In unraveling the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, a new term emerged that goes far beyond slanting news to favor one side: “coalition media.” It goes beyond bias. Apparently there are reporters are who don’t just slant the news, they make themselves assets in moving the progressive narrative forward—including by attacking conservatives.
We saw this when we learned that many members of the media knew for a couple of years that Biden was not operating with a full deck, but they covered it up and called it a “Republican lie” because they didn’t want to do anything to help former President Donald Trump get re-elected. After the June 27 debate, when it became clear that Biden was likely to lose the election, these “coalition media” reporters worked with Democrats to switch course, reverse the cover up and generate public pressure to get him off the ticket.
Recent reports reveal that Vice President Kamala Harris had been cultivating a network of “coalition media” which allowed her to move quickly, once the switch at the top of the ticket was made. That’s why we currently have so many “news” reports insisting that Harris never was the border czar, never opposed fracking or ending private health insurance, never supported ending the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal or increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 35%.
Coalition media is not limited to the national stage, although it is not always easy to spot more locally. But a recent headline in the Texas Tribune provides some insight on how “coalition media” has worked in Texas. The headline read, “Most Texas adults support school vouchers, new survey finds.”
This poll finding was not really news—and certainly not worthy of such a headline. A majority of Texans have supported school choice for a years, but the coalition media has usually been able to obscure that fact by challenging survey wording or emphasizing that even though people may support it, the issue is not a top priority—like, say, world peace.
The Tribune headline, which was echoed in several local Texas newspapers, refers to the latest poll from the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston and Texas Southern which showed that 65% of Texans support providing parents with a voucher to pay or help pay to send their child to a school other than the public school they are assigned to.
To undercut the message, the Tribune added a sub-headline assuring readers that “most respondents agreed with arguments against paying for private schools with public funds.” The pollsters did not actually include that data point in their analysis, so we assume the “coalition media” created it to suggest that the issue is still controversial.
One thing the Hobby survey found was that the coalition media’s efforts to demonize school choice was no longer potent. For starters, the Hobby poll showed that the public reaction to the term “vouchers” is not toxic anymore, even though it has long been used by the media to denigrate school choice. “Vouchers” are what the Texas media pejoratively calls education savings accounts, but the Hobby pollsters found that Texans support the concept of allowing parents to choose the best school for their child no matter what you call it.
Blacks and Hispanics are the strongest supporters of school choice, according to this survey, another particularly significant finding since the media has frequently charged or implied that school choice programs are racist.
Although the survey results echo strong results for school choice reported by the same poll in October and February, the coalition media in Texas has continued to push a narrative through this year’s elections that school choice programs are a right-wing conspiracy perpetrated by Christian zealots.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was excoriated by the coalition media for his work to ensure that opponents of school vouchers were not re-elected to the Texas House. He led a primary election coalition that defeated 15 state house members who opposed school vouchers.
The media has used Abbott’s efforts and those of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has supported school choice for decades, to push another lie—that only Republicans want school choice reforms.
Teachers unions have historically worked closely with the coalition media to explain why half the students can’t read or do math at grade level. There is an on-going barrage of “news” stories pushing the falsehood that more money would fix whatever is causing the students to fail. According to this narrative, conservative Texas leaders are refusing to supply additional funds. These stories repeatedly ignore the fact that since Abbott took office, the state has increased funding by almost $31 billion—a 23% increase adjusted for inflation. Per-student funding has also increased from $10,600 to $15,503.
The Texas “coalition media” puts forth the “Republicans are starving our schools” lie in the same way that the national coalition media now insist that “Kamala Harris was never the border czar.”
Coalition media never ask public school bureaucrats real questions, like “if $31 billion is not enough, how much would be enough?” They are apparently unaware that half the state budget already goes to education.
At least the national “coalition media” that protected President Biden had a solid political excuse—they wanted to stop Trump. What possible excuse can the Texas coalition media have for their demonization of school choice and the people who support it?
The prospects for passing school choice legislation in 2025 are good, but even when reform comes, the coalition media should be held accountable for playing a key role in pushing the interests of teachers unions over the needs of Texas children for the 30 years since the school choice war started in Texas. They must live with the fact that their actions contributed to the massive learning loss and unrealized potential of thousands of Texas children trapped in failing schools who never got an option to escape.