Bennett RESIGNS from K12 board over racist remarks

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- K12 Inc. today announced that William J. Bennett has resigned as an employee, and as Chairman and member of the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. K12 Inc. said the Board accepted his resignation, thanking him for his contributions to the company. K12 Inc. said that it has no relationship with, or involvement in, Dr. Bennett's radio program. The opinions expressed by Dr. Bennett on his radio program are his and his alone.

Dr. Bennett, in a separate statement said: "I am in the midst of a political battle based on a coordinated campaign willfully distorting my views, my record, and my statements. Given the controversy surrounding the remarks I made on my radio show, I am stepping down from my positions at K12, so that neither the mission of the company, nor its children, are affected, distracted, or harmed in any way."

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-03-2005/0004157888&EDATE=

----------------------

Keep the heat on! He needs to apologize and resign/get fired from his radio slot. Please nominate and get active at http://firebennett.cjb.net

His remarks on Fox News this weekend were at least as idiotic.

I missed Herr Hume this weekend. Any links or summary?

It was on Chris Wallace's show. That's what made it so crazy - he's saying this shit with Juan Williams sitting five feet from him. I was actually impressed Juan didn't lose his shit and start strangling the guy.

Basically he asked, very obtusely at the beginning, "What did Bill Bennett say that was incorrect?" And Mara and Juan tried to bail him out by playing it straight, "He linked crime in America to the birth of black babies."

Hume: Aren't blacks more likely to commit crime?

Williams: Well, what if I said "Hey, maybe to solve the mass-murderer problem we should abort all white babies." You think that would be OK with everybody?

Hume: People are just too sensitive.

Williams: MUST... CONTROL... FIST OF DEATH...

someone of national stature. It will be the perfect wedge issue.

I have been saying this for the last few weeks. I think this is the ramping up of this for focus group testing.

Yes, they really are that scared.

and put on the white hoods.


It's KKK time again.
Playing to their REAL base.

It ain't about abortion
Ain't about poor
Ain't about religion

For their base it is now about "those people."

Minutemen movement.

I guess Jeb Bush just saw his career flushed down the Bennet. His familia (and my familia) are now fair game.

(Sorry, meant this as a response to Post #46.)

who commit suicide. I think Brit Hume would agree with this and not be insensitive about it.

It's like a clown's frown, only sans the facepaint. The man is bitter beyond belief. He's an angry, verbal accident waiting to happen on Faux, and I can't wait. Sooner or later, this ultracreep is going to speak the irrevocable.

I saw him on Farce News and he didn't look to well. His face looks as if it' deteriorating. Maybe it's bad makeup of something. He always look angry as any conservative can be.

he is disgusting. I was so upset when I saw it. The link to the video is in the thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4962130&mesg_id=4962130

:hi:

especially in light of how fair the "justice" system is

Nothing worse than waking up hung over on a Sunday morning to watch their "panel" discuss America.

Britt makes me sick, but what REALLY makes me sick is all of the idiotic sheep who watch that crap on the weekends and use their "diverse" panel to help formulate their decisions. I watch it like a freakin train wreck, i just can't pull my self away.

I don't see how Juan Williams even stomachs it.

:puke:

like drownie.

Bad, very bad :rofl:

Oh God. :puke:

distortion?

what utter bullshit

The Bush White House said he remarks were "inappropriate"--guess he took the hint!

:woohoo:
rocknation

heheh

head back to Vegas to earn "milk money"..

I can't imagine the hypocracy of their Alumni if they keep him on board.

I can't imagine his comments wouldn't offend them. :shrug:

"I am in the midst of a political battle based on a coordinated campaign willfully distorting my views...". Um Billy boy, how did anyone distort what you said? People have recording devices, we all heard it. And I just called the local radio station that carries his program. I said,"Now that the Cubs season is over, there is really nothing on that station that I wish to listen to, especially the racist Bennett." The station's gm took my call and he was, to his credit, very polite as he listened to my rant. He said he would forward my concerns along to the corporate headquarters in Atlanta. I thanked him and hung up. I suspect that's it. I will never hear from these people again. But, I got my African American neighbor to call also, and she is a religious person who was upset about Bennett when I told her about it. She said that she would get her congregation to call also.

