Public schools and universities soon could face the same intense political scrutiny as left-leaning filmmakers and politicians after internet entrepreneur and controversial blogger Andrew Breitbart said his newest website will offer a forum for students and parents critical of taxpayer-funded education.
Breitbart has made headlines and been criticized for using heavily-edited and misleading video clips to smear the community organizing group ACORN, National Public Radio (NPR), and an Obama administration official in recent years.
Read more about Andrew Breitbart in higher education…
Recorded lectures take on new risk as blogger ‘goes after teachers’
A regular speaker at conservative Tea Party rallies, Breitbart hasn’t been shy with criticism of public schools and higher education, vowing in April to “go after teachers,” especially those who support labor unions or reference readings Breitbart considers controversial, such as articles written by Marxists.
Breitbart’s main site, BigGovernment.com, has had a section dedicated to educational issues, but the blogger announced Aug. 23 in an interview with EAGtv that BigEducation.com would become its own website, “a platform for teachers who are in failing schools who want to change things, or parents or even the students themselves.”
Educators said Breitbart’s hyper-partisanship and history of cropping videos to attack professors with out-of-context remarks will ensure BigEducation.com is never considered a legitimate source on college campuses.
“I expect that if higher education feels he’s going to focus on them, there will be some concerns, especially with his track record for how he get’s his stories,” said Raymond Rose, a longtime developer of educational technology tools and programs.
Breitbart pledged that BigEducation.com would push for the elimination of the U.S. Education Department (ED) and the disassembling of teachers unions that he considers corrupt.
“Putting a spotlight on [those education issues], the way Brietbart has done with other issues in the past, isn’t likely to get them changed, and may result in innocent people getting hurt,” Rose said.
In an April 18 Fox News Channel interview, Breitbart said his BigGovernment site is powered by a “citizen journalism revolution” that would now target educators.
Breitbart drew the ire of higher education in April when his BigGovernment site posted video purporting to show a University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) lecturer advocating violence as a labor union tactic.
The video was deemed “highly distorted” by campus officials who reviewed the recording.
UMKC Chancellor Tom George said a review revealed the lecture videos “were definitely taken out of context, with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing from different times within a class period and across multiple class periods.”
George said UMKC also would “explore ways to improve security in the use of electronic media for instruction, research, and other activities,” after the lecture video was used by Breitbart’s website.
Breitbart has made headlines in recent years for his use of carefully edited videos. A U.S. Agriculture Department employee was fired last year after Breitbart posted web video showing the employee, Shirley Sherrod, making what appeared to be racist comments.
The full video, however, showed that Sherrod was relaying a story of racial healing during her time with the Agricultural Department.
Recent BigEducation.com headlines include: “Stanford professor proves Big Labor is reason that billions fail to fix education,” and “What passes for debate among the left in academia.”
Breitbart, in his interview with EAGtv, said BigEducation.com would attract parents and students from across the country who want to see “radical change” to public education.
“I think that parents and students have always wanted to stand up, but there really hasn’t been a means to do so,” he said. “New media and BigEducation is the answer to this problem.”
- Research: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - April 2, 2020
- Number 1: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - December 31, 2014
- 6 reasons campus networks must change - September 30, 2014
Comments are closed.