Media Fawning a Little Less When It Comes to Edu-Giving
A number of years ago, in my 2005 book With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education, I pointed out that media coverage of education foundations tended to be wide-eyed and sycophantic. At that time, I analyzed the coverage of the five leading edu-foundations by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, and The Associated Press between 1995 and early 2005. Researchers coded each story on K-12 giving as positive, negative, factual, or balanced. Of the 146 articles identified, just five were critical, while nearly half were laudatory.
On the one hand, who could blame the press? Wealthy individuals choosing to give away millions in order to benefit schools and children is a good thing. And, as I noted in Best of Intentions, there's a "natural inclination [for] journalists to frame stories about generous gifts in a positive manner" and for "newspapers to write positively about professionally endorsed school reforms." Meanwhile, I observed, "Reporters have a