Dispatch, Vardon Follow Liberal Talking Points on Jackson Character Assassination

Former OSU Quarterback Stanley Jackson thought he was volunteering his time and energy to improving the lives of Ohio's children. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of an overblown controversy that should have never gotten to this point:

The Kasich administration could not provide a resume yesterday for Jackson, whom it named late Monday afternoon to serve the final six months of an at-large term on the 19-member panel...

Jackson is Kasich’s eighth appointment to the state Board of Education in his 17 months in office, and his third of someone who has no education experience. Of the other five, two were former members of district school boards, one was a former district superintendent, one was a teacher and one worked for the U.S. Department of Education.

Of course, this mirrors the attacks coming from the most liberal Ohioans: none other than the infamously inappropriate and increasingly inaccurate Plunder-Pals:

Masters Preparatory Academy Charter School is not yet in operation in Ohio and the recently registered website (mpaam.org) lists Jackson’s home address in Marion as the organization’s location. Neither is it listed by the Ohio Department of Education as a prospective school that will be opening in the 2012-2013 school year.

In other words, the Dispatch, through reporter Joe Vardon, seems to be taking marching orders from Ohio's most liberally skewed blog instead of reporting the news. And not only that, but they're reaffirming their jaded and misguided talking points that somehow Mr. Jackson's lack of a college degree somehow precludes him from having anything substantive to add to his new position.


Never mind that Mr. Jackson, as a parent and rural resident, is actually qualified to fill the position, unlike his predecessor, Dennis Reardon (a resident of Pickerington, which is not a rural district), who was appointed by former Governor Ted Strickland simply because he was the head of the Ohio Education Association (i.e. the teachers' union).  Never mind that Jackson's appointment actually follows the rules and procedures of a gubernatorial appointment, unlike those of former Governor Ted Strickland, who's immense screw-ups prompted a political dispute in early 2011.

No, instead the Dispatch focuses on little more than straight liberal talking points, and, in their most recent story, leans on the liberal story line that Mr. Jackson's lack of a college degree is somehow newsworthy.  If we didn't know any better, we'd think this immense character assassination wasn't about a college degree, but Mr. Jackson's race--but we won't play that card (unlike some people).

In the end, it's seriously troubling that this story needs to even be written. Since when did American society require that a person have a college degree to succeed in life? What sort of elitist mentality is that? 

That's certainly not the America I grew up in.

Perhaps the Dispatch and the Plunder-Pals would like to explain to Henry Ford, Steve Wozniak and James Cameron that a college degree is a requirement for success.

Hell, Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright and Andrew Carnegie didn't even graduate high school. Does that somehow diminish their accomplishments?

Having a college degree does not make you any more or less qualified to be a leader and shape the hearts and minds of young children. It simply requires a commitment to the cause, and that's a commitment that Stanley Jackson exudes in everything that he does.

So unless the Dispatch wants to go on record saying that a college degree is necessary to be anything in this country, we suggest they stop with the character assassination. Or at the very least, stop taking their talking points from liberal disciples like the Plunder-Pals.

This isn't MSNBC after all...

Cross-posted at GOHP Blog.