David Safier, Former BfAZ blogger: Bodine Depiction of Garcia Book “Wrong”

If there were a hall of fame for Blog for Arizona writers, David Safier certainly would occupy a premier space. David wrote over 3,000 posts here before moving on to his current gig at Tucson Weekly’s The Range. His posts here covered many topics, but mainly on his passion, education policy. His posts always were thoughtful.

After reading Larry Bodine’s hit piece on David Garcia’s book, “School Choice,” David reviewed the book himself and wrote his own piece at The Range, A Review of David Garcia’s Book, “School Choice”.

Here’s Safier’s take:

Bodine’s depiction of the book is, in a word, wrong.

In other words, David agreed with Brahm Resnik’s characterization of Bodine’s piece as a “gross distortion.”

Safier went a bit further than Resnik:

Of the people who have had a chance to read the book and comment on it in the media, I probably have the most experience reading education books. I have amassed a significant number of postgraduate units in the field, and I’ve continued reading education works, ranging from blog posts to articles to books, on a daily basis. Though I have expressed my support for Garcia, I also know how to read these kinds of texts for content and possible political leanings without letting my personal opinions interfere.

What Garcia has written is a book on the history of school choice beginning in colonial days and continuing through 2017. It is meant to be an objective overview of the subject, and it succeeds in that regard. If I had never heard of David Garcia and read this book, I wouldn’t know his personal opinions on the subject. Though it is written for general consumption, it would be a valuable book to assign in any college course on the history of education, from Education 101 through graduate school.

Safier also noted that Maria Polletta at The Arizona Republic has reviewed Garcia’s book, and sees Bodine’s hit piece the same way he and Resnik do.

In my previous post regarding the Bodine hit piece, I was wrong about something as well. I suggested there that Blog for Arizona might owe Garcia an apology, and asked readers to comment. Mike Bryan appropriately corrected me in the comment section:

This blog does not owe anyone an apology. The author will do what conscience dictates, but the blog is merely a forum, not a monolith.

Well put, Mike.

But, you see, Mike missed something as well. The author, Larry Bodine, actually already had done what his conscience dictated. Upon seeing my post, Mr. Bodine reposted his hit piece, in order to enhance it’s visibility in relation to my post. That’s called doubling down. It’s something Trump often does after a clear mistake.

But perhaps after reading David Safier’s column Mr. Bodine will have a change of heart.

Here’s hoping.

15 thoughts on “David Safier, Former BfAZ blogger: Bodine Depiction of Garcia Book “Wrong””

  1. I wasn’t going to post this, I really wasn’t, but my fingers have been taken over by external force (probably because this is about Larry Bodine.)

    Please forgive me for straying from the original topic.

    Okay, start here. To follow this you don’t even have to read the article, but it’s actually quite good:

    As goes Billy Kovacs, so go Pima Democrats

    Updated Aug 7, 2018, 10:30 am Originally posted Aug 6, 2018, 11:15 pm

    http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/080618_dems_op/as-goes-billy-kovacs-so-go-pima-democrats/

    • The first person to comment on this article was none other than BfA’s Larry Bodine. The link he provides takes you to his own article on this blog.

      Larry Bodine Aug 7, 2018, 5:11 pm

      Blake, you’re dreaming about Billy Kovacs, a cute rich kid whose mommy and daddy are paying for his campaign. For a reality check read Ann Kirkpatrick Says Economic Growth, Healthcare, Gun Safety Will Win Back Tucson’s CD2 Seat at https://goo.gl/BM3Drf

    • Well, a number of folks did not take kindly to Mr. Bodine’s remark including Mr. Kovacs who also left comments on the article.

      Mr. Kovacs also posted his comments on Facebook along with a link to the article. And guess who shows up to comment (double down)?

      Facebook:

      Larry Bodine So Billy, admit that you are running a vanity campaign. What do you plan to do after the primary?

