The Buffalo News Braces for Armageddon. Provides Free Pizzas and XXXXL T-shirts for Press Conference

The Buffalo News Buries the Needle

Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones. Generalization and abstraction are The plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave.
William Blake

 The current issue of Warren Buffet's Ed Reform newsletter for the WNY region bears yet another front page clarion call. This time they've enlisted the ever willing ed reform foot soldiers of Sam's Club (known on paper as the DPCC but we know better)  to make the case for Buffalo Schools to be placed in receivership. The headline blares "Concerns Spur Call for Takeover of Buffalo Schools." Yes, Sam Radford, his pal Bryon and enough others to generate a decent poker game are "concerned." And again, we see the generalizing and abstracting scribbler hacks at The News using phrases like "ready to consider the bold step" etc. etc. Oh yes it's bold all right. I recall so you don't have to but this paper also described James Williams as having "initiated a series of bold reforms in Dayton before he was let go in a fiscal crisis." They also knew at the time the fiscal crisis was of Williams' own creation but remember who we're dealing with friends -- hypocrites, knaves and scoundrels. The very people who are now clutching their pearls and shrieking on tiptoes over Sam Radford and some of his homies' latest publicity stunt were the same ones who described the statewide revolt of parents, teachers and community activists as a "manufactured crisis." Get Serious Buffalo News. Get Fucking Serious.

So Sam and Bryon are looking to take bold steps and the Buffalo News is only too happy to prop up any ridiculous claim they make with front page headlines. As for the DPCC initiating this action, the details begin to get rather murky. In reality, the DPCC as a whole didn't really put this thing forward or call the press conference to announce any bold steps. Sam Radford did. Mayor Byron Squarepants in his trademark cowardese opined that he remained open to any options. Superintendent Ogilve seemingly accused the DPCC of premature speculation. He did. I read it. And probably the most informative commentary on this manufactured crisis comes from a News commenter  glossed "Banking on Education" who, unlike the News or any of the Ed Reformer blowholes claiming to love their data, actually has some numbers to put this teapot tempest into perspective:

"This announcement by a "growing chorus" (!!!!) of Buffalo "parents" was supported by exactly 14 parents at a DPCC meeting held on Tuesday night. Oh, pardon me! To be more specific, exactly 22 people at the DPCC meeting voted. 8 of those 22 voted against Mr. Radford's nonsense. Of the 14 who voted in favor of this "bold step", at least 4 are the current leaders of DPCC. So essentially, Mr. Radford and the Buffalo News are creating another false education alarm!! Really, the News education reporters prove every day that "there are few things more dangerous than propaganda disguised as journalism", to quote Buffalo State professor Dr. Andrea B Nikischer in her study of the education reporting in the Buffalo News. "

The Buffalo News chooses their battles carefully, deciding what's a mountain or a molehill no matter if it's a news piece or an editorial. As long as anyone from the corporate ed reform camp is involved you can be sure it will be a mountain. And when parents, teachers and the community are concerned it's nothing but molehills as far as they eye can see. As noted earlier this week the desperation index is red lining in the News bunker. The sad sack scribblers writing copy for the privatization movement have had so little to cheer for lately that now they're just plain making shit up.