Fox & Friends has repeatedly hyped the new school documentary Waiting for Superman as evidence that the teachers unions are acting at the expense of our nation's kids. Unfortunately for them, the director and producer of the film wouldn't play ball, declaring in recent interviews on the program that the movie is not “attacking unions” and that they both supported unions. However, that didn't stop Fox & Friends from washing right over what their views actually were, in an attempt to jam the interviews into their anti-union narrative.
Last week, co-host Steve Doocy interviewed Lesley Chilcott, the producer of Waiting for Superman, and typically tried to fit into their narative that “the very, very powerful teachers' unions, who are traditionally backed by the Democratic party” are to blame for the schools that are failing in America:
As you can see, Chilcott did her best to calmly explain to Doocy that “it's not quite that simple,” and that she believes that “all teachers are underpaid,” that we need to “start valuing teachers more culturally,” and corrects Doocy's suggestion that that the DC teacher's union never agreed to any of DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's proposals for reform teachers' contracts. She noted that while they refused to vote on the proposals the first year, the next year many of Rhee's proposals were incorporated in the union contracts. She even explains that she's “been in a union for a long time” and that “no one wants eliminate the unions.”
She may have been wrong about that last one, as Fox & Friends certainly didn't take her words to heart. Doocy responded by saying, “yeah but these are our kids we're talking about,” and co-host Gretchen Carlson later suggested that maybe, just maybe “the union may be responsible now, for the kids in DC not getting a good education.” They also spend much of the last week blaming teachers and their unions for our schools' failures, notably airing onscreen text the day after they interviewed Chilcott, which read “Superman Strikes. New Flim Blames Unions For Bad Teachers.”
Fast forward to today, when Carlson interviewed the director of Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim. Watch as Guggenheim explained to Carlson that he doesn't “agree with the word bashing unions,” adding that he “believe[s] in unions” and that both Democrats and Republicans take a lot of money from teachers unions, only to have Carlson subsequently ask why he would “attack unions” as a liberal “because that's such a bastion of support for Democrats”:
Guggenheim admirably explains -- twice more -- to Carlson that the point of the movie is not “bashing or attack” unions. He even simply and slowly explains that he supports “protection” for teachers but says there has to be a way to evaluate teachers, adding that “all the adults” need to to “face some of these taboos to fix our schools.” Carlson cryptically responds that she “hope[s] that they will face that first and finally.” What do you think the odds are that Fox & Friends will ever stop to to face the actual point of the movie, as it was explained to them?