This article has been updated since publication.
In an open letter, a Texas A&M student has accused the student newspaper of having a left-wing bias in its opinion section.
“[T]here was an almost 17 (16.7) to 1 liberal to conservative article ratio,” Justino Russell wrote in his open letter to the editor. “What makes this especially concerning is that The Battalion operates using public resources.”
Russell, a member of Texas A&M’s class of 2026, spent several hours analyzing The Battalion’s opinion section, reading 196 opinion, review, satire, and criticism pieces published since last year’s federal election.
According to his letter and an attached spreadsheet, 60 of these were political. Of those, 50 were liberal or left-leaning, seven were moderate/neutral, and only three were conservative.
Russell conducted this research after The Battalion rejected his opinion piece. The piece was a response to an anonymous professor’s open letter to the student body published by The Battalion.
The professor’s letter was published after Texas A&M President Mark Welsh’s resignation, which was prompted by revelations that he defended a children’s literature course that taught students how to introduce LGBT and gender identity material to children as young as three. The professor criticized the administration for not protecting the university “against political pressure” and urged students to “help in defending our institution.”
The Battalion included a note at the top stating the letter “does not reflect the publication’s official opinion.”
Russell found the professor’s letter to be “misleading and lying to students.” He wrote his own piece to counter the anonymous professor’s narrative.
An associate editor replied: “We do not believe the point-by-point polemical style of this piece aligns with the opinion desk’s current editorial priorities.”
Russell then investigated the opinion page for bias, which led to his findings. “A publication directly and indirectly by supported taxpayer dollars is actively discriminating against conservative voices on campus by using its neutral, non-profit, student-run press status,” he wrote Texas Scorecard.
He also questioned Texas A&M’s reputation as a conservative institution. “It seems most electives and core courses here are liberal, just like in all other public universities,” he wrote to Texas Scorecard.
Texas A&M did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
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