On Dec. 11, ABC News’ Jay O’Brien reported false information about Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Secretary of Education, on ABC News Live Prime.
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.
This is not the first time ABC News has published false information about members of the Trump transition team. On Dec. 14, ABC News agreed to pay a $15 million settlement after falsely asserting on air that Trump was guilty of rape.
In addition to her teaching certification from East Carolina University, McMahon served as a member of the Connecticut Board of Education and has served as a member of the Sacred Heart University board of trustees since 2004.
ABC News did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment, nor did it confirm if its news team has standards for reporting accurate information about story subjects.
