Texas Education Agency criticizes Fox & Friends for "highly inaccurate" reporting
March 10, 2010 3:53 pm ET by Media Matters staff
In a press release issued today, the Texas Education Agency criticized Fox & Friends for broadcasting a segment this morning with "highly inaccurate information about the State Board of Education's efforts to adopt the new social studies curriculum standards."
The following is the agency's press release:
The Fox Network in recent days has repeatedly broadcast highly inaccurate information about the State Board of Education's efforts to adopt the new social studies curriculum standards.
Here are the facts. The direct quotes come from the March 10 broadcast of Fox & Friends.Fox: "Texas board of education begins hearings today on proposed changes to textbooks..."
The truth: The State Board of Education today is expected to take a preliminary vote on updated social studies curriculum standards. The standards detail what teachers are to teach in each class. New social studies textbooks are not scheduled to be selected until 2011.Fox: "So one of the proposed changes is to start history class in the year 1877."
The truth: Texas has and always will teach U.S. History from the beginning until present day. U.S. History through Reconstruction is taught in the eighth grade and those standards can be found in the middle school standards, which are called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Here is a link to the middle school standards: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/social/MS_TEKS_amended.pdf. U.S. History since 1877 is taught in 11th grade.Fox: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have been removed from the textbooks.
The truth: The standards, not textbook, are before the board this week. Lincoln is required to be included in the first and eighth grade history classes, as well as in the U.S. government class. Washington is required to be taught in kindergarten, first grade, fifth grade and eighth grade. Here is a link to a document detailing those historical figures, including Lincoln and Washington, who are required to be taught as part of the standards: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/social/AlphabetizedList_including.pdf. There is another list of individuals who are suggested for inclusion and it can be found here: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/social/AlphabetizedList_such_as.pdf. Additional modifications are still possible to both lists as the board debates the standards during its March and May meeting.Fox: Independence Day and Veteran's Day are being deleted from the textbooks.
The truth: Again, the new history textbooks have not been written yet but they will be based on the curriculum standards adopted by the board. The standards currently under consideration cover Independence Day in kindergarten, second and fifth grades. Veteran's Day is included in kindergarten, first, second and fifth grades.Fox: References to Christmas have been deleted.
The truth: A TEKS review committee briefly recommended removing Christmas from a list that mentioned one major holiday for each of the world's religions. The committee recommended leaving Easter in the document. The State Board immediately rejected this idea and a reference to Christmas was restored in the standards months ago and can be found in sixth grade in standard 19(b).
Fox: Textbooks adopted in Texas will be used classrooms across the country.
The truth: Each state has its own textbook selection process. Publishers may offer other states the Texas edition of a book but they are not required to select it.
Previously:
"[G]ullible" Fox & Friends escape lawsuit for repeating yet another false news story
*Update: The headline of this post has been changed to include the Texas Education Agency, rather than the Texas Board of Education.
They have to get their smears straight. Now they're starting to eat their own. Or is there some kind of strategy of intimidation going on here, to get the righties on the board to knuckle down and prevail?
this is who Perry appointed to the BOE
A story about Barton, quote creator extraordinaire.
The truth: Each state has its own textbook selection process. Publishers may offer other states the Texas edition of a book but they are not required to select it.
A minor aside here.
Text books tend to reflect the needs/wants of the largest school districts in the nation.
(I have no idea where Texas falls in this)
Because of this textbook standards that are written in larger metropolitan areas tend to influence the books that are available for all schools.
I did remember that the book companies basically skew their textbooks to fit the curricula of their largest customers.
Having been taught American history in the North and the South, I do know about the difference in how the Cival War is approached and taught. It was very educational for me as a teenager.
(eyeroll)
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/12/hijacking-history/
http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer
FWIW, the report I saw one morning on FOX&Friends was by Steve Doocy's idiot son. I'm sure his father is very proud of him for being so much like his dad.
The GOP-controlled State Board of Education is working on a new set of statewide textbook standards for, among other subjects, U.S. History Studies Since Reconstruction. And it turns out what the board decides may end up having implications far beyond the Lone Star State.
The first draft of the standards, released at the end of July, is a doozy. It lays out a kind of Human Events version of U.S. history.
Approved textbooks, the standards say, must teach the Texan student to "identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Moral Majority." No analogous liberal figures or groups are required, prompting protests from some legislators and committee members.
http://www.truthout.org/090509B
You're right. Nothing makes sense about this story-- but that it's a stealth action.
My district is represented by Ken Mercer, a Christian Jihadist who won his primary despite establishment Republican oppostition. The defeat of his Democratic opponent IS THE WHOLE POINT of the FOX attention. And copious lies and distortion.
Immediately rejected, indeed. Better to have a reference to the birth of Christ than a reference to the real meaning of Christianity! God forbid!
They aren't alone.
well he lost in a very tight election and his home the revisionist that came up with that is going with him.
And now fox is complaining now it’s a problem
You know “lies are never as bad as the truth because lies only sound bad but the truth can be very bad”
And the truth is that Texas almost messed up a generation of kids with right wing and religious lies
Once again, the interns doing the research at Fox can't tell the difference between facts and crap. Ah, fact-checking takes too long!
This shows that the rantards at Fox will go after anyone, including other conservatives. Negative ranting is self-destructive, like the snake eating its own tail.
Keep it up, Fox! Soon, you'll PO so many, you'll loose your "base" and whittle your viewer-ship down to the ever-present 20% to 30% of the population*, known as the "fringe".
* - Note that in all polls, the right-wing respondents never seem to go below 20% to 30%. That's the fringe.
When I was in school in Fort Worth from 1959 to 1961, my Texas history textbook said that one of the Texans executed by Mexico in 1836 asked to be shot in the chest, "but the cowardly Mexicans shot him in the head."
When it comes to schoolbooks, we would all be served by ignoring Texas.
"Texas textbooks have always been biased in one way or another."
Not to mention that few Texans really want to know the truth about the "war for independence" from Mexico.
It was about slavery. Mexico rejected slavery. Them cowards! Houston and his boys were slave owners.