Academics’ union boss Randi Weingarten publicly resigned from the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) this weekend and the overwhelming response appears to be one among shock that she was on the committee in any respect. How is it that training reporters and the media at massive not often, if ever, talked about that she served as an at-large member of the DNC for 23 years and held a seat on its Guidelines and Bylaws Committee from 2009-2022? She has additionally been a delegate to every of the Democratic conventions since 1992.
Looks like greater than an oversight.
As president of the 1.8-million-member sturdy American Federation of Academics (AFT), Randi holds a strong place in American training and politics. The greater than twenty years she spent with a proper function inside one among our two main political events provides one other layer of significance to her affect. That function is not simply symbolic—DNC members assist form occasion platforms, set guidelines, and exert large affect over elected officers within the occasion, together with the president of america.
Information media tales about Weingarten for the reason that Nineteen Nineties have framed her solely as a union chief or advocate for lecturers. In recent times, they continuously talked about her clashes with Republicans or the outsized function she performed throughout COVID-era college closures, however they by no means famous her formal place throughout the DNC. That sample of omission painted her as extra of a public-sector labor consultant than a partisan political operative.
One should marvel why there was a close to blackout on this important element a few lecturers’ union boss, and the way that blackout continued throughout the protection of the prolonged college closures and masks mandates that she lobbied for throughout COVID? It’s properly documented that she had a big affect on CDC steering for colleges, however no one thought to say her function throughout the DNC?
Was it journalistic malpractice? Maybe many journalists and editors sympathize or align with Randi’s positions and see no have to disclose her formal ties to the occasion.
Was it incompetence? Perhaps training beat reporters and television producers didn’t know she had a proper function with the DNC, or did not notice the importance of her DNC function.
Was it narrative management? Perhaps reporters, editors, and producers felt that pretending she was an neutral advocate “for lecturers” was less complicated and extra palatable than acknowledging she was additionally a extremely influential occasion insider.
My sense is that each one three explanations apply.
It’s comprehensible that the AFT intentionally averted emphasizing or drawing consideration to their chief’s DNC standing. Doing so would have undermined their declare to characterize all members no matter political affiliation and strengthened the argument that public sector unions are method too entangled with occasion politics.
If the AFT hid Randi’s DNC function from its members, that’s dangerous and divulges an absence of transparency to the individuals who pay their payments. However, in contrast to the press, the union doesn’t have an obligation to tell the bigger public about its boss’s twin roles. Alternatively, training reporters and the media do have that obligation, and but failed so constantly for greater than twenty years that it took Weingarten’s resignation from the DNC for us to be taught that she had a proper function throughout the DNC.
There isn’t any excuse for that.
Whereas we’re on the subject —I guess you did not know that Becky Pringle, the president of the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation (NEA), the most important lecturers union within the nation, can be a member of the DNC. She hasn’t resigned.
