The Race To 'Dumb' - Ongoing...

The estimable John Amato of Crooks and Liars lauds a silly idea without thinking it through:

Digby linked to this excellent piece by Edward Wasserman in the Miami Herald the other day and I just got around to reading it. He basically solves the news problem that we face.

You know, like how bogus claims are repeated endlessly throughout the media (like the health bill contains "death panels") and even though they are debunked---the damage is already done.

And the gist - rather than reporting "false" claims and then debunking them, the media should just ignore the false claim in the first place.

Snort.  Purely as a factual matter, the NBC poll (p. 5 of 6) cited at the link was not asking our woefully ignorant public about the current state of legislative play; the question was, what did people think health care reform would eventually look like.  To say that death panels were not in the current legislation and therefore they could not appear in any subsequent legislation is pure liberal fantasizing (and relies on a very literal interpretation of an obviously hyperbolic metaphor).

But more to the "news judgment" point, the "death panel" charge was lodged by Sarah Palin, one-time Vice-Presidential nominee with a large fan base and an equally enthusiastic hate club.  Maybe this is how the Bash Sarah And Anything She Says media was supposed to cover her death panel allegation:

"Hey, folks, we would report the latest stupidity from the stupidest woman in the world mainly to affirm your belief in your own wonderfulness, but that would only be spreading her lies, so just take our word for it - the stupidest woman in the world was stupid again".

I don't think that would have worked.

The other obvious problem with the "Fingers Firmly In Ears" media strategy is that a golden rule of politics is that the unanswered accusation becomes accepted as truth.  Folks may remember that Obama eventually abandoned his plan to high-mindedly ignore the background noise and set up his Fight The Smears site to fight some of the accusations that emerged during the campaign (they never quite got around to the truth about Bill Ayers, but hey - he won!)

Oh, well.  As someone should have said, Denial - more than a river, less than a media strategy.

AS I NOODLE... Above I have two links to posts wondering whether Obama met Ayers in 1988, when Obama was working "with a citywide coalition in support of school reform" (Dreams of My Father) just before rushing off to Harvard Law.  The group Obama left ended up in a coalition coordinated by Bill Ayers, but that does not prove his group was in that coalition when Obama was there, or that Ayers and Obama met.  Of course, if they did meet in 1988 while working on education reform, that would answer the mystery of why Ayers tapped Obama, a young lawyer he ostensibly did not know and who had no previous education reform background, to head the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in 1995.  Suggestive, but clearly inconclusive - Sarah Palin said Obama palled around with terrorists, so we know he didn't.

Do you suppose historians will resolve this one day?  The current crop of journalists never will.

Comments

[AL]

“Dr. Emanuel has also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which “produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.”

Unbelievable.

Parents will be told that their precious ones are not yet valuable enough to receive expensive medical treatment. Does this heartles monster have kids? Or he is muslim?

[Captain Hate]

Higher visibility! More "major" speeches! That'll do it! The competition for monumental obtuseness, however, is fierce, and Obama's Health-Care Realism is clearly in the running.

The ego on this dunce is beyond parody. Is everybody that advises him afraid to mention the obvious: That every time he gives a ballyhooed speech or high-exposure "town hall" the support drops even further? TV networks have to be groaning at the thought of carrying another ratings nightmare. Plus addressing school children is just flat-out creepy; I'd yank my kids outta that so damn fast there's be a sonic boom.

[daddy]

Steven Greene at Pajama's Media looks to be first at jumping on the ">http://pajamasmedia.com/vodkapundit/2009/09/01/youve-got-a-better-idea/"> Let's Play Hookie bandwagon. Won't be the last.

[daddy]

test

[daddy]

I remember posting some quotes here a few weeks back from a new book I came across at our county Library, "Kid's Letters to President Obama."

Having re-read the Obama Teaching syllabus I just noticed the following:

"Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."

So there you go. Just like "Dreams Of My Father" and "The Audaciousness of Whatever", another Obama book that he didn't personally have to write.