After reading what he said I can see that he was trying to prove a point and was not promoting the idea of exterminating blacks. However, to introduce the point in such an asinine way was beyond uncalled for. How could you even consider presenting a point like this? I don't think its a distortion to say Bennett made an ass of himself and that anyone who considers uttering this from their mouth has at the very least a short-sighted stereotypical view of an entire race that he chose to promote publicly.

If you aborted ALL fetuses crime would go down too. If you aborted only whites, crime would go down too. The guy is a racist pig.

A caller on Ed Schultz last Friday said if you go to the Department of Justice site, you can see that the crime rate has been going down, not up like Bennett would like us to believe. Ed said that Bennett is so clueless and ill prepared, he just makes stuff up, and that this was beyond the pale. He predicted that Bennett would get himself into trouble because he is not a professional talk show host, but an amateur who doesn't have what it takes.

Whether or not that is why his statement caused such a national reaction, or the media powers that be are turning on Republican stupidity, cupidity, and hubris, I don't know. Limbaugh was given a LOT of passes during his passing era of notoriety.

But, yes, Bennett all but blamed our crime rate on blacks. He should have apologized right off the bat, he may have gotten away with it. But, no. He had to go on the attack and start whining about being mischaracterized. What an idiot! None of these guys can admit any wrongdoing. Like they actually walk on water. :eyes:

that the abortion rate (higher in many black communities than in white communities) had decreased the crime rate in those communities (and the crime rate is higher in certain black communities than in white communities, giving blacks a higher average crime rate than whites).

A thing can decrease, and still be higher than a second thing. It merely means the black crime rate was coming closer to average.

However, apparently he disagreed with the research showing the correlation between abortion and a dropping crime rate.

I've pretty much concluded all the research is wrong. Blacks don't have a higher crime rate because of certain truly impoverished communities. They don't have a higher unemployment or dropout rate. There is no disproportionate number of children in single-parent families, or in poverty, that are black. There aren't fewer than expected blacks entering college, and they don't have a higher dropout rate or longer time to degree rate. In all points, they are at the very least average.

O'Connor was wrong. It didn't take years for us to outgrow affirmative action; it only took a year. I would truly feel free(per). If I believed it.

It just comes naturally. :evilgrin: That's the point. The racism is in the kind of assumptions he makes about people and, maybe more so, that he still doesn't see what he did wrong.

Welcome to DU, btw! :hi:

and thanks by the way...it's good to be here!

the fact that it even occurred to him to use it as an example, is proof that it was in his mind in the first place.

bzzzzt. sorry.

tree branch.

How privilaged white people have kept out of jail while murdering thousands...."He didn't intend to rape her." "He didn't intend to shoot her."

"If you aborted all HISPANIC babies, not that "I" would recommend that, mind you, we would not have an illegal immigration problem in this country"...why, that would be just as racist. And not true.

Water seeks its own level--some other group would be the new scapegoats of the immigration issue, because too many rich folk do not want to mow their own lawns, take care of their own kids, clean their own McMansions....

It's poverty that pushes the crime rate up--not racial prediliction. For every natural "bad actor" of any race, there are a hundred people who go to crime due to lack of opportunity, lack of good schooling, lack of role models.

our lying hypocrite problem would go down. Not that that wouldn't be MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE...but the problem would go down.

That was good !

It's just obvious by his reaction to the nation's reaction that he doesn't feel he did anything wrong. He didn't intend the comment to be racist, but there is no doubt that it was. And someone who trys to present a point in this light is letting us know how he feels indirectly. I'm just saying...he didn't think anything of it. To Bennett there was nothing wrong with what he said = no intent.

he knew exactly what he was saying- Look at his record on affirmative action, and read about his views of multiculturalism. He IS a racist.
What's more, he claims to be a paragon of virtue, and to be the 'bellwether' of the 'moral compass' for America, while saying, "I refuse to take instruction from Ted Kennedy"-
He may not 'like' Ted, he may hold a personal grudge against him, he may disagree with him on every single issue in the world. But for a man who is supposed to be 'wise' he shows his stupidity in this comment on top of the one he was trying to 'deflect' criticism from. "oh yeah, but he's REALLY bad"- how childish and immature- and how short-sighted. Many people learn their most profound lessons, and insights from the people they 'like' least, and often don't respect.
Mr. Bennett, needs to feed on some massive meals of 'humble pie'- He's gonna get pretty tired of eating crow.

