Daniel de Vise spins for the Washington Post

The Washington Post shows us a great example of how the news media misleads. The byline is by Daniel de Vise and the headline is: U-Va. takes major step in online education

De Vise states that

The leadership crisis that rent the University of Virginia last month arose partly out of fear that other elite schools were moving into the vanguard of a coming digital revolution, and that U-Va. stood to be left behind.

That argument, advanced by the leader of the university governing board, turned out to be based on a faulty premise. Almost no one on campus knew at the time the breadth of the collective investment that U-Va. was already making in online education.

This makes it sound as if the management of UVA, was already preparing plans to have the University go on-line in a big way but was keeping it a secret.

Today de Vise tries to walk back some of the talk about the “breath of the collective investment …” by admitting that the university’s interest in the on-line program was unknown to President Sullivan. 

 Sources at U-Va. said yesterday that they weren’t sure whether either Sullivan or Dragas knew of the Coursera talks. But it appears increasingly likely that neither woman knew.

If the president of UVA was unaware of the university’s interest in the initiative, how faulty was the premise of Helen Dragas and the board that UVA was not only not in the vanguard of the coming digital revolution, but was not even seriously considering it until the board made it an issue.

Suddenly, President Sullivan decided to sign an agreement – over the weekend – to have UVA participate on the Coursera partnership.

This sounds very much like Sullivan had to be dragged into the digital age. Daniel de Vise is busy spinning the story to make it appear that Sullivan, who the Washington Post supported during the controversy, had something to do with it.