Former CNN/NBC anchor Campbell Brown demonstrates that “both sides do it” false balance is not just a problem with campaign journalism. In a new post at the Daily Beast (12/21/12), she explained that most reactions to the Newtown massacre have been touching and inspiring. But, she writes,
there have also been very unfortunate, even callous and disgusting, statements made by individuals who cannot help but use a slaughter of more than two dozen people, most of whom are children, to advance their ideology.
We see it on both sides.
Oh, here we go.
On the right, the examples are obvious: Brown mentions James Dobson linking the shooting to same-sex marriage and abortion, while Mike Huckabee pointed a finger at the removal of God from public schools.
Campbell Brown (Photo: Fortune Live Media)
Vile stuff. So what’s the leftish version of that? Apparently it came from education historian Diane Ravitch, who Brown dubs “the unions’ newest patron saint.” And what did she do? According to Brown, “Ravitch described the teachers’ bravery not in individual terms, but by linking it to their union membership.”
Brown unfortunately included a link to the Ravitch piece in question, so readers can discover that she’s completely mischaracterizing Ravitch’s blog post. “Everyone of them is a hero, those who died and those who survived,” Ravitch wrote. “Six of them died protecting the children.” She described the circumstances:
Vicki Soto, 27, put herself between the killer and her children. He killed her. Somehow some of them escaped. Six ran to a nearby house. They told the surprised homeowner: “We can’t go back to our school. Our teacher is dead. We don’t have a teacher.”
Anne Marie Murphy, 52, was a special education teacher who was devoted to the children she taught. When her body was found, little Dylan Hockley was in her arms.
What a monster, right?
In Brown’s mind, Ravitch was obsessed with their union membership: “The implication was clear: Nonunion teachers would not have acted the same way.” In reality, the mention of the teachers’ union comes after her tribute to the teachers’ heroism:
Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union.
And why did she bring this up at all? Because in our public debate over public schools, teachers’ unions have been singled out as the obstacle to success and “reform,” because they “don’t care about kids.” Ravitch reminds readers that the governor of Connecticut had recently derided the tenure system, which he said awards teachers just for showing up.
To Campbell Brown, Ravitch is just like Huckabee and Dobson, “so dogmatic, so tendentious, and so drawn to bitter and contentious debates that they cannot help but use dead children as weapons in their culture wars.” It’s an absurd and disgusting comparison. Brown has bashed teachers’ unions before; ironically, in a piece criticizing others for trying to score political points during a tragedy, she does exactly the same thing.
No wonder. Campbell Brown is married to war profiteering d-bag Dan Senor. Senor is on the board of Michelle Rhee’s Students First. Brown has been carrying water for Rhee and her conservative backers for months.
I’m gonna guess she didn’t include Rhee’s post Bryson fundraising letter in her recent tirade. I’d watch the tape, but I don’t feel like vomiting tonight.
Many parents did not read Ravitch’s discussion of the bravery and love shown by the teachers at Sandy Hook the way you interpreted it. We’ve been bombarded by a gross campaign to denigrate public school teachers as lazy and uncaring. Ravitch justly pointed out that these teachers are the same ones denigrated by a well funded campaign (Students First, parent triggers, Wont Back Down, etc.,) We can do these heroes no greater honor than to also recognize their dedication to teaching.
Sandy Hook had teachers who dedicate their lives to teaching.
I think even Cambell Brown would admit that she’s a class warrior for the rich and and effective one. You can bet she won’t be pushing for murder-preventing gun control.
Campbell Brown isn’t fit to carry Diane Ravitch’s garbage to the curb. Brown’s a hack, and an embarassment, and she proved it with those stupid comments. Her husband is also a hack, and he directly contributed to the murder and mayhem in Iraq with his bad ideas and gross incompetence. A match made in hell.
Ugh, now that the shock of Sandy Hook has tempered a bit the Tea Baggers have crawled out from under the rocks they were hiding under to give us their ‘wisdom’, this time from a wingnut named after a brand of soup. Hopefully at some point all this diversionary babble will fade off and we will all be able to focus on realistic solutions to actual societal problems.
the cankerous campbel brown cant keep her big mouth shut and her odious opinions to herself…again.ill give her this, she opens her mouth and publicly vents the hot stinking air that all of her kind and class outgas mainly privately, among themselves. CNN represents thier entire consciousness
@james
it was soooooooooo satisfying to watch the(real) people of DC throw that jackass fenty and that carpet bagging corporate whore rhee out on there ears…i enjoyed the hell out of it…shes basically fundraising material and nothing else now..in a phrase : washed up.
maybe john stewart will have her on again to gaze deeply into her eyes and sniff her chair some more, and giggle while she slanders these decent people some more, on his worthless hour of washington DC- rich – and – powerfull – off – sucking hour of air pollution.maybe he can bring ari fleischer out of hiding and revive his career for him.
DoesCampbell Brown and most establishment journalists still have credibility? Not with me because i find that they don’t really enlighten the public, they serve the interests of the rulers and the rich.
How dare anyone stand up for unions and politicize this tragedy by applauding hard-working Americans who do what is right day in and day out (whether or not they belong to a union, those these workers did).
One of the major problems besides the for profit news, down sizing of the news staffs, playing up sensational stories over meaty stories is this of conflict of interest. One day it may be the only news sources allowed for us.
Campbell Brown is a disgusting creature and a sloppy reporter. If you read the article she references in her equation of the left/right reaction, she is WRONG. Can’t believe she still has a public forum. She obviously cares more about helping her husband than responding decently to a national disaster.
Well……Im not gonna throw dirt here.I think the psychology that is going on here is obvious.Everyone from the president to the NRA, to reporters and people right and left are walking around in a stupor making remarks, and half thought out ideas on what could of prevented it.What happened.Everything is being analyzed from every angle.A world of sane people trying to make heads or tails of ultimate insanity.Very few people I hear are making any sense of it,because none is to be had.And politicizing this event should really be avoided at all costs
whys there the NEED TO say that the dead teachers belong to the union, does that mean that only the union teachers that died were brave and the bravery of nonunion teachers just doesnt matter ?? its obvious the writer of such things wants to use the death of these people to serve their own purposes
HOW COM THE “LEFT” after the shootong of thrse angels about Mike Tyson saying ” Kill the “WHITE” babies or most recently Jamie Fox comment about, “Enjoying killing white people”…, were’nt these “ANGELS” white people ???????
We should understand what false balance is and recognize it whenever it ocurrs.It masquerades as objective journalism, but in reality it is anything but objective. Why? because it leads to stagnation. And stagnation supports the status quo. A false balance obfuscates the issues and leaves things unchanged. And that, afterall, is the goal.
How come the Right likes to use lots of punctuation to make bad points? Den, the point was that just a few months ago, unionized teachers were being denigrated, lied about and essentially being called useless and only in it for themselves by right-wing hacks like Campbell Brown. The selfless actions of teachers (unonized teachers, who might just go on strike someday and piss off toadies like Brown) in this case throws into sharp relief who’s right and who’s a lying, self-serving jerk.
I read (and heard) a lot of the vile shit said about teachers–unionized teachers almost exclusively–and I’m glad that Diane Ravitch pointed out the hypocrisy of people like Brown. Brown reacted badly because Ravitch had the nerve to call out the liars and cranks (like Brown) who were bad-mouthing unionized teachers just a couple of months ago. Got that?