Rick Hess Just Makes Stuff Up

How do you rise to the top of the eduwonky world? Make stuff up.

Look at Rick Hess: since returning from his "hiatus," he's posted ten times on his blog. The posts include:

- A made up interview with an "insincere reformer," lamely attempting to mock the critics of corporate reform.

- A made up Twitter exchange between several known voices in the reform debate; none of the quotes appear to be verbatim.

- A made up conference call transcript between the Chiefs For Change.

Oh, and Rick also posits that John Merrow is secretly in love with Michelle Rhee, which explains why Merrow is "obsessed" with reporting that Rhee obviously knew about the possible extent of the cheating scandal in Washington while she was chancellor, yet chose to do nothing about it. I'd say that counts as making stuff up, wouldn't you?

I'm all for paraphrasing and hypothetical dialog as a rhetorical device. But silly me: when I do it, I throw in tons of references and links so readers can make up their own minds as to whether my characterizations are fair.

I'd save myself a lot of trouble if I adopted the Hess Method: just make stuff up. I'll bet Education Week would give me my own column, and AEI would hire me as a "researcher" if I did...

Rick Hess (artist's conception)

* Again, totally stole that joke from Atrios. So sue me.