NBC news prez says they aren't experts on education.

[madfloridian]

It appears they just plan to play experts on TV.

Teacher/blogger Anthony Cody writes about his banning and unbanning from the Facebook of Education Nation which dominates all the NBC airwaves this week.

He makes an important point about two things the NBC president said in his interview defending the one-sided nature of the series.

Cody points out that they are acting like experts, and he remarks that NBC said it is not about education policy.

Not about policy? A whole week of stuff on education by a network that claims no expertise and isn't talking about policy??

How WOULD a Journalist Cover Education Nation?

Here is what NBC News President Steve Capus had to say yesterday at his press conference defending their Education Nation programming from criticism that it is one-sided and lacking in the participation of classroom teachers;

"NBC News (personnel) are not the experts in this place. ...the role of a news organization is to put a spotlight on these issues/challenges, and on the people who are doing incredibly strong work to try to affect change. The news division's involvement begins and ends with that spotlight. We're not coming at this from a policy angle."

Cody points out that this is truly flabbergasting.

Truly flabbergasting. NBC News has no experts on education policy. According to the material on their Education Nation website, "Education is key to the success of our country..." Education is "one of the most pressing national issues of our time." Yet this multi-million dollar news organization has nobody on their staff they consider to be expert in this crucial field? If this issue is indeed key to our success, shouldn't they have some expertise - especially if they are going to sponsor a week of programming on the subject?"

He then asks some questions to the NBC president, knowing of course they will not be answered.

4. What was the role of the Department of Education in the process of organizing this event? What role did they play in the selection of speakers?

5. According to the calculations of Sabrina Stevens-Shupe, only 13% of the attendees (not even speakers) are practicing teachers. As Sabrina pointedly asks, "We're important enough to merit 100% of the accountability for students, but not important enough to merit more than 13% of the national conversation about education?"

There won't be any answers.

Interestingly to me, it appears that Arne Duncan is going to campaign for Democrats running for office. It is covered by the Christian Science Monitor.

While Education Secretary Arne Duncan says education should be the one issue where “we put politics and ideology to the side,” he still plans to hit the campaign trail for Democratic candidates in mid-October.

Speaking at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters Wednesday, Secretary Duncan said “we have tried to work very hard in a bipartisan way to do the right thing by children.” He added, “I have a great working relationship with Mr. Boehner,” referring to Ohio Republican John Boehner who could become speaker if Republicans take control of the House. “I don’t think he is going to become speaker," he said, "but whatever happens we are going to continue to work closely together.”

I think this paragraph shows what he means...

The Secretary called for voters to include education policy in their assessment of candidates. “I would love every election to be a referendum on whether that governor – what did that elected official do for education, what did that candidate do for education," he said. "I want that conversation. And so where you have folks willing to step out there and not talk the talk but walk the walk, I feel good about supporting them.”

He is no expert on education. Neither is NBC. Yet they are dominating the conversation because they have the money and power and billionaire foundations behind them.

[Reader Rabbit]

1. Perfect analysis, madfloridian.

I especially liked this statement:

He is no expert on education. Neither is NBC. Yet they are dominating the conversation because they have the money and power and billionaire foundations behind them.

[madfloridian]

2. Duncan seems to adore Boehner.

He has often said he is non-political and would work well with either party. Since both parties support the privatization of education....he would fit in either.

[MadHound]

3. Hey Arne, if you truly want me to take Dem's education policy into consideration when I vote,

You're going to lose my vote, and probably the votes of a lot of other teachers and friends of public education.

It is simply astounding that we're putting education in the hands of people who are clueless about education.

[stillwaiting]

13. Amen! nt

[Starry Messenger]

4. Duncan, Gingrich, Boehner...

The last two are *not* moderate Republicans. I think we've skipped bipartisan and gone simply to right wing.

I also want an answer to question #4.

[madfloridian]

5. Me, too.

And answer to 4. We won't get it though.

