CBS's Hartman Finds ANTI-WAR TEENAGE PROTESTERS are CLUELESS !

MRC ^ | Friday, March 14, 2003 12:35:47 | BrentBaker

[fight_truth_decay]

Clueless anti-war high school student protesters mocked by CBS News. Really. Wednesday's 60 Minutes II ended with a short piece by Steve Hartman, the guy who does the very Americana "Everybody Has a Story" vignettes, on how he suspects high schoolers are just using the protests to get out of class: "To me, giving up algebra for peace is a kind of like giving up brussel sprouts for Lent, just a little too convenient to be commendable."

Hartman showed how they really need "to pick up a newspaper."

Cut

MRC analyst Brian Boyd alerted me to the Hartman piece, which aired at the end of the March 12 60 Minutes II, and put together a transcript of it.

Sitting in a coffee shop, Hartman began: "Everyday I come to this coffee house in Los Angeles. It's across the street from a high school where twice now I've seen students walk out of class to protest war with Iraq. Now to me, giving up algebra for peace is a kind of like giving up brussel sprouts for Lent, just a little too convenient to be commendable. "And it's not just here, kids are walking out of high schools and junior high schools all over America. The object used to be to sit-in and take over the school, now kids just give up the ship, abandon class to stand on a street corner and bark. Never mind that at their age-"

High school girl protester, amongst maybe 20 or so along the side of a major street: "Make love, not war."

Hartman: "-they have no business making either. I just think if they're going to picket-"

Same teenage girl: "Peace not war."

Hartman: "-they ought to pick up a newspaper."

Same girl, holding a blue sign from "Not in Our Name" proclaiming: "No War on Iraq, No War on the World," .. "People who never did anything are just being bombed and suffering and becoming homeless. People-"

Hartman to her: "Where?"

Girl: "Everywhere. They, didn't they bomb Iraq?"

Hartman: "No, not yet."

Girl: "They bombed Afghanistan, right?"

Hartman: "Yeah, yeah."

Girl: "They did and yeah, people are dying and it's, it's not right."

Hartman: "They kind of got the gist."

Hartman to a teenage guy: "The leader of Iraq is?"

Hartman narration: "They're just missing a few details."

Guy: "Umm."

Hartman: "What comes to your head? Just right off the top of your head."

Guy: "Osama bin Laden."

Hartman: "Osama bin Laden?"

Hartman's piece then jumped from the street side to conservative actor/author Ben Stein's house.

Stein declared from his sofa: "I'm stunned when I meet them and how little they know."

Hartman: "Ben Stein is a lawyer, Star Search judge and fellow skeptic on this issue."

Stein: "Wow, we can miss class and have meaning in our lives and we're only 15 years old and don't know where Iraq is on the map. What a great deal."

Hartman, over video of Stein's backyard with smoke pouring out of a small device on the ground: "Ironically, even as he ranted about America's misguided youth, outside his own son was trying out the smoke bomb recipe he got from the Anarchist Cookbook. Really."

Stein talking out his back door to his teenage son: "Don't do that, Tommy. What if you set the tree on fire. Why don't you go into Beverly Hills and pick up some girls?"

Hartman: "At least he does know the leader of Iraq."

Back to the teens on the street, Hartman picked up where he left off, with a the dumbfounded guy: "Why does Osama bin Laden keep coming to my head?"

Girl protester: "What else do we feel strongly about?"

Hartman: "Finally, the most insightful comment of the day."

Teenage girl, the same one as earlier, reading from a flyer: "OK, 'healthcare not welfare.' I mean, 'healthcare not welfare,' yeah."

Hartman: "Actually it says, 'healthcare not warfare,' but I digress."

Hartman to the girl: "And you feel strongly about that?"

Girl: "No, but, I mean, like I do but I don't know enough about it."

Hartman then tried to suggest both sides are equally naive: "And that says it all. I see too many kids and way too many adults on both sides taking a firm stand without a leg to stand on. Apparently, it's better to pick a side than admit you watch way too much Jerry Springer. Which by the way, is a name I'm sure they do know."

Hartman to the clueless guy: "Saddam."

Guy: "Saddam Hussein?"

Hartman: "There you go."

And that was the end of Hartman's piece.

Of all the 60 Minutes II stories on Wednesday night, which included a Dan Rather report on how the Patriot II missiles supposedly don't work, this is the only one without an online mention or summary, at least as of Thursday night.

The 60 Minutes II page: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60II/main3475.shtml

[zeaal]

Through observation it seems a good number of antiwar teen-agers are just plumb ANGRY. It is not about war, it is not about peace, it is not ... it is about a bunch of angry kids who have been wondering around without a life and have been angry about it, well they have now found an outlet for their anger and it is America. It is America because they are basically living lives with no direction and no means to get them from point A to point B so they have to be angry at someone or something. In this case, it is conservatives and President Bush. They are just angry, uninformed kids.

