First, bash the teachers

Writing on the Wall Street Journal editorial page (10/1/09) under the headline "How Teachers Unions Lost the Media," two education writers praised the press for turning on teachers, showing a "new attitude" that is in sync with today's politics: Editorial pages of major papers nationwide have begun to demand accountability for schools, despite objections from vested interests. Since the Obama administration took an unexpectedly tough line on school reform, the elite media response has been overwhelmingly positive. But it's hard to imagine that many people who follow the media would consider this much of a surprise. In fact, one of the first prerequisites for being deemed an education "reformer" by corporate media has long been an eagerness to bash teachers' unions"and it cuts across the usual liberal/ conservative lines. When someone like Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (7/13/10) declares that liberals oppose school vouchers "because they are protecting the teachers' unions," the only surprise might be his uncharacteristic restraint. Nominally liberal pundits like Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, who wrote (2/12/07) that Democrats are "wrong to kiss up to teachers unions," are hard to distinguish from O'Reilly on this issue.