Interview

Charlie Rose interviewed Davis Guggenheim, who directed the documentary "Waiting for Superman," about the state of American public education, and why it's the way it is. He is a self-described left-liberal, who won the Academy Award for the Al Gore global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Hollywood just loved that movie.

[Davis Guggenheim is an Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. His credits as a producer and director include Training Day, The Shield, Alias, 24, NYPD Blue, ER, Deadwood, and Party of Five and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for ‘Superman’.]

The subject of this film is the biggest tragedy and scandal in American society, the entrapment of generations of poor and minority kids in failing urban school systems. Guggenheim did not set out to do so, but he ended up taking on the school bureaucracies, the teachers unions, and the Democratic Party. Hollywood does not love a film like that.

"Waiting for Superman" was frozen out, not even nominated for Best Documentary by the Academy. If you watch the interview, it's apparent that Charlie Rose had been primed with criticisms of the film, but Guggenheim skillfully avoids confrontation. It is also obvious that Rose is not entirely comfortable with the subject matter, as we see him gutlessly turn the discussion away from the entire subject of teachers unions and Democrats. Liberals cannot afford to go there, and he doesn't -- more hard-hitting journalism from "public broadcasting."

Byron