[af_vet_rr]

Before we put the blame solely on public schools, we need to ask what the hell the parents of these uneducated, misinformed and ignorant kids have been doing for the last 16-18 years...I place blame on both.

I think there are two things working against the education system (there are more, but in my opinion, these are the worst):

Parents that don't care

Schools that can't do jack without threat of a lawsuit and so just give up.

Back in "the day", if you screwed around in school, you got paddled. If you didn't turn in your homework and study, your parents came down on you and the school came down you. Failing something was actually taken seriously. Now these kids are given a free ride from both sides. The schools are afraid to punish and the parenst don't care. We are becoming lazy and ignorant as a whole, and the only people that care about education are in the private schools.

There are more problems, but I've seen a lot of wayward youth that could have used a caring parent or a good swat to the a$$.

[tom paine 2]

It's not about "readin, ritin, and rithmatic taught to the tune of a hickory stick" It's "racism, recycling and reproduction taught to the tune of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood"

[DeuceTraveler]

"For the first time, I wish I'd turned the channel to 60 Minutes (2). "

I never watched it after they did an extremely biased anti-military presentation on the Air Force Academy a few years back, but I did want to see this one and also the one they did on North Korea recently. I heard the North Korean one was good, but chilling.

[GOPJ]

The kids are a joke, but 60 Minutes did some worthwhile reporting? See, there's a silver lining...

One has to laugh at this commentary; but for the fact, we have the most expensive educational system ever created in the history of the world.

[GOPJ]

The kids are a joke, but 60 Minutes did some worthwhile reporting? See, there's a silver lining...

One has to laugh at this commentary; but for the fact, we have the most expensive educational system ever created in the history of the world.

[activationproducts]

Hey now, at least they no how to play ball games. What do you think schools are for? Local control has done wonders for quality.

[fight_truth_decay]

antiwar teen-agers are just plumb ANGRY

Face it, was not about Peace and was not about War..was about ditchin' school!

Was about they are bored from hanging out at the mall..what do they have to be angry about..parents give them money when they ask for it..they are too good to work at McDonalds..and Spring Break is just around the corner? Are you taking your car or am I taking mine?

[zeaal]

I think the kids are angry. Angry that their moms and dads are divorced and remarried and divorced again. Very few have a family contact due to their parents working double time to make sure these kids have the cars, money and clothes. The one case I know of first hand has to do with a boy who was angry last spring and summer (for the above reasons). Then when the whole 'war' thing started up in the fall he found something to be angry about.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Many can't read or write at even a minimum of proficiently,

Er, um, *cough* spellcheck *cough*.

[fight_truth_decay]

he found something to be angry about

Hey..When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.

-- Abraham Maslow

[Prov3456]

My two kids are now high school seniors. They spent K-2 grades in public/government schools. Because of what they were taught (and not taught), we transfered them to private school beginning with third grade. In private schools they were taught academics as well as discipline, self-discipline, and that choices/actions have consequences.

Granted, we are fortunate that we could afford private schools. (We began saving for "college" when they were born; ended up using those funds to pay for their 3-12 education.) I also considered home-schooling.

Too many parents were/are too busy working, "buying stuff," taking fancy vacations, or looking-out-for-number-one [themselves] to be concerned primarily with the education and welfare of their children. Consequently, we have a generation of young people who believe they have been educated, when in reality they were simply killing time.

The parents aren't the only adults responsible for this problem, of course. But they are the ones who have the primary responsibility for their own children's upbringing/education.

Flame away!

[MattAMiller]

Hey, I agree with you--I only graduated in 88 and I can remember teachers still had control in the classrooms and kids still worried about taking bad reports home to parents. What has happened in that short 15 yrs indeed

Probably nothing, besides the fact that you got older.

[Prov3456]

My kids started kindergarten in 1990. School/Education has changed A LOT since you graduated in '88.

To learn more about how much "education" has changed, read None Dare Call It Education by John Stormer.

[CathyRyan]

Knew a guy who taught US Government in High School. On the fimal exam he asked...Who is the President of the United States? Some of the kids could not answer the question. The guy quit teaching.

[CathyRyan]

fimal = final

[smith288]

clinton bombed baghdad in 98 i believe. also when he sent bombs in retalition to the discovered plot to kill W sr.

Yea, thats it, thats the ticket.

[semaj]

"...what do they have to be angry about.."

It's not about the war. Deep in their subconcious, without even realizing it, they know they've been screwed by the previous generations who have allowed our government run schools to become what they are today. Mind-numbing propaganda factories. I'd be pissed too.

[xm177e2]

Baghdad? We've been bombing Iraqi anti-aircraft sites for years. We've been bombing in the no-fly zones every day for the last few weeks at least. We even used a B1 bomber today.

[MattAMiller]

My kids started kindergarten in 1990. School/Education has changed A LOT since you graduated in '88. To learn more about how much "education" has changed, read None Dare Call It Education by John Stormer.

Kids today will score higher on an IQ test from the 30s than kids in the 30s did. And these tests are educationally loaded. This climb has been consistent since the tests were first introduced.