In its August issue, popular fashion and lifestyle magazine Elle asks celebrities and media types what job they would fall back on if they lost their current gig in the faltering economy. The "Recession Confession" feature caught our attention when we got to Fox News talking head Bill O'Reilly. His fallback job? "Teaching. I used to teach high school history and English." O'Reilly might have some explaining to do should he ever find himself back in a public school teachers' lounge.
Two years ago, O'Reilly glommed onto a misleading Wall Street Journal editorial to unfairly blast NEA for donating to civil rights, minority, community, and advocacy groups. That same year, after an ABC "20/20" report by John Stossel accused the nation's teachers of being mediocre, O'Reilly's show, "The Factor," came to Stossel's defense, saying that U.S. children "seem to do worse the longer they remain in the system." And last October, O'Reilly opined on his show that "most teachers--high school and college in the United States--are left-wingers," who "bring in a anti-American viewpoint" to the classroom. (That left-wing claim alone no doubt came as a surprise to the 1 million NEA members who are pro-public education Republicans.)
The only way we'd want to see this ever happen is if rival Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has the same fallback plan and the two have to team teach. Heck, they could even co-moderate the debate team.
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