitivities Research Institute <301-984-8933>. By his own admission, Dr. Gots has not cared for a single patient of his own for 20 years, yet he has testified against the claims of MCS patients for over a decade as a paid witness for chemical and insurance companies. His ostensibly non-profit "institute," which actually does no "research," charges $10,000 per year for "Enterprise Membership" and includes on its board of directors representatives from the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, Proctor and Gamble, Monsanto, and DowElanco. MCS Referral & Resources documented the extensive "Undisclosed Biases and Misrepresentations" of Dr. Gots in a fact sheet prepared for ABC News, but suspects that Mr. Stossel nevertheless may portray him as an unbiased expert on MCS.

"It is really grossly misleading for Mr. Stossel to give credence to Dr. Gots' claim that MCS is either a psychogenic (imagined) illness or an iatrogenic (doctor-induced) fear of chemicals," said Mr. Donnay. As documented in an extensive bibliography on MCS compiled by MCS Referral & Resources, the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed scientific studies and current research on MCS clearly support a physical basis for the disorder.

[Theduckno2]

16. Just saw a part of one of his "Myths....." shows the other day.

He had a lopsided segment praising privatization! He seems to throw out a couple of ounces of truth and ten pounds of embellished cr*p to make his point. I rarely watch him anyway and now I will consciously avoid viewing.

[monarch]

18. What is the average on-air work day

of a TV "personality?" Surely Stossel doesn't "work" 6 hours a day.

[ColonelTom]

20. Stossel on Enron - the system worked fine.

I remember hearing Stossel talk about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - he said there's no need for the Act or, in essence, for the SEC, because the market takes care of everything. His take on Enron was that the company lied and its value collapsed, so what's the problem? It was a "market correction," and other companies won't lie in the future because they don't want to go down the tubes like Enron.

Small comfort for those who lost their life's savings, but they can be comforted by the warm touch of the Invisible Hand, I suppose. :eyes:

[stevietheman]

29. Yeah, these "libertarians" never seem to care about the damage...

to real people's lives, as if corporate liberty trumps individual liberty. And believe you me, if you're made impoverished, your de facto liberties go down the drain.

[bleedingheart]

22. Stossel has been unhinged since that wrestler smacked him

[wicket]

25. Stossel is such a hack

Did anyone see Colbert clean the floor with him a few weeks ago? It was great- he didn't even realize how much of an idiot Colbert made him look like.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Here's how I'd handle Stossel:

I'd say, "Okay, smart-ass, you think it's so easy to be a teacher, you take over a teacher's position for a week. How would you like to teach eighth grade :evilgrin: ?"

He wouldn't last a day, much less a week, with a roomful of thirty thirteen-and fourteen-year-olds dedicated to dreaming up new torments for the substitute teacher.

I'm suggesting this because a newspaper columnist in Portland, Phil Stanford, was given to making snide remarks about how easy teachers have it until some teachers challenged him to come to their high school--it was a suburban school, by the way--and teach English classes for a week.

The first hour was a rude awakening. He had thought that he could just come into the class and bullshit, and he was astounded to learn how long 50 minutes can be when you're not prepared. The students were inattentive and disrespectful, and never having been trained in "classroom management," he couldn't deal with it. Besides that, there were mountains of papers to grade and bureaucratic paperwork.

[ninkasi]

33. I'm not a teacher

but somehow, I have a hard time believing that they only work 6 hours a day. That might be the amount of classroom time they put in, but what about grading papers, preparing lessons, and going to parent/teacher conferences? I know when my kids were in school, I went to open houses at night to meet teachers, talk about how my kids were doing, things like that.

In some school district, my understanding is that they are so poorly funded that teachers have to pay for some supplies out of their own pockets. I've known of teachers who have provided lunch money to kids they knew had none, and were hungry. Teachers are expected to be almost superhuman, perfect educators, models of virtue, hardworking, and somehow, conservatives seem to expect them to do all of this on low wages.

As important as education is, there is no better use of our money than having dedicated, qualified teachers, but somehow, many in society seem to expect them to be properly compensated for the work they do. I also believe that if we put enough money into education to have smaller class size, teachers would be able to dedicate more time to each child, and this might eliminate some of the mania of teaching to standardized tests.

Granted, there must be some way of measuring success, but a good teacher who has time to get to know their students could probably be able to identify student's strengths and weaknesses, and help the student overcome the weaknesses. Of course, I'm not an educator, so this is just one person's opinion. Its' also my opinion that Stossel is an arrogant asshole.

[sofedup]

28. I never watch abc "news"...

...remember Vargas' hatchet job on Matthew Shephard? Stoessel won't have to go to Faux- abc is turning into the same type RW propaganda machine.

[kurth]

31. It's Disney - Mickey Mouse journalism

to be viewed with special rose-colored glasses...

[Swede]

32. On Katrina he said "Price gouging is good"

He's a jerk and an idiot.


"Consider this scenario: You are thirsty -- worried that your baby is going to become dehydrated. You find a store that's open, and the storeowner thinks it's immoral to take advantage of your distress, so he won't charge you a dime more than he charged last week. But you can't buy water from him. It's sold out.

You continue on your quest, and finally find that dreaded monster, the price gouger. He offers a bottle of water that cost $1 last week at an "outrageous" price -- say $20. You pay it to survive the disaster"




http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2005/09/07/155361.html

[mitchum]

34. He's a tool, lackey, and liar...

despite all of his "independent thinker" delusions

[Sabriel]

37. Anti-union pieces on 20/20? Shocking!

Not.

There's been a concerted effort in recent years to discredit and undermine just about every kind of union in this country. And strangely enough, union members are willing to speed it up by voting Republican. I don't GET it.

I'm sick of teacher bashing. As I always tell my students, if you hear someone bash teachers, you can be sure they've never had any contact with classrooms or children. Run screaming in the opposite direction.