Trashy Journalism

Joanne Weiss, a Boston Globe columnist, bemoans the fact that unions are losing the PR battle in Wisconsin.

She says there are "three major players in the Wisconsin labor battle: loud politicians, billionaire refinery owners, and middle-class people who want the right to bargain for benefits and working conditions."

She's wrong on every count.

The "billionaire refinery owners" the Left screams about are about as conservative as George Soros is mainstream. You only have to look up David Koch on Wikipedia to see his values. Both he and his brother are Libertarians. Both are generous donors to the arts, medical research, educational and social issues. Neither can be remotely described as conservative. The "loud polticians" can't be heard of the screams and shouts of the unruly labor unions.

But the biggest lie in Weiss story is that the protesters are "middle class." The teachers who walked out on their students, the other teachers who dragged their underage students to a street rally, and the union thugs who organized the bus loads of out-of-staters to chant loudly haven't a single middle class value. They merely have middle class salaries paid for by lower income taxpayers.

If these are our average teachers, it confirms what most of us have feared about the educational establishment for decades. We no longer have to wonder why they don't teach values; they have none. We no longer have to speculate how to improve schools. It isn't the curriculum or lack of money. It's the teachers.

Weiss describes herself as coming of age with "Different Strokes." She, no doubt, forgets that the only two cast members in that show who were black -- Todd Bridges and Gary Colemen -- didn't exactly end up living the Liberal dream. Or maybe it is exactly the role the Liberals had in mind for them.