Teachers Gone Wild: The Video

As soon as word got out that left-wing geography teacher Jay Bennish would be appearing on this morning's Today Show, lots of people have been asking for a capture of the interview. We're here to please.

As Newsbusters notes, it's an embarrassing bit of fellation on the part of Matt Lauer.

Bonus: The Jay Bennish Pop Geography Quiz

h/t Malkin

[Watch video – 5:46, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 5:46, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Comments

[Craig Ranapia]

Jebus, that interview was softer than my cock after imagining Ann Coulter and Mike Moore making hot sweet monkey love...

[Myackie]

eeeeeew.

[Josh]

I'd like to offer an apology to my adopted state, but I really can't. The entire Denver metro area, stretching up to Boulder and down near the Springs, is just really fucked up in like that Desperate Housewives kind of way.

[Jamie]

I haven't seen any 20-minute clip like Cakeordeath references above, but in your clip, Robbie, the only thing I found offensive was when he said, "Point of views."

The correct expression would be, of course, "Points of view."

[Chad]

Jamie -

The clip the other Cake or Death is referencing is the orignal audio that the student recorded. Not the interview clip here.

[Craig Ranapia]

Jamie:

What I found really offensive about that interview was I've seen more hard journalism on E! or in one of Vanity Fair's celebrity fellating cover stories.

Here's a couple of pretty obvious follow-up questions that Matt Lauer failed to ask:

1) Can you describe precisely how and where you feel you've been "misrepresented"?

2) You've said that you think there should "probably be constraints" on what teachers say in a classroom. Exactly what do you think those constraints should be?

3) Have you ever "encouraged critical thinking" by throwing out extreme far right "points of view" about the status of women, ethnic minorities and homosexuals? Would you applaud a student who stood up and (say) tried to provoke "critical thinking" in black students by saying slavery wasn't such a bad thing? Could you ever see a situation where it would be appropriate to, say, stand up in front of your female students and opine the treatment of women under sharia law is a good thing? If not, why not?

4) Aren't you being just a wee bit naive about the power imbalance inherit in the student-teacher relationship?

5) And would you care to speculate about the political leanings of the media outlets you've been shlepping around, and did you decide to appear on those you thought would be sympathetic?

[Malcontent]

There's another Cake or Death?

[Malcolm Kirkpatrick]

My job, as a math teacher, is to get students to think critically about the subject. That's why I tell them that 6x7=93 and (a+b)-squared is a-squared plus b-squared.

My job, as a chemistry teacher, is to get students to think critically about the subject. That's why I tell them that all matter is composed of the four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water.

My job, as a Biology teacher, is to get students to think critically. That's why I tell them that giraffes developed their long necks by passing characteristics through stretching for leaves on to their offspring.

Right.

[Malcolm Kirkpatrick]

Jay Bennish, the HS-edition Ward Churchill. How long before some 4th grade teacher follows them down this path to fame?

[TC@LeatherPenguin]

Malcolm, he's not just a Churchill wannabe; Big Chief Ward's lawyer is representing this asshat too.

[Queer Conservative]

It would have been nice if Lauer had actually asked Bennish a question! Talk about leading the witness.

[Chad]

Mal, yeah... there's another Cake Or Death (out on the West Coast). He's hot. And his wife is hotter.

I honestly think that the you guys should consider using a rating system for the clips you show. Personally, I feel that one would've been NC-17 for the gleeful fellating Lauer gave the teach.

Journalistic pornography even Rather would be proud of....

[Vladimir Makovitsa]

His job is to to teach "alternative viewpoints"?

What a disingenuous hack. Pure Chomsky.

[Jamie]

I don't find his soft-pedaling surprising at all. The whole show is usually full of bullshit. But NOW you expect JOURNALISM from MATT LAUER??? It's not like we're talking Hardball, McNeil-Lehrer, or Crossfire, people. This is the fucking Today show. The package each guest nice and neat for sound-bite consumption by the viewers. Much like Talk Soup, imho.

[Tom]

Katie would have worn her "smart glasses".