The brainwash begins early and it is subtle! The following links are to THE WEEKLY READER "election candidates" biographies. Compare and contrast and give your feedback. Is there any wonder that the Weekly Reader Election poll of our children picked Bush to win before the Nov. 2nd election???? The Kindergarten level vote ballots we received were even more subtle. I almost missed it until a 5 year old explained to me why he picked Bush. It was because Bush had an American flag behind him and Kerry did not. I have copied Kerry's bio. below for you: http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/kerry.asp
(What do you make of the closing sentence?)

Now would you like to read the lovely picture they painted of Bush?
http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/bush.asp




John Kerry
The Democratic Nominee

John Kerry's journey to the White House began in the rice paddies of Indochina. It was 1966, the height of the Vietnam War (1957-1975), when the lanky Yale University senior enlisted in the U.S. Navy only months before he graduated.
After spending several uneventful months aboard a guided-missile frigate in the Pacific Ocean, Kerry wanted to get into the thick of the battle. He trained to become the commander of a Navy "swift boat," a small gunboat that patrolled the rivers of Vietnam.
Commanding a swift boat was hazardous duty. Kerry rescued one crew member who fell into the water during a firefight and chased down on foot an enemy solider armed with a rocket launcher. The military awarded Kerry three Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in combat and two medals for courage under fire.
Kerry's experience in Vietnam shaped his political views for the rest of his life. The war had killed one of his best friends. Kerry returned home disillusioned, believing the U.S. government was fighting an unjust and wrong war. In 1970, Kerry was one of the most prominent spokesmen for the antiwar movement, becoming an instant celebrity when he asked members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
Instead of remaining angry at the government, Kerry used his newfound political skills to shape public policy in his home state of Massachusetts and later in the U.S. Senate. He used those same skills to seize victory from eight other presidential hopefuls during a bruising 2004 presidential primary season.By May, Kerry, the Democratic party's presumed nominee for president, was running neck and neck with President George W. Bush, a Republican.
A Loner
John F. Kerry was born Dec. 11, 1943, in a Colorado military hospital during World War II (1939-1945). His father, an Army Air Corps test pilot, was a patient at the hospital, recovering from tuberculosis, a lung ailment. Kerry's mother was a member of a prominent Boston family.
After the war, the family returned to Massachusetts. Kerry's father later became a diplomat, traveling with his family around the world. When Kerry was 10, his parents sent their son to a boarding school in Switzerland. As a boy of 12, Kerry liked to do things by himself. He biked through France, camped alone in England's Sherwood Forest, and took a ferry from Norway to England. His father grounded his son when Kerry snuck into communist East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. "When you travel alone at age 12, you gain confidence and self-reliance," Kerry told The Washington Post.
Kerry's parents later enrolled him at the prestigious St. Paul's prep school in New Hampshire. A former teacher at St. Paul's told The Boston Globe that Kerry, a consummate debater, was "one of the most brilliant people I've ever known."
Kerry was a chubby boy when he entered St. Paul's. Within two years, however, he grew into a tall and graceful athlete. He loved hockey, a sport he still plays today. In the winter, he enjoyed strapping on a pair of ice skates and racing across a frozen pond near the school. The family spent summers vacationing on Naushon Island, "my family's island" off Cape Cod. He once sailed on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island with President John Kennedy.
After graduating from Yale University and serving in Vietnam, Kerry received a law degree from Boston College. He became a prosecutor in nearby Middlesex County, taking on organized crime and jailing the number-two mob boss in New England. He also helped women who had been violently assaulted. In 1982, Kerry became lieutenant governor under Michael Dukakis. Two years later, Kerry won his first race for the U.S. Senate, a job he still holds.
Eyes on the Prize
Kerry's political ambitions were great. He had set his sights on the presidency.
Kerry's daughter Vanessa, 26, a Harvard Medical School student, told The Boston Globe earlier this year of an emotional moment when Kerry told her grandmother that he was going to run for president. "When my father told her, 'Mom, I think I'm going to run for president,' she smiled and said, 'It's about time.' "
First, though, he had to defeat a group of other Democrats during the primaries. At first, it was tough going. His opponents, including former Vermont governor Howard Dean, blasted Kerry for caring little about working families.
When voters spoke in the primaries and caucuses, however, they crowned Kerry as the Democratic party's standard bearer, hoping that the war hero, hockey player, guitar player, and experienced lawmaker could unseat Bush.
'I Want to Win'
Kerry wasted no time attacking Bush's foreign policy and the way the president and his advisors have handled the war in Iraq. Kerry also blamed the president for the sluggish economy and not doing enough to help children get an education.
If elected, Kerry promises to rebuild the standing of the United States in the world and help those most in need in this country. He's a strong supporter of veterans' issues and favors lowering taxes for the middle class.
He is working hard to achieve those goals. One day in Charleston, S.C., Kerry stretched out on a park bench and talked on his cell phone to a supporter. "We need your help, man," Kerry said. "Rally the troops. I want to win."

Reading both I get the distinct impression that the articles were written by campaign staffers, then either very lightly edited (if at all) by one OR seperate people.

The Kerry article seems underplayed and factual.

The Bush article reads like www.whitehouse.gov

Would be an interesting endevour to determine how WW produced the final products.

Then publish the "how we did it" result in a future edition as a lesson in editing.

