Talk:William Bennett

Removed this part for reasons of comparative irrelevancy:

Bennett has delivered numerous speeches at various colleges and universities in the United States, including Harvard University and Hillsdale College.

Most likely due to his background as an educational administrator and for conservative views, he served on the search committee that selected Dr. Larry P. Arnn as President of Hillsdale College.

Populus 14:10, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)

How about putting something in that say Bennett is often asked to speak at colleges ? Smith03 14:14, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Fine with me. I just thought that making selecting a new president of Hillsdale Bennett's crowning achievement looked odd. Populus 14:28, 20 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Not to polarize, muckrake, or troll, but I believe this is worthy of mention: This week (late September 2005) Bennett was on some talk show where the conversation turned to a supposed link between the increased number of abortions in the U.S. and the decreasing crime rate. Bennett said he found no reason to believe such a link existed. Unbelievably, though, he went on to say that he believed if every African American fetus in the country were aborted, the crime rate would plummet. (He qualified this by saying that actually committing such an act would be deplorable.) I heard the tape of Bennett making this statement played on the radio this morning, as well as a tape of an MSNBC commentator condemning it, so I'm pretty certain the exchange took place, but thusfar I've been unable to locate a transcription or any other mention of it on the web. I think this is big enough that it ought to be added to the article if it can be confirmed and sourced. 4.236.78.231 13:48, 29 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

To add to the comment above... all one needs is to look to the September 29 2005 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. During the daily finale known as "Your Moment of Zen," Bill Bennett's suspect comments are clearly audible. Read more at Media Matters for America

Bennett has noted that he did not intend his comments to be racist, but it is suprising that a politician could be so clumsy in making a statement that can clearly be interpreted as racism or advocating (ar at the very least, agreeing with the central premise of) eugenics. The broader discussion of the correlation, if any, between crime and the rate of abortions in the U.S. remains controversial however, and probably deserves its own article on Wikipedia. (found it under Legalized abortion and crime effect, adding internal link to the William Bennett article in the relevant section)

RudolfRadna 18:04, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

default article for Bill Bennett

Can we make Bill Bennett the default article for a period of time? I came here after reading a news story, but found the Canadian politician instead. We could put it back after a while. It might give more visibility to this article so it can be cleaned up.

151.198.54.170 13:59, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Clean up

I did a major clean up, but while I was working on it new edits were made by others. I tried to incorporate the new stuff best I could. Also, although I left it in, I'm not sure whether the controversy over the abortion discussion is about linking abortion to crime or about Bennett's apparent opinion that crime is caused by black people. Perhaps we should leave the stuff at the end out? Dyfsunctional 19:06, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I just went back to the page an hour or so later, and the "Controversial Comments" section has become POV, sloppy, and decidedly un-encyclopedic. (I don't ever remember seeing datelines in Funk and Wagnalls.) Can we please agree to be concise and factual? And while we're at it, can we skip the "this just in" jazz? This is an encylopedia, not a news wire. Dyfsunctional 20:01, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

==Kudos==

I popped in expecting to see something far worse. I think, at least as it stands at the time of this post, it's fair and evenhanded. Let's all hope it stays that way!Big Daddy 10:16, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]