What Gives Campbell Brown Standing to Spin the News about Public Education?
Campbell Brown is a former news anchor from CNN who has launched her own attack on teachers’ unions and established a web-based news service to report on public education.
Last July, Campbell Brown launched her education news site. She calls it The Seventy Four, for the 74 million children in school across America. The news website does not sell advertising and instead depends on philanthropy—donations from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Walton Family Foundation, Jonathan Sackler of Purdue Pharma (makers of Oxycontin) and founder of the far-right ConnCan and 50 Can. According to Inside Philanthropy, The Seventy-Four has an annual budget of $4 million.
Inside Philanthropy comments: “Sackler serves on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund and has been active in other charter school organizations. This is not Walton’s first foray into education journalism… Considering this array of funders, as well as Brown’s pro-reform stance, you can bet this new site will cover issues in K-12 education from the pro-reform perspective that has made Brown the target of criticism from teachers unions and their allies…”
According to the NY Times, Campbell Brown is married to Dan Senor, who was a foreign affairs adviser to presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Before that, Senor was President George W. Bush’s chief spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Senor has also served on the board of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst.
Brown’s other current venture is the national organization, the Partnership for Educational Justice, she has established for the sole purpose of filing Vergara-type lawsuits across the What Gives Campbell Brown Standing to Spin the News about Public Education? | janresseger:
