May 10, 2021

This Teachers Union Leader Told Fox News How to Get Kids Back to School: “We Have to Stop the Misinformation.”

Screenshot/Fox News

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On Monday, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, appeared on Fox News to talk about plans for school reopening.

Appearing on The Story With Martha McCallum for an exclusive interview, Weingarten was asked when schools could move to teaching in person fully. She said Fox News could help: It needed to join with public health officials and combat misinformation about the vaccines.

“I would hope that Fox says to all these people that don’t want the vaccines, that think there’s a problem, ‘Why don’t you and I do things together to get our kids back to school?'” Weingarten said. “We have to stop the misinformation.”

When McCallum asked about the introduction of the 1619 Project—a New York Times series on the history and legacy of slavery in the United States—into the classrooms, the former social studies teacher didn’t miss a beat: “I would hope that Fox would be just as focused on let’s get rid of the misinformation about what happened in this election.”

“Oh come on, Randi,” McCallum responded. “I’m not gonna talk about that.”

But Weingarten held her ground while the Fox News host continued to try to bait her. “If you’re really talking about misinformation now, Martha, and I hope you are,” she continued. “I really would hope that Fox would really look at what happened in this election and how we can—because every social studies teacher is wrestling with this—discern fact from fiction, we have to do that.”

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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