He's got the whole media in his hands, exc. 1 report on NY1

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has the whole media in his hands.
The New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post, the Village Voice all do not question the city administration. They mimick the city line about:
*rising test scores
(can be explained by watered down tests -go online and compare this year's Regents tests with those from the start of the 2000)
*graduation rates
(note the pushing weaker students, particularly those over 18 years of age, out of regular schools --hello, reporters, do some investigative reporting and talk to real, live guidance counselors)

Alas, NY1, that NYC news junkies' television station, has half a dozen video clips on the side of its site, all virtual press releases by the New York City Department of Education.
All of the above named media have abrogated their objectivity obligation. Basic training of journalists includes the ideal that reporters will not only parrot press releases (ready-to-print publicity department statements by businesses, community organizations or governments), and that they will talk to people from all sides of an issue.
We did get one exception to this shameless trend of the New York City media, New York 1 did run a story on ATR teachers and the Brooklyn ATR job fair yesterday, and they actually interviewed United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew and two frustrated veteran teachers. This balanced against press statements of Chancellor Joel Klein. Now, if they could interview James Eterno, ICE, TJC, TAG or other union dissidents, regarding the centrality of the ATR issue in the question of the future viability of the teaching profession as a professional career, or something that teachers dabble in, for five years, in the early part of their professional lives.
Watch in this link, the NY1 piece on ATR teachers.

Musings at the ATR fair / DunKleiRheeism warning

Was at ATR job fair on Monday, at Prospect Hall, Brooklyn.

I had these musings:
On the ATR job fairs, there was no identified UFT representative on site, contrary to rumor. We had many questions that we want answered.
Teachers should have gotten releases from their assignments earlier. I got to the site at 15 min of the announced deadline to appear. In five minutes, I turned my back and the line went to the end of the block.
Of course, age was a present factor: hardly anyone was under 35. And the DoE sent very few of its 27 years-old/fresh out of the leadership academy principals or APs. Many people looked very sullen, with an almost vacant expression. These people didn't respond to attempts at conversation.
As to principals and an adequate number of candidates, there were many job-seekers in line for single positions. Given that the number of positions offered at schools was generally one or two and there were about 45 to 50 administrators on site, occasionally two for one school, the couple hundred ATRs obviously were in excess of the number of positions.
The lines were more dense in front of recruiters from middle schools and high schools.
From the folks that I talked with I heard these tidbits: teachers knew of more ATRs, but those teachers were too skeptical of the sincerity of the job fair or the realistic practicality of expecting a position from the fair.

To the apathetic UFT members (and staffers, leaders) that take the "it's not happening to me" approach (apathy) to the ATR crisis:
We should remember Pastor Martin Nimoeller's (albeit, a conflicted character) prophetic poem about going after easy targets. Any teacher over five years in the system "could be next."

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me."