Teachers Unions Worse than Nuclear War, Says Extremist Radio Talking Head

by Mike Hall, Feb 22, 2007

Over the years, we’ve all learned that we can count on sophisticated, nuanced and well-reasoned deliberations and arguments from extremist talking heads and radio hosts—the Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs and Laura Ingrahams of the world.

Just kidding. Some of their rants are so off the wall and weird, it stuns you.

There was such an episode the other day. It made you stop and think to yourself, “Astonishing! How did he come up with that? What a mind!”

Appearing on Fox News’s high-brow “Hannity & Colmes” show, radio host Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity were exploring the problems in the nation’s education system when Boortz lasered in on what he says is the real enemy of education—teachers unions. In fact, he says, teachers unions “are much more dangerous than al Qaeda!”

Look, al Qaeda, they could bring in a nuke into this country and kill 100,000 people with a well-placed nuke somewhere. OK. We would recover from that. It would be a terrible tragedy, but the teachers unions in this country can destroy a generation….They are much more dangerous. We worry about al Qaeda, and we should. But at the same time, let’s not let the teachers unions escape.

(Take a look for yourselves; the folks over at Think Progress have the video.)

Sadly, the teachers-as-terrorists argument is not new. In 2004, former Bush administration secretary of education, Rod Paige, called the National Education Association (NEA) a “terrorist organization.” (Click here and here to read more from NEA and here for a look at Paige’s latest attack on teachers in an about-to-be published book.)

John at AFT’s Let’s Get It Right blog says:

To appreciate the feebleness of Boortz’s reasoning, all you have to do is look at his easy dismissal of the effects of a nuclear attack. “OK. We would recover from that.” What would the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have said about Boortz’s dismissive statement, even decades after the bombing of their cities? Boortz thinks a nuclear bomb is something to be shrugged off, and, just as stupidly, he thinks America’s teachers support something akin to terrorism.

On Edwize—New York City’s United Federation Teachers (UFT) blog—Leo Casey writes:

A number of our union brothers and sisters died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Some of the dead were members of our state affiliate, NYSUT. Others were first responders—police, fire, EMTs—who gave their lives in a valiant attempt to save others. In a number of cases, these responders were the literal brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters of UFT members. They all died in the public employee union tradition of service for others. We take great pride in being part of that tradition, and of doing our best to continue it in our daily work.

It would be foolish to believe the red-meat tone of the reactionary radio and TV scream machine will ever be dialed down, even a notch. Maybe it’s not about the ratings. Maybe they even believe some of this stuff.

If they do, that’s scary.

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