Plus, unlike most liberals, parrots are smart enough to know what the MSM is best used for:
Posted on 07/14/2005 9:58:38 AM PDT by hsmomx3
Virtually every big-city newspaper in the country parrots press releases, studies and statistics from the government and special-interest groups, especially from their favorite group, the public education establishment, without questioning the validity of the information. Then newspapers wonder why they are losing intelligent readers to other media.
It's not that intelligent readers have anything against parrots. They may even have them as pets and enjoy watching them at an aviary. But that doesn't mean that they want to get their news and information from them.
Take the Arizona Republic. For years it has been parroting the public education establishment's claim that Arizona ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending and that spending has to increase dramatically if the Copper State is ever going to raise test scores and compete with states that spend more. Shamefully, it has not pointed out the self-interest behind such claims or run exposes on the most powerful lobby in the state, the teachers union.
Polly want a cracker?
The fact is, Arizona's spending is about average when cost of living, teacher tenure and capital investments are considered. Another fact is that there is little relationship between higher per-pupil spending and higher test scores. But the opposite messages have been communicated over and over again by the Republic to the 500,000 readers of its news pages, in spite of scores of people in the know who have given reporters and editors the facts, and in spite of the editorial side of the newspaper running op-eds on the opinion pages that set the record straight.
Maybe news reporters and editors don't read the opinion pages. That wouldn't be surprising, given that less than 20 percent of readers of the news pages ever turn to the opinion pages of their daily newspaper.
Now the parrot is eating crow.
A front-page story in the July 14, 2005 edition says that a national test, the Terra Nova, shows that Arizona's "second- through ninth-graders are generally 5 to 8 points above the national average in language, reading and math."
Whoa! How can that be? Polly has been squawking for years that Arizona can't compete because its per-pupil spending is in the cellar. Now Polly is saying that Arizona is competitive after all. Of course, Polly didn't say that it may have been wrong all along. Evidently, parrots don't know right from wrong.
Granted, the possibility exists that the Terra Nova test results are not valid. But to know for sure, intelligent readers will have to do their own Internet research to determine if an independent think tank has raised questions about the test.
Readers will have to do their own research because Polly doesn't have the time or interest to do that kind of work for them. She's too busy parroting what the government and special interests tell her. She's also too busy eating crow. ____________
An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni has just published his critically-acclaimed new book, Breaking from the Herd: Political Essays for Independent Thinkers by a Maverick Columnist, which can be purchased for $10 from him or $18.95 at retail. He can be reached at either ccan2@aol.com or haalt1@aol.com.
I ate a parrot when I was a kid.
Kinda like chicken, but smaller.
No problem, they'll just declare it to be fried chicken and believe it to be so.
gasp!
To the point of the article...I spent far less than the state of California spends per pupil to send my kid to a private Lutheran School. When she entered public High School (one of the top 100 public HS in the nation as per US News and World Report), she was head and shoulders above most students in education level.
Plus, unlike most liberals, parrots are smart enough to know what the MSM is best used for:
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