Chapter 4: The News Media and the Heritage Foundation: Promoting Education Advocacy at the Expense of Authority

Almost every U.S. household owns a television and a radio (Croteau & Hoynes, 2000), on a typical day over half the American adults read a newspaper (Newspaper Association of America, 2000), and the average American adult spends over two hours a day watching, reading or listening to the news (National Science Foundation, 2000). While Americans are often skeptical about news reports on education, they nevertheless want the news media to cover education more than it currently does (Farkas, 1997). Therefore, when the news media select a source on education, they position it to play a prominent role in shaping the education debate (Cuban, 1998; Farkas, 1997).