I thought the Kerry article made our candidate sound BAD! Bush is made to sound like some kind of baseball hero.

Unreal ! The paragraph heading in Kerry's bio were not done by his staff-
"The Loner" ???!!!! All the titling is a turnoff to kids on Kerry and a turn on for Bush.

Here's the story about the publisher, from the same site:

"Welcome to Weekly Reader Corporation, a unit of WRC Media, Inc. Weekly Reader is an exciting company and a leader in the field of education. We are a publisher of materials for elementary and secondary schools, with over 90 percent of the school districts in the United States using our materials.

Weekly Reader Corporation, which began with the publication of the first Current Events on May 20, 1902, celebrated its 100th birthday in 2002. In that span of time, Weekly Reader publications have covered all the major events of the 20th century, from the Boer War to the election of George W. Bush.

The best known of Weekly Reader's publications is probably Weekly Reader, a newspaper for children in the elementary grades. This famous newspaper was founded in 1928 by Eleanor Johnson, then director of elementary schools in York, Pa., and a well-known reading expert. The first edition of Weekly Reader—one for the fourth grade—appeared in September of 1928. Other editions were added later, until, by 1959, there were papers for kindergarten through grade 6. A pre-kindergarten edition was added in 1980. Today Weekly Reader is the leading classroom periodical publisher, coming in seven grade-specific editions, and serving more than 7 million elementary schoolchildren in 50,000 schools. The company also publishes other branded periodicals and instructional materials, including Teen Newsweek, Read, Current Science, Know Your World Extra, and Current Health, Career World, and its founding publication, Current Events.

Visit the Weekly Reader Online Store for additional information about our products.

Weekly Reader was purchased in November 1999 by Ripplewood Holdings."

I agree. The Kerry section title, "Loner" sure didn't help nor did the reference to him being a chubby kid. I didn't notice any reference to Bush's physical appearance but did notice the "Like Father like Son" title.

It was biased, no doubt, right down to the photos, full out propoganda.

THANK YOU to PaineinTheArse, Pie, and Ultraist for reading and responding to this post. As Pie pointed out, W.R. is publisher to 90% of school districts in the U.S. Scary thought huh? These weekly magazines are taken home and shared with parents who proudly listen to their children read from them. Pie, I was also struck with the "loner" characterization of Kerry as well as his escapade in Europe. But what really got me the most was the closing sentence, which we know is the real clincher of any story:

One day in Charleston, S.C., Kerry stretched out on a park bench and talked on his cell phone to a supporter. "We need your help, man," Kerry said. "Rally the troops. I want to win."

Visualize this picture in your mind. Who do you think he was chatting with? RALLY THE TROOPS?
It makes him sound like a bum!

What about the company that owns The Weekly reader ?

http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=28828
bought division from Carlyle Group

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/61/61408.html
Ripplewood Holdings is making waves in the world of private equity investment. The firm manages more than $10 billion in capital, and invests in automotive retail, food manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, banking, entertainment, and technology; portfolio holdings include Direct Holdings Worldwide, Asbury Automotive, and WRC Media. Expanding its operations in Japan, the company bought Shinsei Bank, D&M Holdings, and ailing recording label Columbia Music Entertainment (formerly Nippon Columbia). Founder and CEO Timothy C. Collins' zeal for buying iconic Japan companies has elicited the wrath of Japanese industrialists fearful of foreign ownership.

Ripplewood was founded in 1995 by Tim Collins. Ripplewood currently manages five institutional private equity funds with approximately US$10 billion in total capital. To date the Firm has invested over US$2 billion in transactions with aggregate enterprise value in excess of US$12 billion and total revenues of US$12 billion. The Firm employs 45 professionals in New York and Tokyo.

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=121956
Ripplewood's hallmark is its focused Industrial Partnership investing style in which the Firm first identifies a promising industry segment and then partners with an experienced senior industry executive to search for attractive targets, complete acquisitions and implement post-closing value enhancements. Ripplewood has invested in 18 platform companies in a number of industries including auto parts, automotive retailing, consumer electronics, direct marketing, financial services, food and consumer products, music and entertainment, specialty chemicals, technology and telecom services.

http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavig...s%20Timothy%20C.
Collins Timothy C.

Chief Executive Officer, Ripplewood Holdings, USA

Ripplewood Holdings
The general partner of Ripplewood Interim Partners, Ripplewood Partners, RHJ Industrial Partners, and a special purpose fund for the acquisition of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan. Together with industrial partners, Ripplewood typically buys "platform" companies as core holdings, then pursues predefined strategies to support operating management and enhance the value of these businesses. It pursues friendly acquisitions, investing alongside managers who desire a meaningful stake in their business.

Personal Profile:
1978, Graduate, DePauw University; 1982, MBA, Yale University. 1974-75 and 1978-80, with Cammings Engine; 1981-84, with Booz Allen and Hamilton; 1984-90, with Lazard and Freres and Company; 1990-95, with Onex Corporation; 1995, Ripplewood Holdings formed and currently, Chief Executive Officer.

I am not finding any links to Buchco folks yet.

Anyone else out there better at researching than I am ? This is really an upsetting post by
Kindergarten Teacher- esp if you went to the link and read the actual copy........

FYI-------
"I wanted to be WIllie Mays," Bush said.

