Below is how one caller, Mike Plaisted of Milwaukee, WI, described, in his blog, his time calling into the Radio Happy Hour last night. I believe he insults our intellect, though I can’t be sure:
UPDATE: In a comment on Tuesday, one Dr. Blogstein invited me to call in to his talk-blog when he was having a discussion with Sykes that night. I did, and here is the audio link. (Push the “play” icon next to Sykes; I start at 35:35). They kept me on for about 15 minutes. Any attempts I made to engage Sykes were rebuffed by Sykes and the hosts (I don’t know where they were from — out East, maybe) by claiming I was taking his words too seriously, apparently. Sykes talks and writes, like all wing-nuts, to reach the level of guys in a bar, and the Blogstein crew was more than willing to play along. Sykes’ issues were “apolitical”, according to Blogstein. I argued that Sykes sets up straw-men by pointing out anecdotes and extrapolating out to the whole teaching profession. They were having none of it — they know what they know and, if they think kids are being coddled (”bubblewrapped”, according to Sykes), well, that’s what they think. It is (or should be) Sykes’ motto: Never let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Anyway, I was basically advised to lighten up.
Anyway, this is the kind of free ride Sykes gets on his book tours. He knows that he is poisoning the well for future attacks on public education, but he poses like just some gentle soul commenting on known truths. When you challenge any of his false premises, hey, lighten up. The Blogstein crew couldn’t put this in the context of his radio antics, but he knows what he’s doing.
Interesting moment: early on, Sykes invited me to write my own book. I said I would, if I had the same kind of corporate support he gets from groups like the Bradley Foundation and the Wisconsin Public Policy Institute. Later, Sykes seemed to plead poverty as a reason to write the books. Ha.
The free ride continues, even on blog-talk-radio.
Geez, did Sykes sleep with this dude’s wife or something?!? Plaisted appeared to have it in for Sykes and was set on disagreeing with him no matter what. If Sykes said the sky was blue, Plaisted would have argued that it was yellow. In fact, at one point in the show, Plaisted said he’d like to argue one of Sykes points even though he hadn’t heard what was said.
“Well, Mike, you can’t argue with that,” I (Blogstein) said referring to what he thought was a valid point, “that all makes sense?”
“What’s that? What can’t I argue with?” Plaisted responded, “I can argue with anything.”
Now, look, I don’t know Charlie Sykes from a hole in the wall–He’s on a Milwaukee radio station and I’m in New York–but it seemed to me that Plaisted made up his mind that he was going to swing before he even saw the pitch.
