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Rock Center With Brian Williams

January 9, 2012 by · Comments Off on Rock Center With Brian Williams 

Rock Center With Brian WilliamsRock Center With Brian Williams, After writing a controversial article criticizing Iowa, University of Iowa Professor Stephen Bloom appeared on a segment of Rock Center where he is interviewed by Brian Williams tonight. University of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom defended his harsh description of Iowa during a Monday night airing of the NBC news show, “Rock Center.”

Bloom has been heavily criticized for errors and mean-spritedness in his lengthy essay about why the Hawkeye State does not deserve the first in the nation caucus. It appeared last month on the Atlantic website.

“I’m sorry people don’t get it,” Bloom said in the broadcast, which can be seen here.

Bloom said the essay is his opinion, and that it is “satire” and “parody.” As interviewer Willie Geist pointed out, it is parody most people missed the joke.

The article has been widely panned throughout the state and online. The University of Iowa president released a public statement disowning Bloom’s view of Iowa, and four colleagues in the journalism school gave the essay an “F,” in a guest opinion.

Bloom, a tenured journalism professor, said while he knew he was “stepping into something,” he is surprised Iowans are upset. Bloom said the article raises “some unspeakable truths” and posed, “isn’t that what journalism is supposed to be doing.”

“It’s important to say those things. It’s an impression of what I get in the state of Iowa after 20 years,” Bloom said.

Kyle Munson of the Des Moines Register was also interviewed for the segment. Munson points out that some of the valid points raised are “buried under the way he has mangled some of the facts and the mean-spirited nature of his prose.”

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