Still, nobody was surprised when "Dubya" put down his bat and headed down the campaign trail.

He also had a playful side. As a third grader, he donned imitation Elvis sideburns, a goatee, and a mustache-prompting laughs from his classmates and paddles from the principal.


George W. Bush
The Republican Incumbent

George W. Bush didn't always want to be president. Growing up in Midland and Houston, Texas, he had his heart set on an entirely different career-baseball. "I wanted to be Willie Mays," Bush said.
Bush played Little League as a child and continued to play baseball through high school and college. During his freshman year, he was a pitcher for Yale University's team. Many years later on, he became a general manager for the major-league Texas Rangers.
Still, nobody was surprised when "Dubya" put down his bat and headed down the campaign trail. After all, his father, George H.W. Bush, was president from 1989 to 1993, and his grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a widely respected U.S. senator from Connecticut. Even his mother, Barbara Pierce Bush, has presidential ties-she traces her family tree back to Franklin Pierce, the nation's 14th president.
As the nation's 43rd president, Bush launched an international war on terrorism and toppled Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq. Now Bush has taken on a new battle: the 2004 presidential race.
Like Father, Like Son
George W. was born July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Conn., where his father was attending Yale University. When the Bushes moved to Texas a few years later, young Bush quickly fell in love with the Lone Star State.
Although he was not an outstanding student, Bush's former classmates remember him as smart, with an excellent memory. He also had a playful side. As a third grader, he donned imitation Elvis sideburns, a goatee, and a mustache-prompting laughs from his classmates and paddles from the principal.
After graduating from a private high school on the East Coast, Bush headed to Yale University, his father's alma mater, to study history. Shortly before he graduated in 1968, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard to become an F-102 fighter pilot, like his father. At that time, U.S. soldiers were fighting in the Vietnam War (1957-1975). Bush never served in combat. After his discharge in 1973, Bush enrolled in Harvard Business School, where he earned a master's degree in business administration.
Bush then headed back to Texas to find his fortune in the oil fields. He started his own oil business by buying and selling leases on oil land.
Meanwhile, he struck it rich on the home front when he met Laura Welch, a librarian and teacher, in the summer of 1977. The two married after a three-month courtship. A few years later, Laura gave birth to twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara. The girls are named after their grandmothers.
Bush and his wife spent the first year of their marriage on the campaign trail. Bush made his first bid for public office in a 1978 congressional race. It was not an exciting campaign-Bush and the incumbent, Kent Hance, apparently agreed on almost every issue. Bush lost to Hance and returned to his oil business, which soon foundered because of a plunge in oil prices.
In 1989, Bush went back to baseball. He became part owner and general manager of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He helped transform the team from a cellar dweller into a contending baseball club. He also built a new ballpark for the Rangers in Arlington, Texas.
Election Fever
Politics, however, continued to claim Bush's attention. He served as an aide in his father's 1988 and 1992 presidential bids. He learned the ins and outs of politics while working alongside his dad.
Armed with that experience, Bush decided to run for governor of Texas in 1994. He won over voters by focusing on his Texas roots and his concern for everyday issues. He called for tough prison sentences and low property taxes. In the end, he beat Texas's popular Democratic governor, Ann Richards, by a wide margin.
In 1998, Texas voters elected Bush to a second consecutive term-the first time that happened in state history. Bush's popularity in a major state quickly made him a front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2001.
However, Bush's road to the White House was not smooth. Then-Vice President Al Gore proved to be a strong contender, and the presidential race turned out to be the closest in U.S. history. It took five weeks of recounting ballots in the state of Florida, which Bush won by slightly more than 500 votes, and a highly controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision to determine a victor. Bush became the first presidential candidate in more than a century to win the presidency while losing the popular vote.
That wasn't his only "first." Bush is also the first son of a president to get his dad's old job since John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams) did it in 1824. He's also the first president to have fathered twins.
Bush started by working on massive tax cuts and pushing his "No Child Left Behind" legislation, which created tests to evaluate schoolchildren's knowledge.
Then, just eight months after Bush took office, the country was transformed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As the nation mourned, Bush declared a war on terrorism. He attacked the terrorist network Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which was harboring Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. After routing the Taliban, Bush set his sights on Iraq, which he accused of having weapons of mass destruction. By December 2003, Bush had toppled and captured Saddam Hussein. In the months that followed, U.S. troops worked to transform Iraq into an independent, self-ruled democracy.
If reelected, Bush has vowed to continue the war on terrorism as long as it takes to ensure Americans' freedom and safety. He has said he would also work to make his tax cuts permanent and would continue to improve schools and further develop the Department of Homeland Security, which he organized after the terrorist attacks.

[COLOR=purple]Small bingo:
http://www.weeklyreader.com/corporate/new....story=3046.html

go to site to see pictures !

"LAURA BUSH RECEIVES WEEKLY READER FOUNDER'S AWARD

Student Magazine Publisher honors Mrs. Bush in Celebration of 100th Anniversary

Leander, TX —August 22, 2002 —Mrs. Laura Bush was awarded the Weekly Reader Founder's Award today in a ceremony at the newly opened Laura Welch Bush Elementary school in Leander, Texas. Weekly Reader, the leading classroom periodical publisher, serving more than 11 million schoolchildren from pre-K through high school, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Martin E. Kenney Jr., CEO of WRC Media, the parent company of Weekly Reader, presented the award to Mrs. Bush and thanked her for her dedication and enthusiasm in supporting reading. "We chose Mrs. Bush to be the recipient of our Founder's Award because of her background as a teacher and librarian and for her continued and longstanding commitment to literacy and the fundamental gifts that it brings to learners," said Kenney.

