Earlier this week, civil rights activist DeRay McKesson was named the “interim chief human capital officer” for Baltimore City Public Schools. The position is responsible for the recruiting and hiring of teachers in other staff in the school system.
Here is how Fox News covered the announcement:
Baltimore school district hires ‘Black Lives Matter’ leader to recruit teachershttps://t.co/j3zj7Mh5sn
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) June 30, 2016
Here’s what Fox News does in this short segment.
1. Says he will make the leap from “leading protests against police to recruiting school teachers.”
2. Describes him as a “Black Lives Matter leader and failed mayoral candidate.”
3. Shows a picture of him getting arrested.
4. Reveals he will be making $165,000 per year
Here is what Fox News does not do: list his actual qualifications for the job.
Before McKesson rose to prominence as an organizer of Black Lives Matter and founder of Campaign Zero, a policy initiative to eliminate racial inequity and police violence, McKesson was the Senior Director for Human Capital for Minnesota Public Schools. In that role, he served as “Interim Director of Talent Acquisition, including the design and implementation of a teacher selection model, design and implementation of the school leader hiring model, and reform of district office hiring processes resulting in 500% increase in applicants and 200% increase in early teacher hires,” according to McKesson’s LinkedIn page.
Before moving to Minnesota, Mckesson spent two and a half years working in human resources for Baltimore City Public Schools, first as a Human Capital Strategist and then as the Special Assistant for Human Capital. In the latter position, he managed all day-to-day operations of the office.
He also spent more than a year as the Training And Resource Manager for The New Teacher Project, an organization dedicated to improving teach quality for minority students.
McKesson also has teaching experience, spending two years as a 6th grade math teacher in Brooklyn with Teach for America.
Fox News leaves all of this out, creating the desired reaction from its audience:
https://twitter.com/saeversole/status/748495912335511552
McKesson was hired on an interim basis. He is likely to serve in the position until the fall while Baltimore City Public Schools conducts a nationwide search to fill the position.
“We have no time to waste. Every day in class is precious for our students, and every school must be ready to go when the opening bell rings,” Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises said in a statement.
Fox News has a history of attacking McKesson and the Black Lives Matter movement. In an appearance last year on Hannity, he was called a “race pimp.” The network has also described Black Lives Matter as a “murder movement” and a “hate group.”