How La Liberbad “Covers” Clemson
The credibility of South Carolina’s “mainstream” media took (or rather gave) another blow today as La Liberbad (a.k.a. The Greenville News) showed that it can perform journalistic fellatio on its hometown University every bit as well as La Socialista.
Seriously, people … “be true to your school” is fine and dandy if you’re humming along to the Beach Boys, but not if your job is to hold public institutions accountable to the people who are forced to pay their ever-escalating tabs.
Anyway, after a well-regarded higher ed magazine objectively exposed Clemson University President James Barker’s petty attempt to artificially inflate his school’s standing in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings – along comes La Liberbad “reporter” Anna Simon to help put out the University’s PR firestorm.
Simon’s headline?
“Barker rated Clemson below top score.”
Huh?
We suppose that’s accurate, but it’s misleading to the point of spawning a gag reflex – and it’s further evidence that the Greenville News isn’t interested in covering Clemson University objectively.
Barker indeed rated Clemson “below (the) top score,” but in giving his own school a 4 out of 5 on a U.S. News peer review survey, he rated the school ahead of every other University in the nation … including private schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford and public schools like Cal-Berkeley and Chapel Hill.
That’s right … nobody else got a “4″ from President Barker. Only lower rankings.
Clemson’s ongoing obsession with gaming the U.S. News rankings has produced reactions of shock and disgust from fellow educators, but not La Liberdad, which apparently views its role in this process as providing crisis management PR assistance to the Barker administration.
So much for explaining to Greenville residents why Clemson’s ridiculous obsession means that fewer of their children will get to go to college – or that the few who do will have to pay through the nose for the privilege.
As we’ve said before and will say again, rather than hiding behind so-called “standards” and “integrity” in spinning for what we believe, we at least put an “Unfair, Imbalanced” tag on everything we write.
That way you know we’re trying to convince you of something, which in this case was pretty easy to do …
Comments
By CNSYD on June 9th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
If you think Clemson is the only school to game the rules then you are truly Pollyanna. So let me understand your point. SC has abysmal education. It needs to improve. Clemson is trying to raise standards but that is wrong. It should dumb standards down. Did I get it right?
By Eric on June 9th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Um, CNSYD. You don’t raise standards by voting other schools down. You raise standards by actually raising standards (ie, hiring better teachers, producing better talent, making it more affordable and offering same results, etc).
Sic also reports on primarily SC related stuff which is why we browse his site. It doesn’t concern me what University of North Dakota is doing.
I’ve always had the philosophy that you can get ahead the right way (hard work, honestly, sound decisions), and you can get ahead the wrong way (by cheating/lying/stealing). Clemson is choosing the easier (latter) choice.
By CNSYD on June 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Eric, I was merely pointing out the whole process is a sham. If it is phony, then playing by phony rules doesn’t matter. Since you care not what other states do I guess you will continue to complain about SC higher education that our immediate neighbors to the north and south invest multiple millions more on than we do. Also I forgot how lily white USC east is/was in all things.
By bluetiger on June 9th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Just keep in mind, whatever gets Jim Barker’s name in the paper is what Jim Barker wants. It’s strange, you’d think he enjoys to wallow in this mud hole he’s created by the way he is generating more and more embarrassing stories about Clemson.
The man is just a foul rush of air. No feelings for familiies, no feelings for the Clemson Employees,no feelings for the taxpayers of South Carolina – one feeling, and that is the feeling of power, greed and ego that has seemed to consumed his only actions.
Clemson has been very strong for many, many years but, even a fine, honorable University can keep standing under the weight of such ugly performance by an Administration.
By Charleston Conservative on June 10th, 2009 at 12:39 am
“So much for explaining to Greenville residents why Clemson’s ridiculous obsession means that fewer of their children will get to go to college…”
I have no connection at all with Clemson. But, seriously, what’s wrong with high academic standards, i.e. more rigorous admission criteria? That’s the mark of a strong institution and will ultimately provide a better educated labor force for our state.
By Darth on June 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I concur with the yardbird. At least one of teh major skules has cheerleaders on its “hometown” fishwrapper’s editorial board. OTOH it is another symptom of the endemic educracy’s staph infections that seem to call for a bit of Jeffersonian bloodletting, pitch the appointed boards of trustees (as a Midlands ealtor once said he could buy his seat back after resigning over a football coach, though I don’t remember if it was Carlen or Dietzel, Rod do you remember?).
By Darth on June 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
BTW, didn’t USC have an infant terrible before Palms and Sorensen that had a few similar, albeit different issues.