The Weekly Reader Founder's Award is named for Charles Palmer Davis. In 1902, Davis created Current Events to help schoolchildren understand the world beyond the one in which they lived. Today, Current Events is one of sixteen periodicals published by Weekly Reader available for students in grades pre-K through high school.

The Weekly Reader presented Mrs. Laura Bush with the first Weekly Reader Founder's Award for her dedication in promoting reading. The Weekly Reader, which consists of 16 classroom periodicals for grades pre-K – 12th grade is celebrating its’ 100th anniversary this year. Mrs. Bush was also presented with an album of Weekly Readers covering both Bush presidencies. Pictured on left is Peter Esposito, General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Weekly Reader Corporation; Mrs. Laura Bush and Martin E Kenney, Jr, CEO of WRC Media.


Weekly Reader also presented Mrs. Bush with "Touching the Lives of America's Students: The Bush Family as Reported by Weekly Reader," a compilation of 67 Weekly Reader articles chronicling the Bush administrations from 1988 - 2002. "We felt the Bush family would enjoy seeing how students have learned about both Bush presidencies through the pages of Weekly Reader," said Peter Esposito, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the Weekly Reader Corporation. This is the first Weekly Reader Founder's Award. In May 2002, Weekly Reader presented the Charles P. Davis Award to CBS 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt for his contributions to educating the public in current events. "

__________
of course the award to Hewitt kind of balances this out....... I am still looking to see how such an unbalanced article could be given to our school children !

Pie, you've already done a great job of digging up what you posted already. I'm glad someone else is as disturbed by this as I am. This has been festering with me for a long time, and I just wanted to put it out here and see if anyone else agrees with me.

(in reference to your post)
"I am not finding any links to Buchco folks yet.
Anyone else out there better at researching than I am ? This is really an upsetting post by
Kindergarten Teacher- esp if you went to the link and read the actual copy........"

By the way, two weeks ago I received the January Weekly Readers for my Kinder class. The presidential innaguration booklet is a surprise......and SO QUICKLY PRINTED AND SENT! :o

I have to log out and get some sleep now. I hope more of you find interesting connections.

http://www.thinkbox.com/about/wrcnewpress.html

"THINKBOX LICENSES ACCLAIMED EARLY LEARNING PROGRAM TO WRC

Leading education company gains broad rights to the award-winning
Kindle Park™ early childhood curriculum program.

New York, NY - February 24, 2002. ThinkBox Inc., a leading creator of children's educational media, and WRC Media Inc., the leading supplementary education publisher today announced a new agreement that secures for WRC long-term rights to ThinkBox's Kindle Park™ Early Learning Program. Since 2000, WRC has distributed the Kindle Park program to public schools through its CompassLearning division. Kindle Park helps educators meet the demands of the new No Child Left Behind legislation by addressing early reading, language, and literacy development within an integrated curriculum. The groundbreaking curriculum program is currently being used by thousands of young children in preschool, kindergarten and first grade settings all over the United States. ............"

Here it is: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND !!!!!!

One might safely assume WRC wants to keep getting lucrative gov't contracts ?

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._17/ai_57614588

WRC Media Inc. Becomes One of the Largest Supplemental Education Companies With the Closing of Its Acquisition of Primedia Inc.'s Supplemental Education Properties
Business Wire,  Nov 17, 1999  

read this one and weep some more

-------------

http://www.compasslearning.com/about_us/release.asp?id=4

All-State Education Assessment Tool Released

CompassLearning™ Releases CompassLearning Explorer™ Only Product on Market That Meets All NAEP Standards

July 30, 2002
For Immediate Release


San Diego, Calif. (July 30, 2002) - CompassLearning, Inc., a scientifically-based research technology learning solutions company that produces and provides assessment, curriculum, and management tools for grades pre-K through 12, has released a new solution, CompassLearning Explorer™. The company is part of WRC Media, Inc.

An assessment tool designed to help evaluate student performance, CompassLearning Explorer meets all of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standards and can be adapted by all states to align mandated testing to local, state, and national criterion. CompassLearning Explorer will help educators nationwide fulfill the No Child Left Behind assessment and accountability standards. ..............

----------------

This one is going to make me cry !!!!!!!!!!! :
(again I recommend going to the site to read this- it is aimed at our TEENS)



http://www.weeklyreader.com/teachers/newsw...er_story_06.asp

Titled : MUDSLINGING Getting down and dirty on the campaign trail

President George W. Bush's campaign airs a political ad in late September showing Sen. John Kerry windsurfing. What's the message? "In which direction would John Kerry lead? … Whichever way the wind blows."

A political ad on the Web site of the independent group MoveOn.org shows footage of Adolf Hitler, comparing the president to the Nazi dictator. What's the message? "What were war crimes in 1945 is foreign policy in 2003."

This election campaign has been described by many observers as the nastiest in recent memory. But memories are short-and nasty campaigns have a long history. The first, and one of the most vicious, was the 1800 race between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. There was enough "abuse and scandal," Abigail Adams commented, "to ruin and corrupt the minds and morals of the best people in the world."

