It's crazy what ends up on the internet these days. Best to have these conversations via telephone.

📲Text exchanges between Texas A&M Board of Regents Jay Graham and David Baggett.

➡️Graham wants the new Journalism Program at A&M to turn out "high-quality conservatives"... "to help direct our message"

Receipts below ⤵️

(1/2) pic.twitter.com/O0HL9ZnBXd

— 🚨 Rusty Surette 🚨 (@KBTXRusty) August 4, 2023

They're not wrong

Good.
The exact opposite has been openly going on all across the nation for 50 years.

No doubt. But dang, privacy is limited these days.

Well that's not ideal

Gotta love big money donors/political appointees making these academic decisions. Our prestige is going to continue to drop unfortunately.

That's wild

The goal of the school shouldn't be to get conservative or liberal professors or students. This is a public school. I hate that those who influence our school think this way.

Really don't think this is a big deal.

If a Columbia or Berkley BOR and posted this with liberal and 'our message', these texts would have never seen the light of day.

Tbone said:

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Good.
The exact opposite has been openly going on all across the nation for 50 years.

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One wrong doesn't fix another wrong

210 said:

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Gotta love big money donors/political appointees making these academic decisions. Our prestige is going to continue to drop unfortunately.

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If our "prestige" drops because we are standing up to woke BS, then I'm all about it.

I don't care what academia and the media think about us.

aggiez03 said:

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Really don't think this is a big deal.

If a Columbia or Berkley BOR and posted this with liberal and 'our message', these texts would have never seen the light of day.

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This times 1,000,000!!

He's not wrong…

This is embarrassing for our school. We should be better and above than doing what people hate about the extreme left is doing. Makes us no better. We are honest and care about all walks of life. Get these guys off the board for trying to force an ideology on our campus instead of fostering broad and diverse set of opinions. This is border line Soviet Union crap. Get that **** out of America.

aggiez03 said:

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Really don't think this is a big deal.

If a Columbia or Berkley BOR and posted this with liberal and 'our message', these texts would have never seen the light of day.

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Berkeley? I would be equally annoyed

Columbia? That's a private school so they can do what they want

Take this to a different board

210 said:

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Gotta love big money donors/political appointees making these academic decisions. Our prestige is going to continue to drop unfortunately.

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We're about to become the new cesspool.

We literally have 100% of journalism departments in the country pushing a hard agenda that represents 50% of the county's values (according to their voting patterns)

Why would we not want to be the leader, producing something that resonates with the other 50%?

Just seems like smart business

Jackson57 said:

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Take this to a different board

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This board is about Aggie stuff. This is Aggie stuff. It doesn't have to be only sports, it's not called the sports board.

Weddingtons Coffee said:

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Tbone said:

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Good.
The exact opposite has been openly going on all across the nation for 50 years.

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One wrong doesn't fix another wrong

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Yawn.

This type of thinking/reacting won't come close to balancing the scales in the journalism world. We're all seeing what we knew was happening anyway. I for one am glad.

That Soviet Union line was fun! Keep them coming!

Weddingtons Coffee said:

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Jackson57 said:

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Take this to a different board

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This board is about Aggie stuff. This is Aggie stuff. It doesn't have to be only sports, it's not called the sports board.

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There's an entire politics forum created for this.

Every political thread gets moved to that board.

Weddingtons Coffee said:

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Jackson57 said:

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Take this to a different board

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This board is about Aggie stuff. This is Aggie stuff. It doesn't have to be only sports, it's not called the sports board.

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Thank you.

You wonder how these text messages see the light of day. One of the two regents had to share with somebody. If was me, someone in my inner circle would be cut off. As far as content, it doesn't bother me. Something needs to happen to cause some balance in the media . Tell me a journalism department in a Amrica that is conservative ? You can't.

FrioAg 00 said:

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We literally have 100% of journalism departments in the country pushing a hard agenda that represents 50% of the county's values (according to their voting patterns)

Why would we not want to be the leader, producing something that resonates with the other 50%?

