Naturally, the media responded to Gorman’s “ban” claim by checking how true it was before regurgitating it… just kidding! The Miami Herald first reported Gorman’s post and it was quickly rewritten by other outlets who decried the ban as an assault on free speech. A selection of headlines includes the Guardian’s “Amanda Gorman ‘gutted’ after Florida school bans Biden inauguration poem”; MSNBC’s “Florida school bans Amanda Gorman poem over one parent’s CRT fears”; and USA Today’s “Florida school bans elementary students from reading Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb’ poem”

Like his comrades in the media, Cockburn is upset about the parent’s complaint. But the true threat from Gordon’s poetry isn’t that it will make our children hate America but that it will make them love bad poetry. Seriously, have you read “The Hill We Climb?” It’s like slam poetry without any of the excitement.