J$P Instant Transcript! The Fox News Watch panel discusses coverage of teacher Jay Bennish.

From Fox News Watch, March 11 2006:

ERIC BURNS [FOX NEWS]: It's time now for our quick takes on the media. Headline #1: "Teacher's Turn". Jay Bennish, the Colorado teacher whose student made an audio tape of him comparing President Bush to Hitler in the classroom, took his case to the media this week. He appeared on NBC's Today show on Tuesday to talk about all the coverage of his remarks.

[VIDEO]: MATT LAUER: The reaction you got, is it what you expected?

JAY BENNISH: From the students? Yes. From the national media and the attention from people all over the country, obviously not. [END VIDEO]

BURNS: Neil, is it what you expected?

NEIL GABLER [MEDIA WRITER]: Yes, actually. This is the case, it's very instructive, a case of a non-story becoming a story. Because the parent, the father, went to a right-wing blog. Then they gave the audio tape to a right-wing radio show. The right-wing media flogged this story as another example of left-wing infiltration into our schools. Then the mainstream media were bullied by the right-wing media into picking up the story. And therefore, something that is of no interest, really, to anyone outside of this small school district is now a national story on the Today show. We're talking about it here.

CAL THOMAS [SYNDICATED COLUMNIST]: I'm very concerned about restricting free speech. I'm on the teacher's side on this one, to the extent that the answer to offensive speech is not less of it, it is more of other kinds. Now the Colorado school system has a policy about fairness and balance. Maybe this teacher didn't give that, but he should be required to do it. He shouldn't be put on paid leave and suspended, however. And I'm very suspect of what the kid did and the father: immediately going to the conservative media to make some big point, rather than to go through the system in the educational department.

JANE HALL [AMERICAN UNIVERSITY]: I think it's problematic in that you have the young man on Hannity and Colmes, and you have the teacher on the Today show. I thought Matt Lauer was too easy on him, saying, "were you basically set up?". But then the young man goes on Hannity and Colmes and he gets only his side across.

JIM PINKERTON [NEWSDAY]: As Jay Ambrose of Scripps-Howard said, Jay Bennish pretends to be a teacher, and Matt Lauer pretends to be a journalist on this. I'm with the kid. I think--

GABLER: So what does Hannity pretend to be?

PINKERTON: Well, you can answer that one. I'll just say that this is an illustration of what Glenn Reynolds has in his new book, An Army of Davids. It is the fact, bloggers, tape recorders, are making a huge difference in the media, and this case proves it.

BURNS: Is Jay Ambrose related to Ambrose Bierce? Rhetorical question. Quick take headline #2....