Liberal Racism at Time and CNN.com
Certainly a 30% dropout rate is a problem. The picture of yet another caucasian student on Time Magazine’s own website suggests that this situation is all too prevalent among white students as well.
But though Time’s limited joint story on CNN.com does note that, “For Latinos and African-Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50 percent. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem,” the summary fails to disclose the dropout rate for white students.
Obviously it is not only far less than the dropout rate for Black and Latino students, but also less than the 30% of the general student population which includes the high dropout rate for Black and Latinos to arrive at that mean average.
So why isn’t there a picture of black or Latino student on either story? And why isn’t the dropout rate for white students also given in the summary?
If these types of stories are too controversial for Time Warner Inc. to cover properly and comprehensively, perhaps they should leave any news story involving race in any way, shape, or form to those willing to give us all the facts.
We will not be able to solve a problem unless we identify it properly. And while CNN executives may not care about that, they should be concerned that is unremitting transparent bullshit like this intentionally misleading story that leads to an understandable general disillusionment with socially liberal corporate media by people who are smart enough and engaged enough to want to know the news.
I don’t like Fox News either, but I am not scratching my head wondering why it is so popular.
At least they aren’t liberal racists.
5 comments
The dropout rate is a superficial concern for education anyway. It says nothing about educational quality. My guess is you are more likely to dropout if your school is poorly funded. America bases its school funding on the local taxbase, which means minorities and other children in poor areas tend to get screwed. Anyway, the media’s liberalism is superficial as its priorities. Anyway, if you want a serious examination of a subject you will never get it from Time.
Dameocrat,
I agree it is a superficial liberalism, but would add it is also narrow in scope. On fiscal issues, Time Warner is quite right-wing. Which is no surprise, as they are one massive corporation.
You can’t have an honest discussion about this issue because it might mean that one culture is more successful than another (God forbid!).
And Dameocrat Thomas Sowell (Economist at Stanford) would disagree with you - though he is pretty right wing he does make some good points with facts to back them up. He also likes to take on the race issue with a more refreshing view than to blame everyone else (i.e. the evil establishment that is withholding what the honest poor need to succeed . . . ).
I’m missing the connection between drop out rates and school funding? Some of the states spending the least per pupil have the best public school systems and some of the states spending the most per pupil have the worst school systems.
This study suggests that the drop out rate for white students is 22%.
I recently did a study on graduation rates across states and their correlation with state funding. My small-time analysis agreed with the larger body of econ work done on educational funding and student achievement: there is at best a limited, indirect relationship. The most important indicator of a student’s success is their home situation: rich or poor, educated parents, etc.
See “Freakonomics” by Levitt and Dubner or “Student Performance: Is More Money the Answer?” in the Journal of Education Finance, Vol. 31 (2), by Anne L. Jefferson.
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