John Stossel is an idiot.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:49 AM Permalink Ok, so that headline isn't the revelation of the century, I get that, but this segment he did on 20/20 called "Stupid in America" on the state of public schools in the US was an insult to my intelligence. It was aired sometime ago, but this is the first time I'd seen it all together. (I vaguely remember seeing clips.) How does that man maintain employment as a journalist?First, he starts out comparing US kids test scores with a bunch of smart asses in Belgium. Of course the US kids were woeful. Were the kids in Belgium the best that Belgium had to offer? They may have been. It may have been an unfair comparison. We'll never know. Then, he goes after the teachers, how hard it is to fire them even when sexual indiscretions were apparent. This is blatantly untrue. It's easy to fire a teacher if even a soupcon of sexual indiscretion is brought to the administration's attention. REALLY easy. Stossel even went on about the "rubber room" which is where all teachers under investigation are sent while their case is being heard. He treated the whole concept of the "rubber room" with such derision, like "how dare they pay these teachers who aren't teaching because they're under investigation," never mind that not all teachers are guilty, because, frankly, a lot of charges are brought against teachers out of pure spite by either teachers, students or some administrator with an ax to grind. Due process, meh. Then there's the whole thing with the 18 year old who can't read. THEN, he shows some really dumb, crazy looking teachers saying things like "there are no bad teachers" and "I'm a bad teacher? Prove that I'm a bad teacher and then talk to me!" Then he showed how crazy the union meetings look. His final conclusion: the reason US schools suck so bad is that there's no choice, there's no competition. We need vouchers and options and competitive pay and punishment for poor performance. That will solve the whole system's problems.
Honestly, I could go on and on with how badly the report was skewed, how bad the reporting was, how biased, how incomplete, but it would be a waste of electrons. Corporate-owned media and today's journalists will NEVER examine the REAL reasons our public schools are failing. The REAL reason that the schools are failing at education is that they haven't educated anyone in years. The system is not set up for education. The school system is set up to maintain social class. If you're on the lower rungs of the social strata, then you're going to get sub-par education. They higher you are in social class, the better education you're going to get. That's it. There's no education, there's only maintenance of social class.
Think about that and then try to imagine a journalist delving into THAT story. You can't do it because it will never happen.
15 Comments:
DON'T TELL ME YOU DISAGREE WITH JOHN STOSSEL ON THIS!!?
PLEASE DON'T ENLIST YOURSELF INTO THE GROUP OF BEING ANOTHER TRUE "VIDEOT"
PLEASE TELL ME YOUR COMMENT WAS SNARK!!
Of course I disagree with him. The problem isn't lack of choice. The problem is ridiculously poor administration and a retarded bureaucracy COMPOUNDED by a systemic classist bias.
Wow, do I disagree with you. It's true that kids in poorer districts get a worse education, but if they had the choice to go to a different school, not only would the ones who choose a different school get a better education, so would the ones who stay at the same school because that school would be forced to do a better job. It's simple economics. And if you don't think economics apply to schools, you've got your head in the sand.
Both of you, and anyone else who thinks I'm wrong, read my addendum post above.
You've got to be kidding me. Sure people in poor school get bad education right now. But it's not like administrators have been trying to keep it bad for them. It will never change without competition. Forcing a kid to go to one school because he lives close to it, even if that school is terrible, cannot be defended.
You're the idiot.
At 7:04 PM, Anonymous said...
You're the idiot.
Wow! What a piercingly pertinent and provocative argument obviously representing the very pinnacle of probative or possible even sober contemplation.
It's rare to see such a cohesive, all-incompassing, and compelling argument.
Bill Arnett.
I'm sorry, Vidiot, but it looks like you got aced by a person who not only is a paragon of virtue but a master of believing his own pomposity, totally unable to conduct civil discourse, and so he sinks to the level of being a legend within his own mind and spouts inane and asinine remarks as those above.
I do really believe your insightful reader must be one of those blindingly brilliant mouth-breathers of the Rethuglican party, or perhaps a teabagger! One of those whom, even if you believed them to be lucid, mustered up the intestinal fortitude to make this stunning argument. (I'd bet they scrawled it on their computer screen before they remembered that they had to type it in.)
Yep, you were had, alright.
Apparently, this thread attracts a few dummies. It's old has hell too.
Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't stossel himself, or at least one of his PR lackeys, trolling around blogger, searching for any mention of him.
NOBODY understands how education works in this country. NOBODY gets that there hasn't been education, in like a very long time. The majority of the schools are there to make good little citizens and workers. that is all. Anything more than that is because the parents are demanding and paying for it.
Apparently, this thread attracts a few dummies. It's old has hell too.
Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't stossel himself, or at least one of his PR lackeys, trolling around blogger, searching for any mention of him.
NOBODY understands how education works in this country. NOBODY gets that there hasn't been education, in like a very long time. The majority of the schools are there to make good little citizens and workers. that is all. Anything more than that is because the parents are demanding and paying for it.
Why is it that so many people hate this guy, I wonder?
A well written and insightful piece. I have to take issue with one fundamental point however. John Stossel is not an idiot.
Stossel is a very clever spokesman for big business and mult-nationals and their front groups (Cato, Heritage, et al) that are literally harvesting America)
Stossel presents himself as this folksy, Will Rogers / Colombo type character that is just asking reasonable questions.
"I, I, I don't know but I'm just asking questions - it sure seems like something is wrong here..."
But don't be fooled. Stossel in fact produces pieces that are obscenely, biased, skewed, and dishonest (he was busted for lying and sighting studies that didn't even exist). You can see it in every piece he presents. And the topics he chooses are on the agenda of the big business interests he represents.
There is of course a real discussion to be had about education. I could be that some of his proposed solution may have merit (of course you can't tell from this piece).
As with all of his "issues" driven pieces, there is a hidden agenda; Big business exploiting tax payers. The question is not would vouchers be part of the solution (they may or may not be a good idea). The question is, why are Republicans pushing the voucher agenda?
Follow the money and as always, you'll find deception, corruption, fraud, and piss-poor value for the taxpayer and public good.
They propagandist are masters at crafting an attractive (albeit specious) argument. But they're not interested in the results they appear to lobby for. They want that tax money. And what you get in return will bare little resemblance to what this piece pro-ports to propose.
John Stossel is not an idiot. John Stossel is dangerous.
sorry for the typos...
That is the inevitable result of a lack of choice. If you have ever read Milton Friedman's book "free to choose" then you will see that schools are just like any other industry when it comes to providing service.
Forcing a kid to go to any school is fascism. It's pretty silly that parents can choose a child's doctor or even brain surgeon, but a child's school and teachers have to be chosen by the government. That is not America.
Gee, what tipped you off about John Stossel being an idiot? When he walked up to a bleach-blonde redneck professional wrestler and called him a fake? BAM!
The result, Stossel ended up suing the wrestling organization for assault and battery, but now he claims that lawsuits are bad.
John Stossel specializes in something called "Belling the Cat," by pointing out obvious problems while presenting no workable Solutions. "Just knock off all that government inefficiency," is his recommendation. Simple as that.
Then he just goes on to the next problem, acting like he actually just did something by talking about it. "Captain Obvious, up up and away!"
You would think that David Schultz had slapped some better sense into him. You can't get a free market just by talking about it. He doesn't say how we are supposed to get it, he just complains that we don't have it, about how politicians are bought by corporate sponsors donating to their campaigns and supporting them during elections.
Never once does he suggest what anybody is supposed to do about it to solve the problem. All he does is complain and move on.
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