[Akasofu may eat tofu.]

I, too, suspect that Ayers and Obama met in NYC in the early '80's in the Apartheit blinding bit at the airport, not necessarily that event, but during those times. Not for sure, but that meeting might have been the O's raison for decamping to Chicago after failing to be an instant star in the money business. There are good reasons that Obama and his handlers are hiding his early times. There are many, not just a few, things of interest to reveal. What they are, even kim doesn't know.
==============================

[Jane the lynchpin]

Daddy that's a great photo. Anyway you can divert one of those planes and join us in DC?

[Porchlight]

"Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."

I think this one is my favorite. Though for sheer lameness it's hard to beat:

"What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them."

[Jane the lynchpin]

okay the emails about our lunch a week from tomorrow have gone out.

(Just in case you expected one and don't get it)

[clarice]

JMH--thanks for the url..I think you have to be a lot smarter than I am to work at AEI like Ornstein for I found his thesis incomprehensible.
Daddy, wow!!!

[Cecil Turner]

Did ya'll see the lesson plan being distributed by the White House, in advance of Obama's teachable moment with America's yout'?

The who? Did you say "Ute"?

Sorry, I tried to resist . . . [okay, not very hard.]

[hit and run]

bgates:
Theme song for next Tuesday.

Hey! Obama! Leave our kids alone

All in all he's just a, 'nother prick in freefall.

[Pofarmer]

So, now they are gonna OPENLY try to propagandize our kids? They think the town hall meetings are rowdy NOW? I'll just note that Sep 12th is after Sep 9th.

[Cecil Turner]

Hey! Obama! Leave our kids alone

I'll play:

And it's 1, 2, 3, what is he askin' for?

How many years must approval ratings slide, before the spendfest ends?

This man, he works for you and me.

If I had a hammer, I'd pass my agenda, I'd legislate utopia, all over this land.

Where have all the dollars gone, from my treasury? Where have all the dollars gone, ACORN and pork? Where have all the dollars gone? Just print more, it's no concern! When will they ever learn . . .?

[peter]

OT, Did you know Archbishop Sean of Boston has a blog? LUN

I'm inviting some of our regulars here to post on His Eminence's comments space their opinions.

[bishop]

Actually the whole "Who" catalog, brought back into the public domain, because of the CSIs, all fit as well "Who Are You" "Won't
get fooled again" and that last one, which
is the track for CSI New York

[Neo]

rather than reporting "false" claims and then debunking them, the media should just ignore the false claim in the first place.

Based on the gist, shouldn't we just ignore John Amato and anything else on "Crooks and Liars" ?

[rse]

Speaking of brainwashing in our schools, public and private, K-12 and college -

How many of us have been struck by all the emphasis on service learning?

Turns out it's expressly not about volunteerism and helping others less fortunate.

It's actually to be a "concerted effort to move from charity to justice, from service to the elimination of need". Reflection by the student will cause him or her to focus on the "root causes of the need for service".

Check out Barbara Jacoby and Campus Compact and Service Nation.

[Neo]

Now this is distrubing.

The next best thing to "flag" at whitehouse.gov

[Extraneus]

Ah, the smell of lefty panic in the morning...

[Pofarmer]

Bill Whittle is one sharp dude.

[Fresh Air]

Extraneus--

Thank you for graphically illustrating that all is not lost.

[Fresh Air]

This is for Captain Hate:

From Angry Journalist.com:

Angry Journalist #9178:

I’m pissed because my non-college-educated sister, who works at a department store, makes as much as I do. The publisher messes with our schedules and belittles us for not pandering to his “good ol’ boy club” buddies. And when I complain in the safety of the newsroom, my editor says, “You don’t know how hard we have it.”

Really?

You take two exotic vacations per year, you arrogant twit!

I need a wahbambulance!!!

Never forget: These people are the ENEMY.

[clarice]

Bill Whittle is terrific!

Caro,"Where have all the dollars gone?" would be a big seller on bumper stickers for TEA parties. Just saying....

