SUBSCRIPT: It's time for public school teachers and teacher unions to balance against the biases by boycotting both the conservative Koch Industries and the hypocritical 'progressives' teacher bashing and union busting at The New Yorker
…A lot of people who think of themselves as "progressives" are getting all lathered up about boycotting products and services provided by the billionaire Koch brothers and Koch Industries, and far be it from Substance to stand in the way. But we think that equal time is in order, and that a boycott of The New Yorker, that center of liberal teacher bashing and bias, is an idea whose time has arrived. Basically, they are at it again, those nice people with the cool cartoon. In March, while most of us were preoccupied with Madison and other attacks on unions, the teacher bashing New Yorker magazine escalated its smug and longstanding bias against American public school teachers just when teachers are mobilizing to fight back against media libels and slanders, union busting, and other "conservative" attacks. A recent New Yorker advertisement plugs a “Conversation on the Future of Education in America” jointly sponsored by The New Yorker and that institution of privatization, crony capitalism, and profiteering (at the expense of the hopes of poor people), the “University of Phoenix” (the largest profit-making mail order institution of higher education in the USA).
Why ask teachers or elected teacher union leaders about the "future" of Education In America when you can assemble a group of entertainers, CEOs, and right wing pundits to bash teachers and continue the campaign to bust teacher unions? The New Yorker magazine has been publishing attacks on teachers and teacher unions since Barack Obama's election, beginning with the August 2009 libel against New York teachers and teacher rights, Steven Brill's lurid screed about "Rubber Rooms" and how hard it was to fire all those "bad teachers." The Brill teacher bashing was followed less than a year later by a lengthy piece of puffery for Arne Duncan, who, as everyone knows, is courageously carrying the sword and shield for Barack Obama's "progressive" agenda of "school reform." While many progressives are taking aim at right wingers, it's the "liberals" and so-called "progressives" that may be the really insidious danger to unions and public schools.In early March, New Yorker was hyping, in a two-page ad, the March 23, 2011, “conversation.” Of course, no good liberal conversation about education is complete without a propagandist who makes video attacks on public schools, a right wing pundit (once U.S. Secretary of Education), a representative of some right-wing think tank, and a Chief Executive Officer. No teachers need apply. According to The New Yorker, the “University of Phoenix” is a worthy partner to discuss EDUCATION IN AMERICA, and the best four people to carry on the “conversation” are Craig Barrett (retired CEO of Intel), Cynthia G. Brown (of the so-called “Center for American Progress”), Madeline Sackler (who made the movie “The Lottery”, which inspired “Waiting for Superman”), and Margaret Spellings (who served as George W. Bush’s final Secretary of Education). Teachers? What do they know about education? Question: How many teachers subscribe to that right wing screed — The New Yorker — and take it too seriously? Answer: Way too many…
