New York Teacher
Delegates OK petition drive, rally at ABC to protest ’20-20’ hatchet job
Jan 19, 2006 7:08 PM
John Stossel’s “Stupid in America” series, a screed against public education, took aim at the UFT on Jan. 13.
The UFT delegate body overwhelmingly approved on Jan. 18 a plan to organize a petition drive and rally outside ABC headquarters to protest a 20/20 segment that maligned the union and its members.UFT President Randi Weingarten, who motivated the motion, said the one-sided TV episode, which aired on Jan. 13, demanded an immediate response.“We want to make sure that they hear the voices of incredibly hard-working teachers,” she said. “ABC needs to hear how unfair and biased those of you in the trenches believe their broadcast to have been.”The 20/20 report, which was produced by John Stossel, portrayed the New York City school system as a “union-dominated monopoly” where “hundreds of teachers that the city calls incompetent, racist, dangerous, guilty of sexual misconduct have been paid millions” because the union contract makes it “almost impossible” to fire them.Stossel held up as a model the management practices of Jack Welch’s GE, where the best workers are rewarded and the bottom 10 percent “have to go.”Of a city teacher’s work day, Stossel snidely asks the television audience, “How many of you work a uniform six-hour, 40-minute day?”Murmurs of outrage rippled through the delegate body after they viewed an eight-minute clip from the show.
Delegates overwhelmingly approve a plan to organize a petition drive and a rally to express their outrage at the 20/20 segment.
“My blood was boiling,” said Lynne Cohen, chapter leader of IS 227 in Queens. “I joined [ Stossel’s] message board just so I could response to the spurious things he said. It’s yellow journalism. It’s unbelievable.”
The UFT will make copies of the full 20/20 segment and petitions available to every chapter.
After gathering signatures, members will deliver the petitions at a rally, on a date to be determined, outside ABC’s Upper West Side offices.
Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group, writes that Stossel “often excludes evidence that doesn’t support his point of view. That makes it propaganda for his side, and that’s not good journalism.”
Among his personal ties to the right wing, Stossel sells videos of his reports to educators through a conservative foundation called the Palmer R. Chitester Fund. He further supplements his income with outside speaking engagements before right-wing organizations, including the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute.
As Daniel Pryzbyla comments on EducationNews.org, Stossel is using his “Stupid in America” series on 20/20 to build support for vouchers.
Stossel could barely conceal his contempt for the Florida Supreme Court’s Jan. 5 ruling striking down that state’s “Opportunity Scholarships” voucher program as unconstitutional because the state constitution commands the funding only of “uniform high-quality schools.”
Noting the court decision on 20/20, Stossel concluded, “Government schools are neither uniform nor high-quality and without competition, no new teaching plan or No Child Left Behind law will get the monopoly to serve its customers well.”