Still, the 2004 campaign stands out for several reasons, not the least of which is the cost. So far, John Kerry and George W. Bush have spent about $250 million on television advertising and $2.6 million on Web ads. Since March, voters have seen more than half a million political campaign ads, the bulk of them airing in swing states where more voters are undecided. New organizations that are not affiliated with either campaign have also entered the political debate. Groups such as MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have spent millions on some of the most vicious attack ads in this election.


The medium
"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal … is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process." That was Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson's opinion of televised political ads in 1956.

By contrast, his opponent, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, embraced the new medium. In 1952, his campaign aired the first political ad. The 20-second spots ran during popular TV shows such as I Love Lucy. Eisenhower's campaign slogan "I Like Ike" remains one of the best remembered in U.S. political history.

In 1968, presidential candidate Richard Nixon remarked to television producer Roger Ailes, "It's too bad a guy has to rely on a gimmick like television to get elected." Many believe that Richard Nixon lost the 1960 campaign to John F. Kennedy because, unlike his rival, Nixon didn't look good on television. Ailes shot back, "Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it."


The message
Political ads are propaganda, designed to appeal to the emotions as much as the intellect. With just 30 seconds to get a message across, a political ad usually focuses on only one issue. Key points are repeated to drive the message home, but the main goal is to connect with voters emotionally. The method is not unlike commercial advertising, but these ads are selling much more than cereal.

"We're talking about things that are very fundamental to people's lives: the quality of schools, whether we're going to go to war or not," says Democratic media consultant John Franzén. "That's not selling soap."

In this election, Franzén says, ads are being produced and aired faster than ever. Candidates are responding to attacks sometimes within hours. And that can be important.

"It used to be, many years ago, that you didn't grace an attack with a response, because you give credence to the attack," says Franzen. "Campaign people have recognized the power of an attack that's left unanswered."


New messengers
This is the first election since the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act took effect. The act aimed to limit campaign contributions such as those made by unions, corporations, and wealthy individuals. But special-interest groups found a loophole. They formed so-called 527 groups. In this election, such groups have raised millions of dollars. They have also produced some of the harshest attack ads of the campaign.

The McCain-Feingold Act requires political candidates to personally approve the messages in their ads. Now, in cases where facts prove false or attacks seem unfair, candidates can no longer say they didn't know about the ads' content. The ads run by the 527s, however, are not part of any candidate's official campaign. And some have caused quite a stir in this election.

For instance, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is a 527 funded in large part by a wealthy Republican donor. In August, the group ran ads suggesting that John Kerry didn't deserve the medals he was awarded during the Vietnam War. The ads stated that Kerry wasn't under enemy fire when he saved a man's life. The news media picked up the story and investigated Swift Boat's claims. They turned out to be false, but Kerry's campaign took a hit.

Similarly, the 527 group MoveOn.org, which received millions from a wealthy Democratic donor, ran TV ads accusing Bush of failing to do his duty in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Again, the media picked up the story. A source gave CBS News documents supposedly proving that Bush's service record was shaky. CBS used this new "evidence" as the basis for a television news story, but the documents turned out to be false.

Many voters say they dislike negative campaigns. So why do political organizations continue to run them? Research shows that people are more likely to remember negative ads, says Lewis Mazanti, curator of the University of Oklahoma Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive. "There's not any imagery that's off bounds anymore," says Mazanti. "The negative ads have been proven to be effective. They wouldn't be using them if they weren't going to work."


a feeble attempt to appear unbiased if I ever saw one

WRC is cornering the market and trying to reach all age groups:

grade school: Weekly Reader

teens: Teen Newsweek

young adults & college:

World Almanac Education Group Inc., publisher of the World Almanac and the Book of Facts, is launching a new line of educational books targeted for young adult readers.

The World Almanac Library, based in Milwaukee, will draw upon the World Almanac's database of information to provide authoritative, in-depth information on key curriculum-related and high-interest topics of importance to students.

The new imprint will publish only nonfiction, and its first 18 titles will be released in fall 2001. More than 50 new titles are slated to be added in 2002, and 75 additional titles are expected the following year.

World Almanac Education Group is a division of WRC Media Inc., a New York City-based educational publishing and media company.

© 2001 American City Business Journals Inc


Additionally, I found an op-ed letter from a college professor who used a WRC Almanac as a
reference to back up his conservative claims.

Kindergarten Teacher, methinks you have opened a can of worms here !

Thank you Pie once again for your interest and research into this post. I believe that parents and teachers are not yet aware of this GIGANTIC MASS DECEPTION. The children of America are being manipulated politically, and they will soon be voting! Does anyone else want to jump on this?

Kindergarten Teacher: I guess there are only a few people here who are concerned about the attempt to indoctrinate our children. What a shame, as our children are our future. So what happens in next few years, when these youngsters become voters? I hate to think of the consequences!

Bye, bye blue. Bye, bye purple. Hello, Red.

From coast to coast.

Pie, it is because there are just so many issues important to us as a result of the success of the Rove/Bush/RightWing/Conservative/Religious/AntiLiberal/WarMachine/blahblahblah that we are running all over the place like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off. "They" were very successful in networking to all interest groups including the nation's kiddos. It will continue until we wake up to the subtle brainwash they are putting out. The Dem party must start being proactive instead of reactive! I still can't get over the bio on Kerry that Weekly Reader did. They made him sound like a dangerous person!

