Saturday, August 18, 2012

Did CNN's Randi Kaye Ask Rhee About the DC Cheating Scandal Coverup Under Her Watch?

[Randi Kaye] and her researchers are totally uninformed. And they feed their uninformed views to the American public. This is what is frightening! --- Diane Ravitch
Biased journalism 101
See the Kaye/Rhee Interview. What any person who considers herself a journalist would ask when Rhee brought up the term "effective" teacher. Define an effective teacher? Then didn't that definition result in a major cheating scandal under your watch as head of DC schools? What about the level of alienation of people that led to the mayor losing the election due to the impact of your policies? That was the type of interview Randi Kaye did with Ravich while letting Rhee off the hook.

I thought Diane had an opening when talking about the failures of merit pay and the testing used to measure it by pointing to the Rhee regime in DC and how it lead to a cheating scandal that was covered up (as even a former Rhee fan Jay Matthews points to).

See my last post earlier in the day: Biased CNN's Randi Kaye Does Not Deserve Merit Pay

And Diane Ravitch's follow-up post today: What Readers Said About CNN and Randi Kaye

I went to CNN assuming I was invited to express my differences with Rhee, who gets far more airtime than I to present her agenda of attacking US education, smearing teachers, calling for an end to tenure and seniority, and demanding merit pay, charter schools, vouchers, for-profit charter schools, for-profit virtual schools, and more testing.
But there was no discussion of my views, no opportunity to present them. Instead I faced a series of loaded questions intended to put me on the defensive (some of the worst were left out of the televised version). They were “gotcha” questions. What do you say to this? And what about that?

Last year at Education Nation, another biased reporter, Raheema Ellis, had Rhee on a panel with a former Atlanta school board member but only talked about the Atlanta cheating scandal. I got to the mic and asked Ellis why she was letting Rhee off the hook.

Rhee almost choked. One of the fun moments although all too brief.



4 comments:

Gary Floyd said...

Thanks for this coverage I am going to be cross posting this. Please check out post on Common Core Standards by Marion Brady http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2012/08/marion-brady-excellent-piece-on-modern.html

Anonymous said...

CNN edited out the first part of the interview because Kaye didn't have her facts straight. So they had to protect their own.

Unfortunately, CNN told others they will post the transcript, but no mention of the video. Please let us know the minute it comes up.

Anonymous said...

I was disappointed with CNN and their journalistic integrity. It's laughable and disturbing to say the least. One other question I would have asked Rhee, and for some bizarre reason she and her husband the current Mayor of Sacramento get a free pass on; is why she ran interference with the IG who was investigating Kevin's St. Hope Academy and investigating his sexual misconduct. The guy has a history of charges and pay-offs. Yet they are heralded as America's reform couple. Heck, I wouldn't let them near any children or a school, which may explain why her two daughters live with her ex in Tenn. and not with them. That too is an unasked and unanswered question.One I would love to hear. Her possible response of, "well I travel a lot" doesn't cut it. She was a workaholic and traveled extensively when she was in charge of DCPS - "The Test Erasure Capital" so why not have her kids near her where she can raise, love and nurture them...unless. Definitely a question worth asking.

Michael Fiorillo said...

This is a woman who publicly said her children "suck" at soccer, in order to make the point that children should not be given support, but rather have threats and ridicule used as "motivators." (http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/education-reform-needs-new-starting-point)

So much for love and nurturing ...