Friday, October 7, 2011

President Pinocchio...

Tale of Hub teacher’s job struggle stretches truth


President Obama spun a work of creative nonfiction yesterday in his latest pitch for his jobs plan, fudging the facts of a Boston schoolteacher’s White House visit as he cast the man as a poster boy for the hot-button bill.

“I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz,” the president said at a midday news conference. “He’s got two decades of teaching experience. He’s got a master’s degree. He’s got an outstanding track record of helping his students make huge gains in reading and writing. In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?”

There's just two little things wrong with this story: Obama never met Baroz, and Baroz is still employed. Other than that, Obama's story is 100% truthful...

Now, with an unbiased media, this story would have received at least as much attention as, say, George Bush serving a plastic turkey to US troops at Thanksgiving. I mean, Obama's story about Robert Baroz is "fake but accurate", right?

Why, then, does a Google search on "Robert Baroz" turn up only local news stories? Shouldn't this be of at least passing interest to national media? The president twists a story - when he had no need to - about a big city teacher into something that it wasn't in order to shore up his jobs bill. To push a bill Obama has claimed is needed to prevent a second economic downturn, he has to resort to folding, spindling, and otherwise mutilating the truth? If the bill is needed that badly, shouldn't Obama have found, oh, a true story?

I guess we should be happy he didn't stand behind a plastic teacher, right?

That is all.

5 comments:

North said...

Whatever comes from his mouth is the New Truth.

libertyman said...

Robert Baroz lives in Wellesley! Oh the hardships he has endured!!

Note that he says it is okay BHO lied about meeting him, because it is all worthwhile. Or he doesn't want to lose his freaking Federal Government Job.

Wow.

libertyman said...

For readers not from Massachusetts, here are some stats on Wellesley:

In the 2007 estimate, the median income for a household was $125,814, and the median income for a family was $155,539. The per capita income in the town was $61,332.

Median home price $848,000

Probably a lot of teachers are looking at homes to buy in Wellesley.

TOTWTYTR said...

Something that Obama has in common with the Clintons. Habitual lying, even when there is neither need nor benefit.

As someone who is married to a teacher, the norm these days is for teachers to get pink slips every year. Even teachers with tenure get these notices.

The reason for this is that school systems are required by law to let teachers know if they are going to be hired for the following year. That notification has to come by a certain date, I think March 1. The schools don't know what their budgets are going to be for the following year by then, so to protect themselves, they send out pink slips.

Most teachers do get rehired once the budget is finalized.

That might well be what happened to Baroz, but President Pinnochio would include those boring details.

Old NFO said...

Why am I NOT surprised by anything they do anymore??? sigh