      Mr. Kovacs responds:

      Billy Kovacs OK I will engage. The fact that you consistently reference my looks is very troublesome to me. If I were a female candidate would you still reference me as a “vanity candidate”? Or let’s go back to your most recent comments about me being a “sexy beast” I’m not sure what’s been going on in your life the last few months, but it seems like you should take a sexism training class or just a class on being a decent person. As for what I’ll be doing after the primary…I’ll be getting ready for the general election. If you’re interested we might have some intern positions available for our communications department, but you’d have to pass a sexism training course first. ‍♂️

      Here’s the link to the FB comments. No love here for Mr. Bodine.

      https://www.facebook.com/billy.kovacs/posts/815295517387?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D

      • Mr. Kovacs also clarifies that his parents and family are not paying for his campaign. He has invested 40K of his own money from his salary.

    • So, Democratic Precinct Captain Mr. Bodine (aren’t they supposed to be neutral during primary season?) is hawking CD2 candidate Ann Kirkpatrick and writes disparaging remarks about at least one other candidate. And I’m not even counting Mr. Yuksel.

      Mr. Bodine’s credibility is right at zero, IMO.

    • I don’t know why you weren’t going to post it. It’s something you absolutely should post.

  2. Well, if I had to guess, I would say that an apology from Mr. Bodine is not forthcoming. Yesterday he tweeted a link to his own newsletter where he lists the three “Top Stories on the Blog for Arizona.” His post about David Garcia’s book is listed first.

    Source: Twitter

    Larry Bodine @LarryBodine

    Here is the new Getting Active in Local Politics – https://mailchi.mp/4cde14ceb24b/getting-active-in-local-politics-upcoming-events-1181649 … – your definitive list of progressive meetings in Tucson.

    4:03 PM – 13 Aug 2018

    • Also, if you were to look at Mr. Bodine’s Twitter account, you will notice that he has 20,089 followers. Yes, that is 21K. That’s a lot.

      It is also interesting that his Garcia article has 748 Facebook shares just from this blog. So who knows how many times it has replicated itself out there. I think he might have set a record for BfA.

  3. The plot thickens! When Bodine asked me to read the book he said he had read it, although I don’t think he read very much of it, given that most of his (quite uneventful) quotes which he reproduces as if they somehow constitute ammunition, are from the early pages. But wait, there is more intrigue here than I thought! So Bodine was also or is also a Synema supporter? AND an Anne Kirkpatrick supporter? Wow! So not only is this ant-Garcia piece an amazing hit piece masquerading as some form of research and intelligence , but it was written by someone who represents that Dinosaur sector of the Democratic party that thinks that continuing along the path Democrats have always been on (i.e. endorsing someone who votes 50% with Trump in some sort of sick attempt to both be a Democrat AND prove to the right that she is one of them) is a winning strategy. Funny thing, that very strategy, of reaching toward the right/center just lost us the Presidential race, both houses of Congress and many of the governorships in the country. How much more can we lose before we start to think that maybe, just maybe, the better margin is to reach to the left, where the non-participants, young people and Independents might be who could actually move the Dinosaur out from underneath!

  4. Larry Bodine banned a progressive voice and supporter of this blog, Wileybud, because Wileybud shared a satirical column by someone else that was critical of Kyrsten Sinema.

    There was no warning to Wileybud, and again, Wileybud was sharing someone else’s satirical column.

    But Mr. Bodine didn’t like his candidate being questioned.

    It’s not my blog, AZ and team can do whatever they want, but liberals pride themselves on being factual and open minded, writing deceptive articles and banning satire isn’t a good look.

    #NoWileybudNoPeace

    • Thanks, Liza.

      But it could be that bravery is akin to freedom here (as Janis Joplin so famously told us, “another word for nothing left to lose”).

      🙂

  5. Sanity, from David Safier.
    I called out Bodine when he first published his hit piece on Garcia, and I did it because Bodine hadn’t even read Garcia’s book!

    Here’s something else about “Blog for Arizona” I’ve noticed: On Facebook, posts by “Blog for Arizona” have multiplied aggressively, almost as an attempt to dilute attention away from this Bodine scandal.

    Nothing short of removing Larry Bodine from “Blog for Arizona” will be acceptable.

    Get it done.

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