A week ago I wrote, “EdNews.org is a Purveyor of Ultra-Right Wing Insanity? Since When?” about EdNews.org’s penchant for being a mouthpiece for newswithviews.com, a site full of conspiracy theories and offensive content. As I pointed out in my post, I’m a pretty conservative guy, and I still think they’re crazy.
I don’t engage in idle complaining, so I submitted the following comment to EdNews.org via their submission form after writing my post:
Name: Matthew K. Tabor
Email: mktabor@gmail.com
Subject: Question about EdNews’ sources
Question/Comment:EdNews,
Can you comment on why EdNews.org considers material from www.newswithviewscom a legitimate addition to the education debate? It is a vile, hate-filled website that is bereft of scholarly value of any sort. If your editors haven’t recently looked at NewsWithViews, feel free to browse my brief analysis before going directly to NWV:
Why has EdNews.org accepted and published their material? And will EdNews.org continue to do this?
Sincerely,
Matthew K. Tabor
mktabor@gmail.com
I figured that EdNews has loads of automated feeds and NWV slipped through the cracks. It happens. John McNamara replied with this brief message:
Thank you for your comment
Can you provide me the ednews link so i can give it to our editorsJohn McNamara
John clearly didn’t read my full message or follow my link. He would’ve seen the URL. But that’s ok, I obliged without protest:
John,
Thanks for a prompt response. The ednews link for this article is: http://www.ednews.org/articles
/13595/1/Purdue-University -Weights-in-on-WTC-Towers -Collapse/Page1.html It redirects to the newswithviews.com URL. There are several other links from ednews to nwv – approximately 20 results were returned when I searched.
Sincerely,
Matthew K. Tabor
mktabor@gmail.com
www.matthewktabor.com
His reply? Ten minutes later I received the exact same message that he’d sent once. That was it – I haven’t heard from them since.
Today’s feed included a piece by Devvy Kidd, a slightly more attractive Alex Jones clone whose rabid screeds occasionally touch on public education [mostly as an arm of evil government, of course]. She’s the author of the article, “Drugs deliberately imported by Communist Chinese & Ruskies to destroy us” that I highlighted in my last post about EdNews. Check out her site at www.devvy.com.
Her newest piece – the one shilled via EdNews – is called “When Are Parents Going to Fix Education?” Devvy starts with a 1977 Schwarzenegger quote in which he mentions admiring Hitler’s ambition and his skill with public speaking. Admittedly, I don’t understand the relevance. She opens by saying:
I guess parents are still waiting for some miracle to fix the unfixable. One would have thought by now America’s parents would have realized that “more money for education” is nothing more than empty words when it comes to the Federal Department of Education and the destruction that agency has done to America’s children in the area of education. When are America’s parents going to catch on to that big lie pitched every election cycle?
I’m with her so far. While I don’t think that public education is “unfixable,” I agree that funding blindly public education isn’t the solution and that the DoE could do better. More parents would do well to realize this, and I wish they took a more active role in public education.
Then she lost me:
Over the past 25 years I have read thousands of words written about how to improve education in America, but what do we see coming out of the government’s indoctrination centers?
Readers of my site know how I feel about indoctrination in schools, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying that all public schools are “government indoctrination centers.” Devvy would say that’s a function of my youth, inexperience and ignorance, though.
I really can’t parse her entire article. It’s too long and replete with bizarre assumptions. I’ll give you the nastiest nugget from her conclusion:
Demand that G.L.S.E.N. (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) be kicked off your child’s school campus. How can parents turn a blind eye to these recruiters of young children at public schools? Remember: sodomites and lesbians can’t reproduce so they need to get to the children who are defenseless against their propaganda. How can parents spend the evening out at Applebee’s and ignore these dangerous sodomite and lesbian operations and their agenda? Think this one isn’t coming to your school?
Do I think that organizations like the GLSEN have a place on public school campuses? Not really, no – but I also don’t think they’re “dangerous sodomite and lesbian operations” who recruit “defenseless” children with propaganda because they can’t conceive naturally. Not only is it offensive, it also doesn’t make any sense logically. There are better ways to make your point, Kidd.
I discard the writings of Lynn Stuter and Devvy Kidd based on their lack of merit – scholarly, logical or otherwise. I don’t understand, however, why EdNews.org continues to shill for them.
Who’s next, EdNews – Fred Phelps? Or does using www.godhatesfags.com as a source of education news finally cross the line?
Send an e-mail to John McNamara at Ednews.org and let him know that the education community expects EdNews to adhere to some basic standards for its content. His address is johnm@ednews.org.
Unless, of course, I’m the only one who thinks this is a problem and reflects poorly on EdNews.
UPDATE at 7.16.07, 2.04am:
I’ve already gotten two e-mails calling my article “acerbic” and “baseless.” I’d like to show you an example of Devvy Kidd’s writing regarding those “dangerous sodominate and lesbian operations”:
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that the average active homosexual male ingests the fecal material of 23 different men each year (largely from rimming), and that the number of sexual partners averages nearly 100. Homosexual persons, per year, on average fellated 106 different men, swallowed 50 of their seminal ejaculations, and had 72 penile penetrations of the anus.
Show me the study, Devvy. If anyone at home is doing the math, that’s about two a week. Really, who’s got the time?
Remember, this is where the EdNews comes from.
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