Tipsheet

More Lawsuits for ABC? Network Lies About Linda McMahon

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 16, 2024 8:45 PM

Over the weekend, as Matt covered, ABC News reached a $15 million settlement with President-elect Donald Trump, after "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed that Trump had been found liable of rape. The network may soon be in even further trouble, though, with a report involving Linda McMahon, Trump's pick to head the Department of Education.

On Monday, The Daily Signal put out a piece highlighting coverage from ABC News that came out on December 11. The live report from Jay O'Brien came during "ABC News Live Prime." 

It appears to be part of a pattern of looking to downplay what Trump's nominees bring to the table, though in this instance it goes further than that, considering that O'Brien falsely claimed that McMahon "has no formal training and little experience in education." In reality, McMahon, decades ago, earned a teaching degree while receiving her bachelor's degree at East Carolina University. 

As The Daily Signal piece mentioned [Emphasis added]:

In the first minute of an eight-minute overview, O’Brien stated that McMahon has no formal education training and little experience:

“If she receives Senate confirmation, McMahon, who has no formal training and little experience in education, will be tasked with setting policies for the nation’s schools.”

This is patently false. 

While receiving a bachelor’s degree in French at East Carolina University in the late 1960s, McMahon earned a teaching certificate after completing a teacher preparation program at the school. This information has been available publicly for years, reported in outlets like The Washington Post and USA Today, was confirmed in a Hartford newspaper in 2011, and has been listed in official statements from East Carolina University.

The most recent data from National Center for Education Statistics on educator qualifications reported that at least 8% of public schoolteachers in the United States had a teaching certificate instead of a bachelor’s degree in education.

Additionally, teacher transition programs, in which non-education career individuals obtain a certificate to teach their skillset in schools, are common in the United States. Almost 20% of teachers enter the education field in this way, and are not described as “unqualified” or “untrained” by any state department of public education or public instruction.

ABC News did not include this information in its coverage.

O’Brien then doubled down on his claim of McMahon’s “lack of qualifications,” by clipping a speech from the leader of the nation’s largest teachers’ union, National Education Association President Becky Pringle.

O'Brien also looked to denigrate conservatives overall. He spoke to Tiffany Justice, who cofounded Moms for Liberty. He referred to the group as being one of the "controversial conservative groups," and one which "echoed what critics say is anti LGBTQ rhetoric." Justice referred to McMahon as "a wonderful choice," especially when it comes to empowering parents. 

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National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle, who has been particularly supportive of the Biden-Harris administration, is not given such treatment. There's zero mention of her political connections, despite how the NEA is such a high profile donor of Democrats. Rather, there's a focus on how McMahon is "unqualified" and thus, as O'Brien put it, her "qualifications concern educators like Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union." 

Tony Kinnett, who wrote the piece above, also addressed the false coverage of McMahon during his appearance on Newsmax and for the opening of "The Tony Kinnett Cast." He explained the significance of earning teaching certificates and addressed the contrast between how Justice and Pringle are framed.

As Kinnett offered, the hit piece on McMahon may have come as there isn't much known about this pick, "so a news outlet might make some kind of exposé, a piece in overview of who she is," which is where O'Brien comes in. Kinnett went on to blast O'Brien for his lack of research skills, just as he did in his piece above and while appearing on Newsmax, especially as news of her teacher's certificate is nothing new. There's also how McMahon was elected to serve on the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University in 2004, and still serves in such a role.

Kinnett's show also offered the benefit of hearing how O'Brien did the report. It starts off with falsehoods when it comes to claims that McMahon is "a newcomer" to education. There's even a change in audio, with O'Brien having to fix the report to add context. 

"Here's why he did that," Kinnett offered. "He ended up having to rerecord something later. Why? Because he had to add context, he already knew he was completely full of garbage. Because he lied! So then he brought up, 'oh, I do have to mention that she served on the Connecticut Board of Education.' He doesn't mention that she was on a board of trustees for a university and he doesn't mention her teaching certificate. So either he's grossly incompetent, or he's a liar! That's ABC News, ladies and gentlemen, looks like that Disney money went right down the toilet," he continued. 

As he would add towards the end of the segment, Kinnett has had to correct himself in real time during interviews, which he called "a very basic skill." That's not what O'Brien did here, though. "You don't see Jay O'Brien doing that! You see him awkwardly slipping in audio in the back door, like that makes the false statements he made any more palatable," Kinnett explained, vowing to keep covering when the media engages in such falsehoods.

Kinnett, also towards the end of this particular topic, brought the ABC News $15 million settlement back to the coverage of McMahon. "So if you're wondering why ABC News coughed up $15 million to Trump, it's because they're bad at what they do! And they can't keep people on their staff from writing, publishing, and saying false statements on the air," Kinnett pointed out. 

Newsmax's Carl Higbie, in sharing The Daily Signal article, mentioned in his own post to "Stand by for more lawsuits." 

While speaking with Kinnett on his own show, Higbie had also teased that "ABC's legal trouble might not be over."