Just seems like smart business

---

[Citation needed]

If you don't think there is an agenda being pushed in 99% of media, then you aren't paying attention or are in denial.

This isn't just 'group think'. Professors in schools are actively pushing the leftist agenda.

It is not a surprise that Texas A&M is a conservative school.

There is no shame that Texas A&M is a conservative school.

There is no harm in someone saying our journalism department should reflect our values.

Nothing burger.

Board members are allowed to have opinions who probably match what many Aggies believe. If you don't like it, then try to get them removed.

Weddingtons Coffee said:

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That's wild

The goal of the school shouldn't be to get conservative or liberal professors or students. This is a public school. I hate that those who influence our school think this way.

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Anything right of a typical journalist would be an improvement. Don't worry, that will still leave about 95% of the profession as liberal elites.

Half of the staff at the NYT and Wash Post are graduates of the Ivies. Considering less than 1% of the population graduates from Ivy League schools that's a problem. I bet you don't have an issue with that

aggiez03 said:

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If you don't think there is an agenda being pushed in 99% of media, then you aren't paying attention or are in denial.

This isn't just 'group think'. Professors in schools are actively pushing the leftist agenda.

It is not a surprise that Texas A&M is a conservative school.

There is no shame that Texas A&M is a conservative school.

There is no harm in someone saying our journalism department should reflect our values.

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Being a public school that naturally leans one way or the other is fine. Being a public school that intentionally forces one way on students is wrong.

I hope we don't become that.

Weddingtons Coffee said:

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Tbone said:

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Good.
The exact opposite has been openly going on all across the nation for 50 years.

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One wrong doesn't fix another wrong

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No, but it sure balances it out. You can't fix stupid.

No issue with any of that. The culture war is real, and only one side has had the balls to fight it over the last 60 years.

TAMU1990 said:

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Weddingtons Coffee said:

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That's wild

The goal of the school shouldn't be to get conservative or liberal professors or students. This is a public school. I hate that those who influence our school think this way.

---

Anything right of a typical journalist would be an improvement. Don't worry, that will still leave about 95% of the profession as liberal elites.

Half of the staff at the NYT and Wash Post are graduates of the Ivies. Considering less than 1% of the population graduates from Ivy League schools that's a problem. I bet you don't have an issue with that

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We are talking about a public university here. We aren't talking about private companies. The crazy media is another discussion but I probably agree with you more than you expect

Tejas Ag 10 said:

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This is embarrassing for our school. We should be better and above than doing what people hate about the extreme left is doing. Makes us no better. We are honest and care about all walks of life. Get these guys off the board for trying to force an ideology on our campus instead of fostering broad and diverse set of opinions. This is border line Soviet Union crap. Get that **** out of America.

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What do you think a BOR does? They set the direction of the school at the behest of the citizens - who elected a slate of all republican state office holders for about 30+ years and running.

The BOR are doing their jobs and setting the culture of the university? Tell me more Rusty.

If people want to push an ideology through higher education, they need to do that through private schools.

America was built on the concept that everyone is equal before the law, and that includes the laws that tax us to fund public universities. Using public universities to push a political or religious viewpoint is downright un-American, IMHO.

Tejas Ag 10 said:

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This is embarrassing for our school. We should be better and above than doing what people hate about the extreme left is doing. Makes us no better. We are honest and care about all walks of life. Get these guys off the board for trying to force an ideology on our campus instead of fostering broad and diverse set of opinions. This is border line Soviet Union crap. Get that **** out of America.

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I don't think I'm alone in thinking that rather than trying to, as you say, 'force an ideology on our campus', they are trying to react to an ideology that has already forced it's way on to many campuses, including ours, and in a most brazen, open, and agenda driven way. This is a reaction to a hire taht very nearly happened that would have done long term damage to our reputation and our culture. I'm very glad they took the actions they did.