This paper argues that we are currently experiencing a debilitating overload of political interference and media hyperbole in respect of teaching and teacher education, and that much of this blitzkrieg amounts to a "political spectacle" and blatant neo-liberal ideology dressed up as rational analysis. The politics of disparagement being unleashed on public education, and by association teacher education, is intended to laminate over the real issue, which is a cultural war over what is officially allowed to constitute teaching and learning.