That is what I think. In addition, notice how they focused much more on bush's education and minimized Kerry's whichi is more substantial.

I also wonder about the comment stating the bush's friends considered him smart. Funny they didn't mention that his economics professor would give him a failing grade in his plan for the country!

Brainwashing our children............hmmm............ Thank you for bringing our attention to this. Great research here on this too. I had pretty much been ignoring the Weekly Readers. Not any more!

This can of worms needs to be opened wide! Let's get the word out---point it out to PTAs/PTOs, principals, teachers, parents, media.

The far right explodes with indignation over school and library books and curriculum all the time. Let's fight fire with fire!

Game on!

EUREKA! Now we understand why WEEKLY READER'S Presidential vote picked Bush before the election took place! I was really puzzled by it when it came out over the Internet and Television news. I wish you all could have seen the student election ballot for the kindergarten students. Now I'm wondering what the others were like for the other grades. I remember reading that the 8th grade was the only grade that picked Kerry. What was THAT about? Would Keith Olbermann be interested in this? (I hear he is into journalism. lol) OH HO! AND GUESS WHAT? The link below no longer works. Thanks to Pie for doing a copy and paste somewhere above. I have copied a snippet of it here. Yes Pie, the pictures were great. Too bad we can't see them any more!

http://www.weeklyreader.com/corporate/new....story=3046.html
go to site to see pictures !
"LAURA BUSH RECEIVES WEEKLY READER FOUNDER'S AWARD
Student Magazine Publisher honors Mrs. Bush in Celebration of 100th Anniversary
Leander, TX —August 22, 2002 —Mrs. Laura Bush was awarded the Weekly Reader Founder's Award today in a ceremony at the newly opened Laura Welch Bush Elementary school in Leander, Texas. Weekly Reader, the leading classroom periodical publisher, serving more than 11 million schoolchildren from pre-K through high school, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Martin E. Kenney Jr., CEO of WRC Media, the parent company of Weekly Reader, presented the award to Mrs. Bush and thanked her for her dedication and enthusiasm in supporting reading. "We chose Mrs. Bush to be the recipient of our Founder's Award because of her background as a teacher and librarian and for her continued and longstanding commitment to literacy and the fundamental gifts that it brings to learners," said Kenney.
The Weekly Reader Founder's Award is named for Charles Palmer Davis. In 1902, Davis created Current Events to help schoolchildren understand the world beyond the one in which they lived. Today, Current Events is one of sixteen periodicals published by Weekly Reader available for students in grades pre-K through high school.
The Weekly Reader presented Mrs. Laura Bush with the first Weekly Reader Founder's Award for her dedication in promoting reading. The Weekly Reader, which consists of 16 classroom periodicals for grades pre-K – 12th grade is celebrating its’ 100th anniversary this year. Mrs. Bush was also presented with an album of Weekly Readers covering both Bush presidencies. Pictured on left is Peter Esposito, General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Weekly Reader Corporation; Mrs. Laura Bush and Martin E Kenney, Jr, CEO of WRC Media.
Weekly Reader also presented Mrs. Bush with "Touching the Lives of America's Students: The Bush Family as Reported by Weekly Reader," a compilation of 67 Weekly Reader articles chronicling the Bush administrations from 1988 - 2002. "We felt the Bush family would enjoy seeing how students have learned about both Bush presidencies through the pages of Weekly Reader," said Peter Esposito, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the Weekly Reader Corporation. This is the first Weekly Reader Founder's Award. In May 2002, Weekly Reader presented the Charles P. Davis Award to CBS 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt for his contributions to educating the public in current events. "

The students at my son's elementary school get TIME for Kids. Here is the bio they did for JK. It seems better than the WW one to me. You be the judge. The TIME for Kids poll also had the kids picking Bush to win. I guess JK seemed too mature for them.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election04/cand-kerry.html

I do not understand why the site for Weekly Reader has been cleared of all content on the front page !!!!????

Can anyone with computer savvy help me out here ?

The Time coverage was more balanced, on the whole.

But check out this game: "Who Nose?"

It's Willie Mays again VS Swiss boarding school.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election04/whonose.html

Thanks for bringing my attention to this most interesting website soccermom. I spent some time on it looking at both the Bush and Kerry biographies as well as each of their messages to students. Then I clicked on each of their websites. WOW! Was that ever an eye-opener! Anyone reading this post will want to compare and contrast this one. Holy Moley!
Here is the Bush website that was posted:

http://www.georgebush.com/

You don't even want to see the Kerry website. But if you really want to, go to soccermom's timeforkids link above and find it on Kerry's page. Like I said before, Dems have to get their act together FAST!

Pie click on:

http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/articles/previous.asp

Here you will find the ELECTION CENTRAL ARTICLE ARCHIVE

(Readers here on CGCS will fiind these articles most enlightening as they will be rotfl I'm sure.)

As for their front page, it has been updated and nowhere can I find the "Laura Bush Weekly Reader Award" story. Perhaps they got nervous and pulled it. lol Pie, now it is you who has opened a can of worms. And you didn't think it was relevant. Ho!Ho!

