Downplaying Relationship With Ayers

The mainstream media are of course collaborating with Barack Obama in his 
efforts to downplay his relationship with Bill Ayers, to cooperate with 
Obama in his efforts to dissociate himself from Ayers and to portray Ayers 
as a former radical turned respectable. Thus Tom Brokaw referred to Ayers 
this past Sunday on Meet the Press as an educational reformer.

Sol Stern will have none of it. In "The bomber as school reformer," Stern 
writes:

     Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph 
Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, 
consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter 
covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a 
great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For 
instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with 
President Hugo Chvez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for the 
profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the 
leadership of President Chvez. We share the belief that education is the 
motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue 
to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create 
something truly new and deeply humane. Ayers concluded his speech by 
declaring that Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of 
educationa humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are 
enlightenment and liberation, and then, as in days of old, raised his fist 
and chanted: Viva Presidente Chvez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta 
la Victoria Siempre!

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