MEDIA WATCH: Russo, from his blogtification pulpit in Brooklyn, knocks Diane Ravitch as the whining continues at 'District299.com'...
One of the secret pleasures of some Chicago teachers and reporters is regularly reading "District299.com" to see how off base Brooklyn's finest Chicago reporter can get. Alexander Russo might be the most self-important blogster to pontificate (it's a practice called "blogtification", a combination of blogging and pontificating) on Chicago, but even for him it's sometimes over the top. His report on the visit of Diane Ravitch to Chicago is a good example.
Diane Ravitch at the CTU offices October 15, 2012. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.On Monday, October 15, 2012, Diane Ravitch, who renounced corporate school reform with the publication of her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, was in Chicago. Chicago reporters could easily cover Ravitch's public events, which included a breakfast at the City Club and a press briefing at the Chicago Teachers Union. In all likelihood (we didn't bother to check), Russo was in Brooklyn, from where he covers Chicago. So, naturally, he had more to report than most of the reporters who were in Chicago that day, and doing reporting rather than blogtificating. And, equally naturally, he didn't actually hear Diane Ravicth's remarks in Chicago, let alone join the five reporters who asked her