INDIANAPOLIS, July 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Education advocacy non-profit Courage Is A Habit has released a new investigative report titled “Media/Digital Literacy Propaganda: The Rebranded Agenda in Your Child’s Classroom.” The report documents how initiatives promoted to parents as harmless “media literacy” or “fact-checking” instruction function as partisan tools to control public discourse and direct student activism.
While educational institutions market media literacy as teaching students to evaluate sources and combat online misinformation, the report exposes how the true objective is to enforce establishment narratives and restrict free inquiry. The document argues that modern media literacy represents a rebranding of Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony – creating an information ecosystem so saturated by a single worldview that dissenting opinions are automatically framed as dangerous or extreme.
Key Findings:
- Protecting Establishment Narratives & Fauci: The report highlights how key architects of media literacy, including Dr. Renee Hobbs, utilized digital literacy frameworks to build protective narratives around federal public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci. By framing official government claims as undisputed “facts” and pushing “beneficial propaganda” to drive COVID-19 vaccine compliance, media literacy programs trained students and educators to dismiss legitimate scrutiny or alternative viewpoints as dangerous “conspiracy theories.”
- DHS Grant Funded Political Attacks: The Biden administration awarded $700,000 in federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds to URI’s Media Education Lab (founded by Hobbs) to create anti-conservative “counter-propaganda” disguised as media literacy.
- Ideological Exploitation of Wikipedia: University courses integrate Wikipedia editing to shape information, while the platform blacklists conservative outlets like Fox News, The Federalist, and The Daily Wire as unreliable while endorsing progressive media as baseline truth.
- Activism Pipeline: Teacher-credentialing programs train educators to frame progressive activism as “media literacy,” assigning students to produce advocacy content designed to attack and silence counter-narratives.
“To most parents, teaching children media literacy sounds like a great idea,” said Alvin Lui, President of Courage Is A Habit. “In reality, it is a Trojan horse designed to bypass parental oversight, protect radical leftwing narratives, and dismantle true critical thinking.”
“When influential academics like Dr. Renee Hobbs use media literacy to shield officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci while labeling any counter-perspective as misinformation, it shows these programs aren’t about truth,” said Courage Is A Habit Co-Founder Jennifer McWilliams. “They are about control. Our latest report gives parents the facts they need to challenge these initiatives at local school board meetings.”
The full report and artifacts can be downloaded for immediate use.
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