You know you're in trouble when you start quoting panelists from one of your own recent events on the first page of your report and fail to tell education and media little that they don't already know for several more. You know you're in trouble (with readers at least) when you spend a lot of time interviewing the program officers who funded the project about what they already knew when they sent you out to learn something more. You know you're in trouble when your "new education media" report omits mention of controversial new developments like The Hechinger Report and ends with a rousing defense of the old media and a handful of generic wish-olutions. You know you're in trouble when you tout your own organization's pageviews and the total -- 175,000 over 18 months -- is laughably low.
Yes, it's true. Given the chance to provide some keen insight and new information, this second Brookings report on education media is just as obvious and forgettable as the first one -- nothing that any old blogger couldn't pull together with a bit of web research and a few conversations with some of the usual suspects. In fact, my guess is that's how it was done. Ostensibly authored by Darrell West, EJ Dionne, and Russ Whitehurst, the real work
