Lauer for the Defense: Matt Asks Colorado Teacher "Were You Set Up?"

Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

March 7, 2006

Turns out the real culprit in the Colorado kerfluffle over the teacher who compared Pres. Bush to Hitler is . . . the student who complained about it. Just ask Matt Lauer.

Interviewing teacher Jay Bennish this morning, Lauer laid out this sympathetic scenario:

Lauer: "The family here, the student's family, didn't go to the school board with this tape."

Bennish: "They never contacted me."

Lauer: "They shopped it around to conservative media outlets and finally released it to one and created an uproar. On the tape you can hear Sean Allen [the student in question] asking you questions that seem to be egging you on a little bit. Do you feel you were set up?"

Wait a second, Matt. Isn't the essence of the teacher's defense that he was trying to provoke discussion of these issues? Didn't you just hear him say that "my job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically," that he was trying to "encourage critical thought" and that students would "get extra credit regardless of their viewpoints"?

But when a student does just that, he is "setting the teacher up"?

Think Lauer would have floated the same theory if, for example, a Muslim student had recorded a teacher propagating the notion that Islam is an inherently violent religion?

[Zon]

I watched the segment. It was a typical MSMS (main stream morning show) putrid display of deception. 

The teacher is sporting a new skinhead "hair"-do.

[outlaw1_2003]

Have you seen Katie Kouric lately. she needs to spend some of her millions on a facelift. She has the crow feet around her eyes and mouth, starting to sag around the chin area. Yipes!

[randita]

[IrishRainy]

that doesn't say much about the intelligence of the supposedly older and wiser teacher

But those conservatives are crafty and conniving...why, they could trick ANYONE!

/sarcasm

[newnhdad]

You knew it would be a joke of a segment when Lauer and Couric said he was suspended for comparing Bush to Hitler, he wasn't. He was suspended for not presenting a balanced lesson. The Bush/Hitler comparison was but one example of his "style" that indoctrinated students with a cacophony of anti-American criticism with no balance whatsoever.
His position as teacher is one of authority and power. Children at that age are taught to respect authority and this type of behavior in a classroom, intended or not, intimidates children into believing what the authority figure does because they want to be liked. It was only when I go to the university did I understand that.
The first failing grade I got was because an economics professor (a self professed marxist, declared after he received tenure) didn't "believe" that Reagan's economic policies were working. Forget reality and the facts, he didn't "believe" it.

[Red Badger]

Yes...........

[Pablo64]

This ludicrous excuse for a teacher is also a liar. I listened to both the boy who recorded him and his father yesterday on Hannity, and they said that they did go to the school administration first. Not only that, but this is not the first student to bring complaints to the school admin about this leftist propagandist.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Here's a close-up showing just how much Bennish has cleaned up his act:

[SquirrelKing]

The mean wittle student wif his wittle camewa set me up!
I can't wait to get on DU and register my disgust
and broadcast myimpotence around the world!

WUSS!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

If you watch that program it is likely your brain will just explode.

It's too late for me - as my tagline suggests, my only hope now is to try to save others ;-)

[television is just wrong]

If the teacher was teaching NON political issues that were not so strange, maybe the student would not have thought to record, display and confront.

[television is just wrong]

the teacher found his way to a barber shop.

I saw previous pics that had him with thinning, long stringy hair.

[DCPatriot]

Somebody should interview Lauer regarding his questions and tact in speaking to Bennish.

I would like to hear his answers.

I didn't see the interview this AM, so I can't know the context in which these softball questions were tossed. Was he trying to make Bennish look weak or was he trying to help him out?

[Carolinamom]

I saw and heard the student and his mother on TV last night. This sophomore is one of the most level-headed and smart kid that I have ever heard....and I used to teach HS seniors.

As for those students who walked out of the school in support for the teacher, I saw them on TV...they looked rather passive to me, and I know from my teaching days that any excuse to get out of class is appealing.

[DCPatriot]

"...a gratuitous, totally unnecessary comment about the man struggling with his weight for the last few years.

Shame on Matt for using one man's death as a clever link to the next segment."

Well, Kirby's increased weight certainly was a factor in his blood pressure and subsequent stroke. So, where's the shame here?

Lauer & friends are jerks, but blaming him for lack of taste in pointing out Puckett's health (weight) is piling on.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Here's the 'before' shot:

and here's the 'after':

Conservative eye for the liberal guy?

[soloNYer]

I had wondered whether the dinos would pick this up...I slapped my forehead when I saw the segment; I should have anticipated the way it would be portrayed. Today would never have reported the story unless they had a way to make the audience sympathetic to the teacher.

First, they have only the teacher on to tell his side, then they cherry-pick the quotes and have Laurer read the most damaging one (about the US being the most vicious country). Hearing a teacher bash Bush in his own words is fine for even moderates. Bashing the US is not as favorable to the oldsters watching, so Laurer quotes it himself with a chuckle.

Finally, mentioning the word "conservative" as many times as possible makes creates the impression that the student is the right-wing wacko. The teacher is just trying to do his job.

[beyond the sea]

Lauer for the Defense: Matt Asks Colorado Teacher "Were You Set Up?"

Bennish was set up alright. We has set up by the socialist/lefty education that he apparently received in his miserable America-hating life. He needs slapped around each day for quite a while.

[EmilyGeiger]

teaching days that any excuse to get out of class is appealing......



Oh yeah. I would have loved class walk outs!!! I would join just about any cause just to get to walk out on a boring class. Unfortunately, we had a principal everyone was scared of. :) He would walk into the lunchroom and there would be total silence. At the time I didn't like it, however when he retired the school went downhill fast. A lax coach took his place.

[PBRSTREETGANG]