[Captain Hate]

Just when I think Thomas Frank can't get any more clueless, he comes up with LUN

[Pofarmer]

"On this the president and his supporters have proven themselves the ablest of technocrats, easily identifying each plan's particulars and its shortcomings, laying everything out on nice flow charts."

Whaatttt???????

When the 'pubs wanted to send out a flow chart, they blocked it?

I mean, WTF????????

[Fresh Air]

Oh dear, a sane one:

Angry Journalist #9124:

I have worked in the newsroom for over 20-years.
The morning meeting have always seemed to look at the issues and try to report them fairly, but over the last two years the meeting have taken a very political turn. Everything is viewed,reported, and edited by people who support the left side.

When did it change?

It makes me angry to see my fellow editors take sides. I always thought we were suppose to be center lane in our reporting of the news.

Sane, but blind.

[bishop]

No, Captain it's like the Mariannas trench with him, they keep doubling down on a bad bet. BTW here's an offering from that David
Brooks wannabe, Conor F., in the LUN (I know why would want that distinction)

[Pofarmer]

This image of sturdy loners carving their way through a tough world is an attractive one. But there is no aspect of life where it makes less sense than health care.

Oh, good lord, they want to turn us into a nation of dependent pussies.

Fuck em.

[Pofarmer]

One reason government got involved is that our ancestors understood something that escapes those who brag so loudly about their prudence at today's town-hall meetings: That health care is not an individual commodity to be bought and enjoyed like other products. That the health of each of us depends on the health of the rest of us, as epidemics from the Middle Ages to this year's flu have demonstrated

Whaaatttt??????

Our "ancestors", I guess my grandpa is my ancestor, realized the only way to overcome FDR's wage freezes was to supply healthcare and other perks to attract employees.

What a bunch of losers.

[clarice]

Capt Hate, I think that's the entire point of the media and academic support for socialism:They believe they are entitled to make much more than business people do.

Now, the Angry Journalist might have a college education but I'd suspect that his sister's skills are at least as rare as those obtained by graduating with a journalism degree. And I bet she works at least as hard.If not harder.

Being a successful entrepreneur or even a decent merchant is a lot harder work and requires a range of skills rarer than it appears to those in the newspaper cubicles or faculty lunchroom.

[Captain Hate]

Whaatttt???????

It's pretty bad when you run into a major howler in the second sentence. Usually Frank tries to mask his ignorance until his boring prose style has stopped readers from bothering with reading further in the article.

[Pofarmer]

but I'd suspect that his sister's skills are at least as rare as those obtained by graduating with a journalism degree

OUCH.

And she didn't spend 100K on a college "education" either.

[Captain Hate]

Being a successful entrepreneur or even a decent merchant is a lot harder work and requires a range of skills rarer than it appears to those in the newspaper cubicles or faculty lunchroom.

The hubris of the latter-day buggy whip manufacturers in the fishwraps is being amply rewarded. Maybe when they're laid off and have to earn a living doing something else, they'll realize on why their non-college-educated sister's income is justifiably as high (or subsequently higher) as theirs.

[pagar]

Obama slashes Medicare in 2010 for Heart, Cancer Docs -- Media Silent

.

IMO, There is no media, just the leftist propaganda machine. If anyone thinks this won't affect the seniors of this nation, they are wrong.

[Jack is Back!]

So much to comment on and so little time:

First, Thomas Frank. I guess even the Journal has to be an employer of diversity - intellects like Holman Jenkins, Mary Anastasia O'Grady and mental midgets like Frank. He only proves the point the town hall rebels are shouting about - you are about to screw us with a piece of cut and paste 1100 page crap that you haven't even read (I wonder if Congress has solitaire on their computers?).

Second, thank God my son goes to Catholic school and will not be subject to the Obama Teachable Moment or the US Census which I have already refused to fill out when it was called The American Community Survey last year. It was the most intrusive piece of data mining I have ever seen come out of Washington. Even NSA monitoring phone calls is less intrusive.

