Correction: Rhee appears on Chris Hayes show!

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013

Therein lies a tale: Last night, Michelle Rhee appeared on the Chris Hayes show. (We were a bit surprised.)

This morning, we wanted to review the transcript. When we entered “Rhee” in the Nexis search engine, we got no hit. There was no sign that she had appeared on any Chris Hayes program.

Puzzled, we looked at the Hayes transcript for the December 4 program. We saw a discussion of the new PISA results—a discussion which wasn’t conducted on last night’s program.

Looking more closely, we saw that this was actually the transcript for the December 3 Hayes show. Somehow, the Tuesday night transcript has been posted on Nexis under Wednesday’s date.

This is in the form of a correction. Yesterday, we said we checked the Nexis archives, but found no discussion of the new PISA results on MSNBC Tuesday night.

In fact, there was such a discussion on the Hayes program Tuesday night. But something seems to be getting screwed up in Nexis postings of the Hayes transcripts.

In our view, Hayes’ discussion with Rhee last night was basically underwhelming. In effect, he brought an education person onto the show, then kept asking her about future job prospects for low-income kids who do get good educations.

We haven’t had the heart to review the Tuesday night discussion, whose transcript is posted at Nexis under Wednesday night’s date. Yesterday, the Tuesday night transcript didn’t ring up when we searched (we searched on terms like “PISA” and “math”). Today, it is the Wednesday night transcript which is mistakenly AWOL.

That said, Hayes did do a segment on Tuesday night concerning the new PISA scores. According to Nexis, the PISA has been mentioned on no other MSNBC evening programs this week.

To see a fairly pointless discussion with Rhee, you can click here, then click on “America’s Inequality Problem.”

Please note:

Theoretically, Rhee is an expert on education, not on the question of whether well-educated students will be able to find jobs in the future.

That’s a very important question, of course. It just isn’t a question about public schools.

Concerning MSNBC transcripts: At the MSNBC transcript page, no transcripts appear yet for this week. MSNBC tends to be like this.

If you want to read the Hayes transcripts, eventually they should turn up here.

11 comments:

  1. Favorite lackluster question from Rhee segment (paraphrase):

    HAYES: If you had your wish, would you rather have a poor child have good teachers and remain poor, or have bad teachers and move up in life?

    >face palm< Whaaaaa?

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMB ( Counting the Blog Minutes Until Reaching Point)

    We were unable to compute this due to our analysts being unable to find a point.

    KZ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you're not paying your analysts much. Here's the point: Rhee is one of our education hucksters. Wouldn't it have been great had a journalist been prepared to question her expertise, her dubious claims, and the policies she pimps? Of what use are questions on a topic outside her supposed field of knowledge?

      Ask your analysts what you're doing here commenting on a blog you find pointless.

      Delete
    2. 1. Bob's a sexist for picking on Ms. Simon!
      2. Bob's a racist for denigrating the scores of African American kids!
      3. Substance free comment about how great Bob is
      4. Nitpick regarding some irrelevant statistical error/omission in Bob's post
      5. Complaint that Bob won't focus on Common Core/Fox News/commenter's pet topic
      6. Nonsequitur about George Zimmerman
      7. Diversion by DinC regarding Teachers Unions
      8. Inaccurate paraphrase of Bob's post followed by outrage against said paraphrase

      BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!

      KZ's comment falls under prohibited category 5: complaint that Bob's post doesn't address KZ's preferred topic.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous is

      1. Not bright, but proud to repetitively demonstrate that fact.

      Delete
    4. Hey Anon @ 4:08. I protest. My preferred topic is BOB doing exactly what he criticizes other for doing. This post, a meandering bunch of jibberish about transcipts before complaining that Hayes did not question Rhee about BOB's preferred topic, is precisely what he just devoted a post attacking Ms. Maddow for doing.

      And Mr. Rat, if that was BOB's point, couldn't he have expressed it as succinctly as you?

      KZ

      Delete
    5. KZ, the Bobinistas live for the opportunity to explain Somerby's real, true meaning in far fewer words than Somerby. It is their vocation, their assigned task in life.

      Now about doing in one post what he condemned in others for a previous post, do you really expect Bob or the Bobinistas to remember from one post to the next and connect the dots?

      Delete
    6. KZ,

      If your preferred topic is TDH doing "exactly" what he criticizes others for doing, when are you actually going to post a comment to that effect?

      Yes, TDH took Rachel Maddow to task for wasting thirteen minutes of airtime on a nationally-seen cable show giving a meandering introduction to a minor topic. TDH spent six sentences on his own blog complaining about transcripts before getting to the cogent point I mention below. That's a strained equivalence you've got there.

      Why couldn't TDH been as succinct as I? Because I'm a better writer, a more focused intellect, and I'm better looking as well. What's your point? That you really couldn't find TDH's in that entry? If so, I'm better looking than you too.

      Anonymous @6:35P,

      Just in case you're still lost, here's the key sentence in the entry:

      <quote>
      In our view, Hayes’ discussion with Rhee last night was basically underwhelming. In effect, he brought an education person onto the show, then kept asking her about future job prospects for low-income kids who do get good educations.
      </quote>

      Are you really going to maintain that it takes some heroic and hermeneutical effort to discern TDH's point?

      Delete
    7. KZ,

      Your example of hypocrisy by Bob fails because the stated objective of TDH is media criticism while Rachel Maddow's stated objective is delivering important news from a liberla perspective.

      More importantly, your preferred topic is irrelevant to the substance of Bob's post. What difference does it make if Bob's a hypocrite? Who cares? The only thing that matters is whether he is right or not. Why can't we discuss the substance?

      You want to discuss Bob's hypocrisy, start your own damn blog!

      Delete
    8. Since I am doing the criticism of other commenters, I guess I should address the substance of Bob's post. Otherwise KZ will start accusing me of hypocrisy:

      Yes, MSNBC seems to be very slow/incompetent about posting transcripts. This is a minor issue though.

      Yes, Chris Hayes should have actually asked Rhee about educational topics within her "expertise". That's his job. he failed.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous @ 8:57 you said: "start your own damn blog!"


      I believe that puts you in the combined category of prohibited comments 9&10.

      9. Go away.

      10. Please ban trolls.

      Delete