Jay Mathews is not happy with a report that heaps a lot of criticism on education reporters like him. The think tank that wrote the study is a big supporter of school vouchers and other school choice options so it’s not hard to figure that their big complaint is that the news media doesn’t write more about those issues.
However, the bigger problem with education reporting as detailed by researchers is that it’s almost all reactive and centered around a very narrow range of issues. For example, almost 2/3 of the stories reviewed were generated by "an announcement or press release by a federal, state, or local education agency".
But how is that any different from reporting in almost any other topic in the news? Reporters for almost all major news outlets these days mostly sit back and wait for stories to be delivered to them. There really is no such thing as "investigative" journalism any more. Why should reporting on education issues be any different?