I pity him- and see through his silly attempt at 'innocence'- or 'no malice intended'.

Welcome FITC, but I believe he knew what he said was racist- the closet door has been opened, Katrina showed us that clearly- and Bill's just outing himself.

peace.

Enjoy your stay.

They say things that reveal that they ARE racists.

"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," Bennett said.


And here's Bennett's qualifier:


He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Then, he says the next day...

BENNETT: Let me just tell you, when it comes to abortion, my wife's program, Best Friends, has kept more young women from having abortions because they don't get pregnant because they take her good counsel...

HANNITY: Let me...

BENNETT: Than the entire black caucus. She has done more for inner city black girls than the entire black caucus. So I will not bow my head to any of these people.

The links to these horrific statements are on my blog.


Edited to include sigline: http://ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/

..is not racist at all....not in the least...

:sarcasm:

His point?He was trying to disprove the Freakonomics guy who said that his studies showed that the availability of legal abortion reduced crime.

But he makes several fatal assumptions:

1. He assumes that the state gets to control abortion, totally disregarding that the state doesn't have that power as long as women have a right to choose.

The whole POINT of the pro-CHOICE crowd is that the WOMAN controls her body and chooses whether or not to abort.

2. He assumes that blacks are the main cause of crime.

Even if you ignore the racism in sentencing and apprehension, there are still a lot more white criminals than there are black ones. And if this country cracked down on corporate crime the way they crack down on crackheads, there would be an awful lot more white guys in jail.

The Freakonomics guy wrote a very good rebuttal to Bennett, essentially saying that the reduction of crime had nothing to do with race and everything to do with children being born into situations where the mother is ready for them. He said that abortion doesn't really reduce the number of children people ultimately have, it just delays the family .

So, if the woman without access to abortion has a baby as a single, young student and thus has to drop out of school and accept a poor-paying job, then she stops having any more children, if she only wanted one. In this case, the man has been abusing her, so she leaves him , whereupon he becomes a stalker. Probably a good bet he's not going to be a good influence on the child or that it will be a good idea to try to maintain ties, even financial ones like child support. That child will be brought up under adverse conditions.

On the other hand, if that same young woman has access to an abortion, she can abort that fetus,stay in school, graduate and get a good job. And a couple years later, when she has met and married the man she otherwise never would have met, the now-middle class couple who can now afford to buy a house together can choose to have a kid and they can raise it in comfort and security.

Which child is more likely to grow up angry and feel deprived ? Which child is more likely to be a criminal?

This scenario accurately describes the events of a friend of mine who did abort the first fetus and is now happily married with a happy baby and has a great career. And she's white.

intend to be racist. most racists never do. the fact that he had the balls to say this on the air in america says a whole lot about him and the country we live in. and the fact that people are trying to give him a pass by trying to explain his statement is sickening and denigrating to people of color.

racism is still alive and very well here in the good ole usa.

I can't just sit and bitch. We all have to act on our gripes and attempt to make a difference.

others whom he has victimized ... like the clintons, for example...and yes, most recently, the black people.

all these republicans are cry babies. they can dish it out, but they can't take it.

bastards!

Three Strikes...YER OUT!

Keep it up DU. We kept the fire going!

found the context.

None of these wingnuts have a conscience or shame. They have been the worst people who have held power in this country in my lifetime.

And what's most scary is that perhaps about 40% (or more?) of the population back these insane monsters.

I've been looking for that context. Glad you found it instead of me.

