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Last updated: September 15th, 2010

What is a Media Watchdog?

  • FactCheck.org is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. FactCheck.org describes itself as a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.”
  • PolitiFact.com is run by the St. Petersburg Times. It aims to “help you find the truth in politics” by using a straightforward “Truth-O-Meter” to evaluate the veracity of political statements in the news.
  • Media Matters For America is a liberal media watchdog that is “dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
  • Media Research Center is a conservative website that works to uncover any liberal bias in the media’s political coverage. MRC bills itself as “America’s Media Watchdog.” The MRC has several subsidiaries. These include: Cybercast News Service; the Business & Media Institute; the Culture and Media Institute; and the News Analysis Division, which includes NewsBusters and Times Watch.

Media watchdogs are fact-checking websites that investigate the claims of politicians and media personalities. They are excellent resources for anyone who is interested in finding accurate information about American politics.

Web-based media watchdogs on media coverage of Texas curriculum and textbooks:

Indictments of Media Coverage

Date: March 10, 2010
Watchdog: PolitiFact
The Charge: Gretchen Carlson on Fox and Friends (Fox News) falsely claimed that the Texas State Board of Education was considering eliminating references to Christmas and the Constitution in textbooks.
The Finding:  “First, the board is hammering out changes to state curriculum standards, not textbooks. Second, the board is not considering removing Christmas from a list of various religious holidays. And third, the board has never considered removing the Constitution from history textbooks or the state's curriculum. The "Fox & Friends" anchor made things simple and irresponsibly far-fetched and wrong. We rate Carlson's ridiculous statement as Pants on Fire.”

Date: March 10, 2010
Watchdog: Texas Education Agency (TEA)
The Charge: “The Fox Network in recent days has repeatedly broadcast highly inaccurate information about the State Board of Education’s efforts to adopt the new social studies curriculum standards.”
The Finding: Fox broadcast numerous inaccurate reports. Namely:

Fox: “Texas board of education begins hearings today on proposed changes to textbooks…”
The truth: The State Board of Education today is expected to take a preliminary vote on updated social studies curriculum standards. The standards detail what teachers are to teach in each class. New social studies textbooks are not scheduled to be selected until 2011.

Fox: “So one of the proposed changes is to start history class in the year 1877.”
The truth: Texas has and always will teach U.S. History from the beginning until present day. U.S. History through Reconstruction is taught in the eighth grade and those standards can be found in the middle school standards, which are called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). U.S. History since 1877 is taught in 11th grade.

Fox: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have been removed from the textbooks.
The truth: The standards, not textbook[s], are before the board this week. Lincoln is required to be included in the first and eighth grade history classes, as well as in the U.S. government class. Washington is required to be taught in kindergarten, first grade, fifth grade and eighth grade. . . . Additional modifications are still possible to both lists as the board debates the standards during its March and May meeting.

Fox: Independence Day and Veteran’s Day are being deleted from the textbooks.
The truth: Again, the new history textbooks have not been written yet but they will be based on the curriculum standards adopted by the board. The standards currently under consideration cover Independence Day in kindergarten, second and fifth grades. Veteran’s Day is included in kindergarten, first, second and fifth grades.

Fox: References to Christmas have been deleted.
The truth: A TEKS review committee briefly recommended removing Christmas [and leaving Easter in] a list that mentioned one major holiday for each of the world’s religions . . . The State Board immediately [restored] Christmas . . . and can be found in sixth grade in standard 19(b).

Fox: Textbooks adopted in Texas will be used in classrooms across the country.
The truth: Each state has its own textbook selection process. Publishers may offer other states the Texas edition of a book but they are not required to select it.

Date: March 11, 2010
Watchdog: TimesWatch
The Charge: New York Times reporter James McKinley Jr., in an article on the Texas school board, stereotyped conservatives while ignoring protests of a “far-left Hispanic group.”
The Finding: McKinley’s story, “Texas Conservatives Seek Deeper Stamp on Texts," was “positively sodden with ‘conservative’ labels, yet he managed to ignore a radical leftist group featured in an accompanying photo . . . . The Texas-based McKinley has a habit of loading his stories with labels identifying conservative Texas Republicans as ‘far right’ ‘archconservatives.’ "

Indictments of Democrats

Date: March 17, 2010
Watchdog: Politifact
The Charge: Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, Bill White, falsely claimed that the administration of Rick Perry, the incumbent governor up for re-election, was trying to write Thomas Jefferson out of the school curriculum.
The Finding: White said: “Last week the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), led by Rick Perry's appointee, voted to remove Thomas Jefferson from social studies textbook standards. That's right. Thomas Jefferson ... was deleted from a list of historical figures who inspired political change." PolitiFact in response found:  “First, the board was updating the state's curriculum standards, not textbook standards,” but the standards will guide textbook selection in 2011. “Next, [White] overstates Perry's role . . . Lowe, the chairwoman, is an elected official, not a Perry appointee. But the governor named her chairwoman of the board.” And “White said the state board voted ‘to remove Thomas Jefferson from social studies textbook standards,’ but the vote was on a single … high school world history standard. White also implied that those standards were already in effect. They weren't.”  Conclusion: “We rate White's multi-part statement as Half True.”