Re: Birmingham cheating: Artilce #4 - Blaming the Victims

[Judi Hirsch <judih@OUSD.K12.CA.US>]

George,
    I'm confused. Klonsky was here a few months ago with Debbie and Linda
 Darling-Hammond and others for a prestigious conference on small schools...
what gives?
Judi
----- Original Message -----
From: George N. Schmidt <Csubstance@AOL.COM>
To: <ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 5:44 AM
Subject: Re: Birmingham cheating: Artilce #4 - Blaming the Victims


> In a message dated 6/21/00 11:54:11 AM, Allen.Flanigan@USPTO.GOV writes:
>
> << Bob Schaeffer's points regarding the absolute legality of the
newspaper's
> telling one side of a story are of course true, but I can't imagine that
> even the most unabashedly biased newspaper would not be willing to at
least
> give someone so specifically and explicitly vilified a chance to tell
their
> story.  >>
>
> On January 28, 1999, the Chicago Tribune (the largest circulation daily
> newspaper between the east and west coasts and one of the most powerful
media
> corporations on Earth) in an editorial called for my firing. The same day,
> the Chicago Sun-Times, also in an editorial, stopped thisclose to calling
for
> my firing.
>
> On February 23, 1999, the Chicago Sun-Times (one of the ten largest
> circulation daily newspapers in the United States) published a column
stating
> that I had been "investigated" for using racial slurs. That story was a
> complete fabrication that was part of Paul Vallas' disinformation campaign
> against myself and Substance. In November 1999, the Chicago Board of
> Education paid $35,000 to an semi-independent investigator who had spent a
> month at my former schools, interviewed dozens of people who completely
> cleared my name of the columnist's slanders. But then the Chicago Board of
> Education classified the report clearing me. We've been denied access to
the
> report and challenged to sue to get it.
>
> Neither Chicago daily newspaper wants a copy.
>
> Also in February 1999, Education Week ("American education's newspaper of
> record") ran an article describing the Vallas administration's attack on
me
> without talking to me.
>
> At about the same time, Mike Klonsky, the former head of one of the most
> bizarre Maoist sects in the United States during the early 1970s went
after
> my reputation here and across the Internet, only this time wearing his
latest
> hat (minus the little red star) of a very highly paid "School Reform"
leader
> here in Chicago. Klonsky's job was to derail our defense campaign among
> people who call themselves "progressives".
>
> Last year, Time magazine ran an article on "teachers who cheat" which
> mentioned my case in a way that everyone knew the reference (from Vallas)
was
> about me. Time published a Letter correcting the record, but did nothing
> editorially.
>
> Whatever pretenses of "fairness and accuracy" you might believe from the
> press, when big chips are down, they are relentlessly one-sided. I've just
> lived through more than a year of all that. I hope it's not as true
> elsewhere, but it's certainly true here.
>
> It is difficult for people to accept the truth of the quote Bob Schaeffer
> offered earlier: "The press is free to those who own one."
>
> The campaign against me, my family, my professional reputation, and the
> newspaper Substance was a very professional hatchet job. It was
reminiscent
> of many that have been done over the years by various agencies of our
public
> and private governments. It had a "bipartisan" character, with a minor
league
> Leftist component (a requisite part of any world class sliming campaign
since
> the late 1980s) from Klonsky, the leader of Chicago's "Small Schools
> Workshop."
>
> As early as March or April 1999, Chicago was dispatching Al Foster, one of
> the more glib (and very well paid) apologists for the Chicago Plan to
places
> like Virginia, where, among other things, Foster -- besuited, glib,
smiling
> -- carried Chicago's version of things to your state's education leaders,
and
> also the sliming of any opponents both on the record and (I'm sure more
> importantly) off-the-record. One of your colleagues there mentioned
Foster's
> appearance in Virginia to me more than a year ago.
>
> I think we need to have some contemporary imagination about these things.
>
> Why is it that we can read about the libels, slanders, and other attacks
on
> people, say, 40 years ago (the J. Edgar Hoover campaign against Martin
Luther
> King, Jr., for example) and not realize that with the fall of the Berlin
> Wall, a lot of sleazebags had to abandon their Cold War activities and
make
> their services available to the highest bidders in the public and private
> sectors? Most of the graduates of journalism school wind up in public
> relations, and they can't afford to go to work for Ralph Nader, PAVURSOL,
> Substance, or Fair Test. Even when they might not like it, they become
part
> of the machine that publishes the lies about "accountability" on the one
side
> and the slanders against the opponents of high stakes, on the other.
>
> The same Chicago Tribune that used to publish leaks from FBI agents as
page
> one exclusives against civil rights and anti war leaders has simply
changed
> its approaches from the ravings of the days of Joe McCarthy without
changing
> its basic mission, which is to present the heartland with the official
> American version of reality.
>
> I think everyone should keep trying to get the story out, but don't
believe
> that the "free press" of this nation is obliged to report freely and
fairly
> about activists and campaigns that challenge some of the dominant
> institutions, corporations, and programs of The New School Order (as
Richard
> Riley used to refer to it).
>
> My phone number is listed, but the people who wrote the editorials and
> repeated the libels and slanders against my name and reputation never
called.
>
> I always return my calls within 24 hours (except in rare emergencies).
>
> Sorry, Allen. Bob's right. The day we get to go up against our opponents
on a
> level playing field is the day...
>
> Well, metaphors fail me.
>
> George N. Schmidt
> Editor, Substance
> 5132 W. Berteau
> Chicago, IL 60641
> 773-725-7502
>
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