On this link you can access the rest of the election info they have posted.

soccermom, I love a challenge. I cannot judge this one but I wanted to find out more about "Time for Kids", and since it is owned by Time inc. I went to their website and cruised around. I found the bio page for their CEO. VERY INTERESTING!

http://www.timewarner.com/corp/management/...ns_richard.html

Richard Parsons has held various positions in state and local government. He was counsel for Nelson Rockefeller and was Senior White House aide under President Gerald Ford. Click on the link. ENJOY!

Probably too late at night to send this back to page one, but here goes anyway:
BUMP!

The following link might help to get a better understanding:

target='_blank'>


http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...showtopic=10718

All the best
Roger

I work as an administrator in a school where the kids get Weekly Reader. I'm apalled at the subtle manipulation of young minds. Most of the kids at our school have parents deployed to Iraq, from Ft. Hood's First Cav division. They are frequently not allowed to watch media news because of the events in Iraq, to keep them from distress. In fact, this year, for the first time, we didn't encourage our fifth graders to do newspaper projects on the election due to the same thing, at parent's requests.

I guess we all felt the Weekly Reader would not be so biased. Some of our teachers take the Scholastic newspaper for students. I'll have to see how their coverage was.

NEW CAN OF WORMS OPENED! (MAYBE IT IS TIME FOR A NEW TOPIC SUBJECT CONNECTION)

RICHARD PARSONS is President Bush's SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSION CO-CHAIRMAN

On C-SPAN this morning I watched the "White House Economic Conference-Federal Budget.....Conference"

Richard Parsons spoke about privitizing Social Security. At the end of the conference as Bush was leaving, he gave Parsons a pat on the back.

I hope interested CGCS readers see this program when C-SPAN reruns it.

President Bush has a big debt to pay to his friends on Wall Street for getting him re-elected and now it is pay back time.

Moderators and interested readers, should this post be linked to the thread on Social Security Privitization?

Time has picked Bush for MAN OF THE YEAR. Time Warner's chairman and CEO is Richard Parsons.

Richard Parsons is also: President Bush's Social Security Commission Co-Chairman and Advocate for Social Security Privitization.

EUREKA!!!!!!!!!

http://www.timewarner.com/corp/management/...ns_richard.html

This topic is becoming even more interesting. Goodbye Social Security!

Solve et Coagula: I am not sure what your point is here. I skimmed over your posts at the link you gave- can you be more specific as to how you feel it relates to the discussion here ?

At first glance, I wondered if you were telling us to give up on trying to see if our children are being brainwashed with biased material........... but I am not sure that was your intent.

BTW , I noticed you live in Switzerland- a beautiful country with a direct democracy.
I have visited many times and have always had a most pleasant experience.

Dear pie

I thought it might help to get a better understanding in general terms about educating young peoples. But, you're right according to "brainwashed children with biased materia", there is not a big connection. Sorry, my fault...

Thanks for your nice words about switzerland. I wish to all people of the United States of America all Love, Wisdom and Truth of Eternity!!!

All the best
Roger

[COLOR=purple]Thank you for your interest, Solve et Coagula.

You had many good thoughts on your link/post- like trying to be kind and generous to others,
and the fruitlessness of violence.

What do you think of this thread and the way we believe that our media may be trying to
influence our children to support the neocon agenda ?

And thank you for your well wishes toward Americans- same to the Swiss !

Time Magazine is just a part of Time Warner

which is the parent company of:

America Online

Time Warner Cable

Home Box Office (HBO)

Turner Broadcasting System

Warner Brothers Entertainment

New Line Cinema

Time, Inc. (130 magazines)



maybe this should be posted under some other topic- like FCC allows
media control & saturation

Dear Roger aka Solve et Coagula,
While brainwashing children with biased material may not seem like a big connection, consider for a moment brainwashing adults. In our rapidly changing American population we now have an explosion of foreign immigrants coming to our country and the challenge to educate our diverse learners is a serious enough task. I wish to thank you for your interest in our country and our quest for "Wisdom and Truth of Eternity" as you so well put it in your own words above.
Sincerely,
Kindergarten Teacher

:o

Dear Kindergarten Teacher

I absolutely agree!

Lwwb
Roger

I use www.wikipedia.com for biographies. There is a similar tool at DU called "demopedia", but I've not used that much.

The official government websites have gobs of (biased) information about member of the executive branch. CAUTION, they capture your IP address (see my posts via searching for www.whitehouse.org).

Evelyn, right after 9-11 we were informed by our school administration that we were not to use our cable television in the classroom. Soon after that the plug was pulled. We used to be able to watch the education channels, however now we just use the VCR. As for the Weeky Reader issue bias, this is the last year of W.R. for my class. Next year we will subscribe to Scholastic Magazine for Kindergarten.

Do you think that Kerry is bit of a "loner?"

The point is not really if Kerry is a loner or not. "Loner" is a very subjective word which was used as a title to part of the article.

Try to remember being a little kid........ or even a teenager. "Loner" was a word that denoted
someone weird- a misfit........ and definitely someone you did not want to be like.

Now, when describing Bush as wanting to be a baseball player and not president, we have instant appeal in the minds of the young. Every young child knows about baseball- and has probably dreamt of being a good player. Not very many kids dream of being president. Additionally, we have an appeal to minorities with the use of "Willie Mays" as a subject.

