The New Republic, American Prospect, and Courier Newsroom have collectively accepted $905,000 since 2022 from the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, according to the unions’ financial disclosures. After accepting funds from the two largest teachers unions in the nation, each of these outlets went on to publish pieces, painting them in a positive light without disclosing the funding arrangement.

For instance, Courier Newsroom, which runs a dark money-funded network of left-leaning publications operating out of 11 swing states, received $500,000 from the NEA and $35,000 from the AFT between 2022 and 2024. Following the donations, Courier’s outlets in Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Texas all published stories portraying the NEA favorably.

Cardinal & Pine, Courier’s North Carolina outpost, published a video on its website in March of NEA President Rebecca Pringle explaining the importance of teaching school children that the United States is systematically racist. The article accompanying the video makes no mention that the NEA had wired half a million dollars to Courier in just a few years.

Meanwhile, Courier’s New Hampshire newsroom, Granite Post, framed the NEA and AFT positively in a May story about a court battle over classroom book bans. Dogwood, Courier’s publication in Virginia, published a piece in June arguing that a NEA-backed collective bargaining effort would improve student learning. Neither of these outlets nor any of Courier’s other publications that mentioned the teachers unions disclosed Courier’s financial transactions with the AFT and NEA in their coverage of those organizations.

“All these outlets rely on patronage and advertising from ideologically aligned donors and groups to stay afloat, so, of course, the teachers unions are supporting their ideological allies,” Mike Watson, research director at the Capital Research Center and an expert on organized labor, told the Washington Examiner. 

The New Republic accepted $225,000 from the AFT between August 2023 and April 2024, according to financial disclosures. Subsequently, the publication ran multiple pieces presenting both the union and its president, Randi Weingarten, positively. One such story, published in October 2023, amplified Weingarten’s argument that conservative efforts to ban sexually explicit books from public schools are part of a broader scheme to “destroy” government education. Nowhere in the piece did the outlet disclose its financial ties to the AFT. The New Republic also ran a joint “Banned Book Tour” with the AFT around the time they ran the article, which the piece does mention.

The publication ran two more pieces in August compiling labor leaders’ praise for Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) shortly after he was named the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee. The stories contained praise for Walz from the AFT, again without disclosing the publication’s financial relationship with the union.

After the Washington Examiner reached out to The New Republic for comment, the outlet added parenthetical disclosures to some of its pieces, noting that AFT had recently “sponsored or co-sponsored” some of the publication’s events. 

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“This scheme by NEA and AFT is another example of union bosses taking the dues money of teachers they claim to ‘represent’ and pumping it into ideologically-motivated activities designed to promote their coercive and dysfunctional agenda,” National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Vice President Patrick Semmens said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “It’s been well-known since even before the COVID school reopening debacles that public school systems and the kids within them have suffered irreparable damage as the result of AFT’s and NEA’s extremism and lust for power, so it’s reprehensible yet unsurprising that they are blowing workers’ money on whitewashing their doings under the guise of ‘news.’”

Charlyce Bozzello, communications director for the right-of-center labor watchdog Center for Union Facts, told the Washington Examiner that public unions, including the NEA and AFT, often funnel money into liberal causes “without the consent or knowledge of workers” which is why “transparency on union spending is so critical.”

The American Prospect, a left-of-center outlet based in Washington, D.C., received $100,000 from the AFT in February. Since then, the outlet has run a number of positive stories about the union without disclosing its financial relationship.

In March, it ran a piece commending Weingarten for her handling of tension arising from the war between Israel and Hamas. In April, it published a piece praising an apprenticeship program the union was involved in, prompting Weingarten to promote the story on social media. In June, the American Prospect covered the union’s expansion in southern states.

None of the outlet’s coverage of the AFT made note of its financial relationship with the union.

Watson added in his comment to the Washington Examiner that “left-wing journalists would probably say the same things about education that they’re saying while taking the union funds” even if the money wasn’t flowing to them.

“I think it says more about the teachers unions than the journalists: They want to build left-wing infrastructure, not work for children’s education,” he said.

The American Prospect and Courier did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment. The NEA and AFT also did not respond when contacted.