Now for the last one, be scared - very scared. This is an editorial board member at the Orlando Sun Sentinel summarizing an editorial board interview with Suzanne Kosmas the Dem rep for the 24th District in Florida. She defeated Tom Finney by the largets Dem to Rep margin in 2008. He of course was caught up in the Abramanoff kerfuffle. Elections do have consequences. LUN

[MayBee]

I think his advisors realized that school children are his ideal audience, now that he's adopted the vocabulary an 8-year old. It's the Benjamin Button presidency.

Ha!
I don't have a huge problem with the speech either. It's the student activity guide. Actually, it's that someone even thought that activity guide was OK.

As my son said, all the questions are geared around assuming the President is right, which is not how you teach critical thinking skills. Also, doing things for the President is un-American.

Bad, remember when we caught Michelle Obama saying this to schoolchildren in May? This thinking is from the top-down, not made up in some tiny office in the Dept of Ed.

[MayBee]

PRS- Thanks for your Dorn updates. Fascinating.

I can't believe the WaPo is trying to hang a candidate with his college thesis when we have Mr. Mysterious in the White House. Makes no sense.

[DebinNC]

I haven't seen reports on how long "the speech" will be. There's a big difference in a 5 min. peptalk v 20 min. lecture. The scariest part of the WH instructions to me is encouraging teachers to collect the kids "How I will help Obama" pledges after the speech and "redistribute them later" to "make them accountable". No way.

[Porchlight]

I still don't understand how schools, especially those whose first day is Sept. 8, are going to get this coordinated in time. First day back and you've got to disrupt the entire schedule to accommodate a speech and a lesson plan from on high? The lunch hour logistics alone are going to be a major pain.

This is going to tick off more than a few teachers and administrators, whether they're Obama voters or not.

[glasater]

If anyone is interested in the "specs" of Zero's address to students September 8th it is here.

From a 'midlifechick' tweet.

[DebinNC]

I read the time of the speech was moved to noon EDT. Mr. Deb's a school administrator and he didn't know anything about it when I asked yesterday. Maybe high schoolers aren't deemed impressionable enough and will be spared the speech. Also, we're already two weeks into the school year, unlike BO's daughters just starting the year on Sept. 8 whose studies won't be interrupted.

[Captain Hate]

I'll be anxious to read what BobS has to report about this. I'm sure that the support for Odummy by public school teachers was significantly higher than 52% but BobS is obviously not the only skeptic. I have to think that some of his more lukewarm supporters feel uneasy about being co-opted into this propaganda activity.

[glasater]

If anyone want a little nausea to start off the day--Michelle Malkin has this Bill Ayers Flashback.

[Melinda Romanoff]

LUN.

Not for the faint of heart, eight pages of "What have we wrought?"

[Extraneus]

If it's anything like inauguration day, Obamabot teachers will be in charge and will apply pressure to make sure all the kids participate, paying particular attention to any of the few who have the guts to resist.

[clarice]

It's for k-6 I understand. Freepers are calling principles who often seem to know nothing about it and are reporting the responses on a runnning thread.

[clarice]

*princiPALS*

[caro]

Where have all the dollars gone... added to my collection, Clarice, thanks.

[caro]

I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position—and from that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher, but I’ve also understood teaching as a project intimately connected with social justice.

A quote from the Bill Ayers speech on Michelle's blog linked by glasater above.

[rse]

Service learning is the simple and powerful tool to model the democratic virtues:

"honesty, tolerance, empathy, generosity, teamwork, cooperation, service, and social responsibility".

Bill Ayers provided the social justice vision and service learning is a primary tool of implementation to change how kids see the world.

When you hear the phrase "truly democratic society", run!

[Porchlight]

I'm pretty sure there's a K-6 component and a 7-12 component, with different study guides and questions for each. Powerline linked to the 7-12 component this morning:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/09/024418.php

Noon EDT is the beginning of lunchtime at our elementary. The kindergarteners start the lunch wave at 10:50 am.