I think it was wonderful of AAR to play almost the entire conversation over and over so there was no way anyone could reasonably claim it was taken out of context.

He was an albatross, but I'm certain he'll draw income from K12 none the less.

What kind of doctor is he? I missed this.

I didn't know that.

I don't hold with censoring anyone's speech, sorry.

And hateful speech needs the most protection of all.

Let's not forget the 1st Amendment. It's one of the really nifty ones.

Nobody wants to censor anyone. But you need to be held accountable for your comments.

If hate speech is to be protected speech, the outrage it inspires must be protected, too.

and you'll reap a rotten crop.

No-0ne I know of is saying muzzle him.- But if I claimed to be a great republican, and spoke my heart, I'd expect the republicans to distance themselves from me- And if I had a radio show about the merits of 'compassionate conservatism' and went on to decry the Corporate welfare and corruption rampant in this government- I'd expect I might not be on the air very long.

Morality and racism don't co-exist very well.

I agree, let him speak- let him show the world what really lives in the hearts of many who claim 'morality' and 'righteousness'.

He's running away from INSANE statements that he made!! :wtf:

for being a fucking racist. Ain't that 1st Amendment grand?

But when it goes beyond the speech - demanding he be punished for the speech - then I take issue with it.

Or on the radio? No one is FIRING him, they are telling him to step down. As long as he isn't fired and everyone else is simply using their free speech right to apply pressure to the guy and his advertisers...I don't see an issue

his comments were in a perfectly valid context, and the sad fact is that people haven't heard or read the entire exchange. He's getting a very raw deal, and it only makes those calling "Off with this head!" look like uninformed hysterics.

That's as bad as any idiot freepers going ballistic over something negligible. With all that's going on in the world, what Bill Bennett said about an hypothesis advanced in a book I'm not sure he cited during the exchange is nothing but jerking off without getting relief.

He did say it would be reprehensible to do so, but in typical social darwinistic form, he believes the crime rate has more to do with the color of the criminal than with other socio-economic and environmental factors that RESULT in crime.

His comments were just as inflammatory as Dinesh DiSousa's comments that "ghettoization is good for black people so they need only rise to their level of arrested development" (sic)

He was quoting a book, "Freakonomics," by Steven Levitt.

I'm for a free press, too.

What a waste of time this whole uproar is. What a joy for Rove and the other Republicans who love that people are twisted about Bennett's remarks while they're busy taking our country even deeper under.

which doesn't mention race.

I empathize with your 1st Amendment concerns but feel they don't apply to extremists operating under the auspices right wing corporations using the airwaves to drag the country further down into reactionary nondemocracy. The more of these tools we can get to leave in disgrace, the more chance we have to get a decent public debate going, to get rid of the Coulter/Rush depths it's in.

And I reject the argument that the Bennett scandal is a distraction -- there are many fronts in this battle, and they all need support. And African Americans likely feel a bit more worked up about Bennett than about Rove, who could be seen also as yet another distraction from what needs to be done -- impeaching Bush.

in fact, mention race. Go check.

It's a distraction, and a meaningless one, at that. If ever there was a time to pick our battles, this is that time.

Welcome to DU, by the way .................

THEIR extremists and part and parcel of HOW our country was taken over.

Maybe it is inconvenient for you, but most of us can handle more than one thought at a time.

Don't do that. You're better than that, I'm sure.

Now, about Levitt's research.............

but K12 has no obligation to keep him employed. Radio stations have no obligation to give a forum to air his views. Just my 2c.

<snip>

K12 Insider

From the Experts
History from the Start
John Holdren, K12 Senior Vice President of Content and Curriculum

The pharaohs of ancient Egypt
The Great Wall of China
Chariot races in the Roman Forum
Medieval knights in shining armor
The code of the Japanese samurai
Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Washington crossing the Delaware

Each a fascinating topic with a compelling story behind it. But in schools, children rarely encounter these topics until middle or high school. Typically, the elementary grades pass over the study of History in favor of Social Studies—lessons that, more often than not, focus only on the family, the neighborhood, the community.
While there is value to learning about local focuses, the Social Studies approach sells children short. It fails to acknowledge a child's natural curiosity about the world beyond the self and its surroundings.

