pundit paid to promote no child left behind. 1.10.05

holy undermine the power of the media, batman!!

now this is interesting. the bush administration, using propaganda and a fortunately colored believer to further their "punish the ones who can't read! punish them!" agenda? say it ain't so, geo!

so what if this guy's company was contracted for $240,000 to talk up No Child Left Behind? to create ads? and to interview the Education Secretary as a guest of armstrong williams? i've never even heard of this guy. as you can see from the article, he works for cnn. i'd rather read than be assaulted with moving tickers of laci peterson crap and watered down news from people who could probably do better.

but so what if armstrong williams is being paid to be an administration patsy? people don't believe they receive unadulterated, unbiased opinions from their television commentators, do they?

and without that warning to be wary-- this message has been approved by george "i don't read nor do i apologize for anything that's happened" bush-- parents might actually go along with some of the No Child ideas without questioning the program's punitive emphasis, or asking if there are ways to put a more progressive, or malleable, or less-test-based program out there; one that works to improve the actual school product and infrastructure. i'm not shocked, but it would be nice if we could ever have a national dialogue about education (and education equality, but i don't want to be a rabble-rousing negro) that wasn't ridiculously partisan.