The article on Bush was masterfully written to have broad appeal to children. The article on Kerry was written in a way that was not at all appealing to children.

Of course, we do not know who wrote the articles, etc.- but any good and unbiased editor would have seen that the articles were more balanced. It would have been just basic and simple good journalism to have done so.[/COLOR]

Dear Mac2,
In answer to your question at the bottom of page two of this post, NO, I DO NOT think Kerry is a bit of a loner! Here is the sentence where it appears in the "Weekly Reader" (John Kerry-Democratic Nominee) biography. You can find the entire article on the first post of page one of this thread of Brainwashing Children.


A Loner
John F. Kerry was born Dec. 11, 1943, in a Colorado military hospital during World War II (1939-1945). His father, an Army Air Corps test pilot, was a patient at the hospital, recovering from tuberculosis, a lung ailment. Kerry's mother was a member of a prominent Boston family.
After the war, the family returned to Massachusetts. Kerry's father later became a diplomat, traveling with his family around the world. When Kerry was 10, his parents sent their son to a boarding school in Switzerland. As a boy of 12, Kerry liked to do things by himself. He biked through France, camped alone in England's Sherwood Forest, and took a ferry from Norway to England. His father grounded his son when Kerry snuck into communist East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. "When you travel alone at age 12, you gain confidence and self-reliance," Kerry told The Washington Post.


This is the fifth of thirteen paragraphs.


There are three subtitles in the article. They are:

A Loner
Eyes on the Prize
'I Want to Win'

The opening sentence goes:

John Kerry's journey to the White House began in the rice paddies of Indochina.

The closing sentence speaks of him resting on a park bench talking on his cell phone to an unknown party and telling him/her something to the effect of, Hey man I want to win...rally the troops.

Under the subtitle "Eyes on the Prize" we read, "His opponents, including former Vermont governor Howard Dean, blasted Kerry for caring little about working families."

Mac2, this article does not paint a good picture of someone running for president. Does anyone here disagree with me?

Sincerely,
Kindergarten Teacher

John Kerry, it seems to me, is nothing if not a complex individual. In a sense he certainly is a loner. As to the overall article, I'm not so sure that its poorly written.

I don't disagree with you as to if or not it is a poorly written article. I see it as biased, to suggest that Kerry is/was not the better of the two candidates. My question to you is why you feel that he is a loner. Could you elaborate a little please? lol (This is not a trick question.) I'm just a little curious about how others perceive him.

The article is not poorly written in a grammatical sense. It is the fact that the article is written to make Kerry sound like an anathema to children that is the problem.

In contrast Bush's bio has two headings:

"Like Father Like Son"

"Election Fever"

Now, what kid, especially a little boy, does not want to be like his father?- this is a strong positive to a child.

It is the contrast between the two articles that is most disturbing.

I wonder how many people here would call themselves a loner. What is your perception of a loner? Is John Kerry a loner? If you are a reserved and intelligent person who values privacy are you a loner? Who would like to answer this question? Come on guys, don't be shy! Do you think John Kerry is a loner?

It seems to me that everything about John Kerry suggests a "Loner"; his mannnerisms, his choice of recreational activities, and his Senate background. To my mind this is not necessarily bad.

Hey Mac2, thanks for your answer on this post! You are not alone in your thinking. I did several searches using "John Kerry the loner" and got tons of hits on the topic. They are all very anti-Kerry however, and this one has the flavor of how they read.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1149698/posts

(This post is a zinger!)

Here is a snippit:

"If John Kerry wins in November, his life’s narrative will be an easy one to write: no one likes him. He’s a loner with few friends, none of them close friends. It has been that way his whole life."

In December 2001 AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin announced plans to retire in May 2002 and declared that Parsons would succeed him. The move surprised many media watchers who assumed that AOL Time Warner chief operating officer Robert Pittman would take the helm. Also in 2001, President Bush selected Parson to cochair a commission on Social Security. In addition, Parsons worked on the transition team for Michael Bloomberg, who was elected mayor of New York City in 2001.


http://www.timewarner.com/corp/management/...ns_richard.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0886570.htm

Still there..



LAURA BUSH RECEIVES WEEKLY READER FOUNDER'S AWARD

Student Magazine Publisher honors Mrs. Bush in Celebration of 100th Anniversary

Leander, TX —August 22, 2002 —Mrs. Laura Bush was awarded the Weekly Reader Founder's Award today in a ceremony at the newly opened Laura Welch Bush Elementary school in Leander, Texas. Weekly Reader, the leading classroom periodical publisher, serving more than 11 million schoolchildren from pre-K through high school, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Martin E. Kenney Jr., CEO of WRC Media, the parent company of Weekly Reader, presented the award to Mrs. Bush and thanked her for her dedication and enthusiasm in supporting reading. "We chose Mrs. Bush to be the recipient of our Founder's Award because of her background as a teacher and librarian and for her continued and longstanding commitment to literacy and the fundamental gifts that it brings to learners," said Kenney.

The Weekly Reader Founder's Award is named for Charles Palmer Davis. In 1902, Davis created Current Events to help schoolchildren understand the world beyond the one in which they lived. Today, Current Events is one of sixteen periodicals published by Weekly Reader available for students in grades pre-K through high school.

http://www.weeklyreader.com/corporate/new....story=3046.html