The Nets: Only CBS Notes Duncan’s ‘White Suburban Moms’ Remark

Race and class comments spell network fodder any day – except when the topic comes to “white suburban moms.”

When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan blamed “white suburban moms” for opposition to the new Common Core school standards on Nov. 15, only CBS’ “This Morning” covered the story – devoting a total of 19 seconds to the controversy. Host Charlie Rose cited The Washington Post in the Nov. 19 report, and noted Duncan’s “apologizing” for the remarks that “sparked outrage on social media.”

Duncan’s comments came from a gathering on Friday, when he stated, according to Politico [1], “It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback [for Common Core] is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.”

The other networks, ABC and NBC, failed to report on Duncan’s comments. Additional news outlets, including the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and Politico, picked up the story – even if erroneously [2]