A smear campaign against the National Education Association reveals the state of modern-day agit-prop, in which conservative groups feel free to spread ugly slanders, and an increasingly indolent mainstream press corps barely raise a finger to challenge ugly attacks. The smear began on August 19, with a front-page article in the Washington Times by that paper’s Ellen Sorokin. According to Sorokin, the NEA would soon post a website containing lesson plans about September 11 that would advise teachers to “take a decidedly blame-America approach;” she singled out a quote advising teachers to avoid “suggesting that any group was responsible” for [...]