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Like Chile, eh?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=219&topic_id=28157&mesg_id=28157

"LOIS WEINER: Absolutely. And I think it’s important to understand that Race to the Top is not unique to the United States, and what Arne Duncan did in Chicago is not unique to Chicago. And in fact, the contours of this program were carried out first under Pinochet in Chile. And this program was implemented by force of military dictatorships and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Latin America. And the results have been verified by researchers there. They produced increased stratification. So I think what we’re seeing right now are the results of that increased stratification, a stratification, inequality of results, because if you think about it, No Child Left Behind is almost a decade old. And what are the results? The results are a growing gap between poor minority—achievement of poor minority kids and those kids who come from prosperous families who are—who live in affluent suburbs and in those suburban schools."

[madfloridian]

7. I won't forget that post was moved.

Kept the views down. Many ways to skin a cat.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. Great post

Naomi Klein would have been proud.

[Catshrink]

12. Yeah - it was a "mistake"

mistake my ass.

[msanthrope]

15. To the Education Forum? Why shouldn't it have gone there? n/t

[Starry Messenger]

9. kick

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[chimpymustgo]

11. K&R. Keep it up, MadFloridian. This will be a busy week, fighting the machine.

[truth2power]

14. First of all...""NBC News (personnel) are not the experts in this place. ..."

Neither are President Obama or Arne Duncan.

Duncan is an administrator who has spent not one day in the classroom. President Obama is a lawyer** who, by virtue of his training, has no professional expertise in this area. Teaching Constitutional Law to law students doesn't count for the purposes of this discussion.

I am getting damn sick and tired of the mystique that surrounds lawyers in this country. I have personally known a few brilliant and expert lawyers, but I think even they would agree that graduating law school does not confer intrinsic expertise in any number of other professional skill-sets, including the profession of education. Pres. Obama should have appointed a professional educator to the post now held by Duncan, instead of letting cronyism drive his decision.


**A DUer pointed out to me awhile back that Pres. Obama let his law license lapse, thus it's not correct to call him a "lawyer". I have no reason not to believe the poster, but it's irrelevant IMO. Obama graduated law school. He's trained as a lawyer, not an educator.


> > > > >

ETA: Thanks for your efforts, Madfloridian.

[sulphurdunn]

16. From whatever source it comes, whatever its

exact wording, the expression "poverty shouldn't affect educational outcomes" represents the abandonment of social justice for all for the beneficence of private charity for some. By implying that poverty doesn't matter, these "billionaire reformers" not only shift the blame to the victims of their wealth but profit from doing so. What I have witnessed in the name of education reform is the completely unmasked political power of moneyed aristocracy at work serving its own interests at the expense of those least able to defend themselves from it.

[Starry Messenger]

17. This is the honest truth.

Thank you for stating it so clearly and well.

[Fire1]

19. Absolutely and Education Nation is nothing but pure

propoganda.

[Loge23]

18. "Education Nation!, but first the latest on Lyndsay Lohan"

Maybe not word for word, but this is what I heard this AM on the idiotic Today show before I could get to the remote to turn it off.
Yes, after showing all the tents pitched on the plaza, they just had to get in the latest update on Lohan.
Education Nation you know! A well-informed nitwit is ratings power!

[gratuitous]

20. Maybe it's time for Communication Nation

We can assemble a panel of folks to make demands on the government for better administration of the public airwaves. I for one think that on-air personalities command salaries way out of line with the service they provide. Since their salaries are commensurate with the rates the networks can charge for advertising, and that cost is passed on to the public in terms of higher prices for consumer goods and services, it should be up to the public to decide what the advertising rates are for the nation's airwaves. Any savings to advertisers have to be taken directly off the retail price of those goods and serivces.

Furthermore, programming decisions will no longer be a function of the networks, which have made some famously boneheaded choices. We should have a blue ribbon panel of citizens, drawn by lot from the general population, decide what shows are on and when.

What's that? What sort of expertise does this little get-together provide? Just about as much as NBC does, and all I'm trying to do is make network programming work better for the public that owns the broadcast airwaves. NBC is meddling, without any expertise, in one of the fundamental institutions of our society. I think I've stated the stronger case.