K12 believes there is another way. Don't pass up the opportunity to teach History from the start. History is a gateway that opens young minds and imaginations to far-off lands, distant times, and diverse peoples. The stories of the past should be an integral part of every child's curriculum. Knowledge of the past prepares us to understand the present and shape the future. By knowing the main lines of human endeavor, and by exploring how people have lived and how civilizations have developed, young people are better prepared to do everything from reading a newspaper to appreciating a painting and casting an informed vote.

For young children, K12 emphasizes the story in history. Stories help children understand and retain basic ideas about distant people and times, about how diverse peoples and civilizations have changed over time, and how some have stayed the same. These stories include great men and women as well as common folk. They are stories of high ideals, enduring achievements, tragic failures, and ongoing struggles.

What should we include in the story of the past that we tell to young children? K12 History proposes a detailed sequence of topics, based in part on recommendations from E. D. Hirsch, Jr.'s Core Knowledge Foundation, and from Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer's' The Well-Trained Mind.

While guiding children through an exploration of our rich human past, K12 History focuses on aspects that are key to understanding human civilization. Civilization, as distinct from prehistory, begins with the building of cities and the development of writing. Civilization around the world has taken many different forms over the past several thousand years.

To understand these variations, one needs to understand certain major themes, including the following:

How geography influences settlement
How human beings have ruled and organized themselves
What people have believed about the divine
What stories people tell in literature and myth
What has been accomplished in science and technology

There are many ways that K12 brings the past to life for our children—through picture books, historical fiction, primary sources, creative projects, and more.

Children are fascinated by stories. K12 uses the power of stories to help your children understand their world's past and its connection to their future.

<end of snip>

http://www.k12.com/insider/experts.html

Stories....like the stories which Bill Bennett spins on his radio talk show. I don't think I'd want my kids exposed to stories rather than facts.

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1128348241200061.xml&storylist=cleveland

Outcry prompts former education secretary to delay appearance
10/3/2005, 9:56 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

CINCINNATI (AP) — Former Education Secretary William Bennett has postponed an appearance at the University of Cincinnati because of what he called a "willful distortion" of his remarks about aborting black babies.

Bennett said controversy stemming from his "Morning in America" radio show last week would detract from serious discussions of issues. College Democrats at the university had said they would protest Tuesday's scheduled appearance.

"The current controversy that has arisen around comments I made on my radio show, based on a willful distortion of what I said, will take away from the serious discussion I wanted to engage in with the students and community at the University of Cincinnati," Bennett said in a statement released Sunday by the UC College Republicans.

While answering a caller's question, the author of "The Book of Virtues" took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up...

Now off to Reno with you

Send him to Monte Carlo instead.

Dr. Bennett, in a separate statement said: "I am in the midst of a political battle based on a coordinated campaign willfully repeating my views, my record, and my statements. Given the controversy surrounding the remarks I made on my radio show, I am stepping down from my positions at K12, so that neither the mission of the company, nor its children, are affected, distracted, or harmed in any way except for the children I have aborted in an evil eugenics scheme."

person who appeared in continual photo-ops with the Bush family during the night-morning of the 2000 election and was the person designated to go before the camera to speak for the family. He was the one who who appeared on nationwide tv to report that Gore had not won after all and that it appeared as though Bush won Florida, therefore the election.

This morbid, droning, self-proclaimed moralist who usually appears as a guest expert on morality and who puts-down every single Dem who is in the news was actually smilint. (He was famous for his frequent pompous rantings on Bill Clintons immorality in the 90's.)

How Notre Dame or any other institute can tolerate him is beyond me.
He is a most disgusting creature because of his hypocrisy, pompous ravings, and his arrogance.

The plus here is that they have a huge hole in their solidarity on abortion.

He personifies most of the Bush regime. Good show, Bill!

It comes out sometimes even though they try to act differently. Maybe Bush will finally slip.

