As he noted during his show last night, supporters of teachers unions protested outside the Colbert report studios prior to the show (see: http://crooksandliars.com/2014/07/colbert-spars-union-busting-campbell-brown )
This only highlighted the wonderfully dizzying complications in both the Colbert persona and Democratic politics. Traditionally Democrats and Teachers Unions have been locked in intimate mutual embrace, and Colbert, while pretending to be a conservative pundit, is actually one of the most liberal advocate in the mainstream media (much more liberal than his friend Jon Stewart). I had liberal friends contact me this morning not exactly sure whose side Colbert was on in last night's interview - was he making fun of Campbell Brown (the former CNN anchor who is leading the fight against teacher tenure) in an attempt to discredit her movement, or was he actually supporting her, and if so, was this a sign that he had broken ranks with the agenda of liberal Democrats? The piece from Cooks and Liars, a liberal web site, seems to think Colbert was opposed to Brown's effort, and that he did a " terrific job of untangling her public relations spin and getting to the bottom of things". Putting to the side the question of oversimplifying and distorting what Colbert does on his show (he is mostly trying to entertain people), the answer seems to me pretty clearly to be that Colbert was sympathetic to Brown's cause (he did not have to end the interview with the statement: "I respect you"). Colbert did do a pretty good job of putting some basic questions to her (more effectively than a real cable news interview probably would have), but if Crooks and Liars read that as Colbert being on the side of those who see her as a shill for union-busting Bush cronies in Wall Street, I think they are way off base. This reflects a growing divide within the Democratic Party, as more and more otherwise liberal Democrats (including current and former Obama Administration figures) have come out against the rigid seniority system that guides teacher employment in most public schools. This is often phrases as an opposition to tenure - I don't think that is quite right, as tenure can take many forms. But it is an opposition to a rigid system in which performance evaluation is irrelevant to job status, and talented but newly hired teachers are easily layed off, while long term but incompetent teachers are almost impossible to fire. It is a crazy, irrational system, that was recently dealt a serious blow here in California with the Vergara decision, and Brown is trying to do something similar in New York. By all accounts Brown is being funded and aided by Republicans and Wall Street types, many of whom no doubt want to extend this into an attack on all unions, and perhaps into a further attack on public schools (a la vouchers). But she is also being supported by Democrats and liberals who want to save public education. One of Brown's most effective points was that since it is almost impossible to fire incompetent teachers, they most often get transferred around to low income schools, where parents are less organized and vocal and influential. It will be interesting to see if Colbert has someone from the Teachers Unions on the show next week, and if so, how he treats them. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
