Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, December 7, 2012

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's Ghostwriter? - City Desk

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's Ghostwriter? - City Desk:


Did Harry Jaffe Ghostwrite Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s Book?

Radical, the memoir by former D.C. Public Schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, doesn't come out until February, but it's already received its first negative review. My colleague Alan Suderman, working from an advanced copy, slammed the book for everything from Rhee's lack of self-reflection to her cartoonish description of Marion Barry.
Rhee might not be the only one who deserves criticism for how the book was written, though. His name only appears once in Radical, buried inside its acknowledgements section, but Washingtonian and Washington Examinerwriter Harry Jaffe collaborated with Rhee on the book. Neither Rhee or Jaffe will say, though, how much work he did on it.
Why does it matter whether Jaffe edited a draft of Radical, or wrote ghostwrote the entire thing? There's nothing unusual about a public figure using a ghostwriter, after all. But readers of any future Jaffe column about DCPS