More babies having the same opportunities when they grow up would be a solution to lowering crime. And then when people get really rich, there must be controls on corporate crime, too.

to be going after the "black vote".

heh..

idiots.

he finds he's too much of a liability for a company that has to contract with schools in the real world.

Seems straightforward racist bs to me. Racist, elitist, etc. Don't think politics plays into it.

if he is forced out of all of his "jobs?"

Just my opinion.

I was looking forward to them becoming known as KKK12.

resignation . . . they did nothing wrong . . . it was distorted, taken out of context, blah, blah, waaahhhhhh.

They claim it's what everybody is thinking, just no one else is saying it because of PC (per Limpballs). Sorry, but I never thought of using abortion to totally eliminate a race of people. I think only a pathologically-ill mind would have those thoughts.

Limpballs talks so fast anymore I'm just waiting on the day it will slip. He has already called Mayor Nagin Mayor Nagir and quickly corrected himself. They had it on Media Matters a day or two after the levies broke.

His time will be coming. He cannot help himself. Plus, shouldn't he be retiring sometime soon anyway?

they were going to boot hs fat ass

Bennet said what he said, and then the same ole' b/lame excuses: "political distortions," bla-bla-bla...

Bennett: "Buh-bye." "Don't let the door hit ya on the way out."

Your self-destruction over the past 24 months has been a bright star in a dark sky.

haha that'll be the day. I'm betting it will only serve to boost his ratings.

Take O'Reilly. He spouts off CONTINUOUSLY about how the "secular left" in this country wants to see the demise of good christians and morals and ethics and blah blah. Then he goes and gets caught having phone sex with an unwilling co-worker, while he's married by the way....and quietly pays the hush money to keep it out of court AFTER he loudly insisted he'd fight it....and he keeps his radio slot.

Then let's take good old Rushie. He used to spout off all the time about how white guys who do drugs should do the same time as blacks caught with crack. I will supply the actual quotes if desired. One of them involved "sending them up the river". Then he gets caught....well, you know.....and is Rushie "sent up the river"? Nope. He still has his radio slot.

I could go on and on.....like Dr. Laura for example, who had poronographic images of herself surface recently....and this is the woman who proclaims loudly that porn degrades women and goes on and on about all the "good, decent, moral conservatives" like herself.

Still has her radio show.

Then we have the criminals and crooks who were actually caught being hypocrites BEFORE they got their radio shows!! Like Liddy!

Please. Give me a break. The Amerikan sheeple eat this stuff up like candy and listen to these assholes even more.

America is waking up and working against the right wing extremists on the airwaves. See http://belfries.tripod.com/michaelgraham.htm

I'm talking about the big boys, this guy had a much smaller demographic to answer to.

None of the big league players have ever been reprimanded in any serious way for the most aggregious violations of their own purported views and values, much less for any insulting comments. As has been said perviously by another poster, Rush is a great example of this, since he's been given a get out of jail free card many times over during his career.

I think Bennett may have crossed the line with this one, and since he did'nt really have that large an audience to begin with it's easy for the major radio outlets to write him off. Time will tell. I'm just saying it would'nt surprise me in the slightest if this got swept under the rug and he stays on the air. The ugly truth is there actually exists a large demographic out there that actually supports what he said.

I have always had a hard time figuring which chicken and which egg is first. On optimistic days I think that this right wing propaganda is being shoved down peoople's throats, and there is a lot of evidence for this (for instance, a brief scan of the right wing talk shows that fill the airwaves of liberal San Francisco, or just the Rupert Murdoch/FOX monolith). On pessimistic days I think of all the Freeper "support the war" types that were in force when the mass murder on Iraq began, and I realize how easily the historically amnesiatic US population can be led -- and want to be led -- to ugly, self-defeating extremes.

ly-correct types keep banging away at you,they've been causing trouble for years,we need philosophers like you to think through these tough issues'.

http://www.bennettmornings.com/

Fascinating man.

Way Dick Armey did when he called Barney Franks "Barney Faggot"?

Maybe what he really was trying to say was that if we APPROVE all black babies crime would be reduced. Just a thought.

:bounce: :applause: