NBC'S LATE NIGHT MESS DEPT:
Conan O'Brien says he won't move to midnight:
"The murky mess that is NBC's late-night schedule got a little clearer today, as Conan O'Brien announced he would not host "The Tonight Show" at 12:05am to accomodate moving a shortened "Jay Leno Show" to 11:35pm. O'Brien, who took over the "Tonight Show" reins from Leno on June 1, issued a statement in which he explained "The Tonight Show" would no longer be "The Tonight Show" if it were moved back, and said he wanted no part in damaging what he considered the "greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting."
And who can honestly blame him? I still bet that O'Brien will move to Fox.
LIBERALISM AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS DEPT:
Maybe things are changing. Look at what liberal NY Times columnist Bob Herbert writes today:
"The president of the American Federation of Teachers says she will urge her members to accept a form of teacher evaluation that takes student achievement into account and that the union has commissioned an independent effort to streamline disciplinary processes and make it easier to fire teachers who are guilty of misconduct. In a speech to be delivered Tuesday in Washington, Randi Weingarten plans to call for more frequent and more rigorous evaluations of public schoolteachers, and she says she will assert that standardized test scores and other measures of student performance should be an integral part of the evaluation process. The use of student test scores to measure teacher performance has been anathema to many teachers. Ms. Weingarten is not proposing that they be the only — or even the primary — element in determining teacher quality. But she told me in an interview over the weekend that she wants to “stop this notion” that her membership is in favor of keeping bad teachers in the classroom. “I will try to convince my members that, of course, we have to look at student test scores and student learning,” she said....Ms. Weingarten’s ideas for upgrading the teacher evaluation process are good ones and should be embraced and improved upon where possible by those in charge of the nation’s schools. The point is not just to get rid of failing teachers, but to improve the skills and effectiveness of the millions of teachers who show up in the classrooms every day. If the union chooses not to follow through on these proposals, its credibility will take a punishing and well-deserved hit."
NY Times progressives calling for greater accountability for America's public school teachers! It's a welcome development.
OBAMA WATCH:
Three national polls have come out recently, looking at President Obama's job approval rating. The results? CNN has him at 51%, Gallup at 50, CBS at only 46%.
Again--my, how far he has fallen from a year ago, when the president was around 70%.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, apparently Rasmussen's next poll will have Democrat Coakley up by only 2 points.