[clarice]

The problem of course--or one of them--in having children work on "social justice" projects is that they get a totally emotional response to a problem without an opportunity to view the problem in a larger context which would certainly lead to a more pragmatic response.
See hungry peoplke and demand that the government feed them now..instead of understanding that you may with unthinking charitable impulses be condemning them to hanfouts forever.

[clarice]

*people* *hanDouts*

[MayBee]

Isn't that the goal and not a problem, clarice?

[MayBee]

I have no idea if my son's school will show this. I have every confidence, though, that as liberal as the school is the kids will make a total hash of any attempt at those activities.
After all, on World AIDS day when they are given condoms, they spend the afternoon filling them up and popping them in Freshmen's faces. Makes me tear up with pride.

[clarice]

Their goal undoubtedly..but a problem if there's the slightest intention of really helping people who need help.

[Ignatz]

--See hungry peoplke and demand that the government feed them now..instead of understanding that you may with unthinking charitable impulses be condemning them to hanfouts forever.--

Actually clarice, a charitable impulse when seeing hungry people, is to give them some of your money or ask others to give some of theirs as well.
It isn't charity to compel your neighbor to give his money, especially from a culture of tax cheats who refuse to give theirs.

[Jack is Back!]

Didn't Ayers also say that education was the first step toward revolution or something of that matter.

Who is pulling the strings? It can't be Ayers (he isn't that smart and he doesn't seem to have the political acumen or financials. There has to be someone or something bigger and more sinister than just the Democrat party with the agenda and the means to have shoved the One down our throats. I never thought I would become a conspiracy freak like the truthers and/or birthers but it just doesn't register with me as kosher. No media interest or curiosity in Obama's background, associates, philosophy etc. Laundered campaign money from abroad. Repubs put up the weakest candidate possible. It became the perfect storm. Or is this just a continuation of the battle between God and Lucifer, between Heaven and Hell and we are all caught in the middle.

[Fresh Air]

JiB--

I cannot completely rule out the idea that the man was sent by Satan.

[Jane the lynchpin]

Oh I think he has a posse.

[MayBee]

Their goal undoubtedly..but a problem if there's the slightest intention of really helping people who need help.

Completely true. But of course when things don't work out, the mindset is to just keep shoveling more money at the problem. Eventually it has to work, right?

[Sue]

MayBee,

LOL.

[rse]

Ms Jacoby goes on to complain that:

"schools in general and higher education in particular are too focused on individual, entrepreneurial,discipline-focused projects over cooperative, real-world, community problem-solving work".

To paraphrase, the students will integrate observations and implications they make in their service projects with existing knowledge (which may not in fact be much in our student centered culture!). This will then deepen their understanding of the world.

Service learning is thus more effective the less you actually know and understand. I definitely think there's a pattern here for why low education standards can be helpful for certain agendas.

By the way ms Jacoby's organization Campus Compact says it's a national coalition of 950 colleges and universities representing more than 5 million students.

That's a lot of influence and students may not see that indoctrination method quite as clearly as an objectionable lecture.

[daddy]

"If I had a hammer, I'd pass my agenda, I'd legislate utopia, all over this land.

Where have all the dollars gone, from my treasury? Where have all the dollars gone, ACORN and pork? Where have all the dollars gone? Just print more, it's no concern! When will they ever learn . . .?"

Posted by: Cecil Turner

Peter, Paul and Cecil!---I love it.

[clarice]

Where have our tax dollars gone?
Stimulus you were passing?
Where has ourtax money gone?
Just who are you bombasting?
Where have pur tax dollars gone?
To crooks ,thugs and Acorn every one
How long till The Won is done?
Stealing our bucks every one.

[GaryC]

alarmist:
"Oh, c'mon all you silly asses. They are not 'Death Panels'; they are 'Life Panels'. They decide who lives, see? Life Panels. Now, get it right or cause wonderment, dismay, and re-education, too."

I'm still convinced that Barack will end up calling them "Go to Jesus Panels".