{"id":1382531,"date":"2022-03-15T17:21:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1382531"},"modified":"2022-03-15T17:21:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:21:19","slug":"fake-news-how-one-reporters-blatant-lie-about-glenn-youngkin-became-a-democratic-talking-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fake-news-how-one-reporters-blatant-lie-about-glenn-youngkin-became-a-democratic-talking-point\/","title":{"rendered":"FAKE NEWS: How One Reporter\u2019s Blatant Lie About Glenn Youngkin Became a Democratic Talking Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffake-news-how-one-reporters-blatant-lie-about-glenn-youngkin-became-a-democratic-talking-point%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1382531&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/\">Media<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Washington Post eagerly promotes misinformation about GOP governor<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/andrew-stiles\/\" title=\"Posts by Andrew Stiles\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Andrew Stiles<\/a> \u2022 March 15, 2022 5:15 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Journalists and other Democratic activists love to complain about &#8220;fake news&#8221; and &#8220;propaganda.&#8221; Nevertheless, they are among the most enthusiastic disseminators of egregious falsehoods about their political enemies. One particularly shameless example involves a story published last week in the\u00a0<em>Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>On March 10, the <em>Times-Dispatch <\/em>promoted\u00a0a blatant lie about Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R., Va.), one of the most reviled politicians among left-wing activists. Reporter (<a href=\"https:\/\/mleonor.com\/blog\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and<\/a> &#8220;lifestyle photographer&#8221;) Mel Leonor wrote that Virginia school superintendents had criticized Youngkin&#8217;s education policies in\u00a0&#8220;a blunt letter representing the views of all 133 state superintendents.&#8221; Leonor <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MelLeonor_\/status\/1502031727199461383\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">repeated<\/a> the claim on Twitter, asserting that &#8220;133 Virginia school superintendents chided Youngkin&#8217;s education department&#8221; in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>That sounds really bad for Youngkin: School leaders are unanimously opposed to his controversial agenda!\u00a0As noted above, this is a blatant lie.<\/p>\n<p>On March 14, local ABC affiliate 7News became one of the only media outlets to <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/news\/local\/virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-republican-public-school-superintendents-133-letter-tip-line-education-agenda-divisive-discriminatory-interim-report-critical-race-theory-curriculums-civil-rights-act-ben-kiser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> the truth\u2014that the letter\u00a0was written and approved by the 12-person board of the\u00a0Virginia Association of School Superintendents, and no one else. The rest of the state&#8217;s 133 school superintendents &#8220;were not advised of the letter before it was sent to the Governor\u2019s administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The group&#8217;s executive director, Ben Kiser, was perhaps more than happy to imply otherwise, given that he opened the letter by claiming to speak &#8220;on behalf of 133 public school division superintendents.&#8221; It would be easy enough to blame Kiser for the confusion if journalists and their Democratic allies weren&#8217;t constantly lecturing the rest of us about the importance of rigorous reporting methods and the need to fact-check authority figures.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, no one bothered to do any fact-checking. The false claim about the letter was repeated by numerous local outlets and national publications. The <em>Washington Post<\/em>, whose motto is &#8220;democracy dies in darkness,&#8221; published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2022\/03\/11\/virginia-youngkin-superintendents-tip-line\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/education\/2022\/03\/11\/virginia-superintendents-youngkin-harming-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">articles<\/a> promoting the lie that every Virginia school superintendent had endorsed the contents of the letter. On Tuesday afternoon, a &#8220;clarification&#8221; was posted at the top of one of the articles noting the letter was &#8220;not signed by every member of the group.&#8221; The opening paragraph still states, however, that &#8220;All 133 Virginia public school division superintendents&#8221; have urged Youngkin to abandon his education reforms.<\/p>\n<p><em>Axios, <\/em>a website that describes its mission as making its readers &#8220;smarter,&#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/washington-dc\/2022\/03\/14\/local-educators-resist-youngkin-criticisms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that Youngkin&#8217;s education reforms &#8220;are facing a revolt,&#8221; and even suggested (without evidence, obviously) that the letter from the &#8220;group representing all of Virginia&#8217;s 133 school district superintendents&#8221; represented a &#8220;rare show of unity&#8221; in opposition to the governor&#8217;s agenda. As of Tuesday, the story had not been corrected.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Times-Dispatch<\/em> story was finally corrected on Tuesday afternoon, five days after the publication date. It now includes a &#8220;clarification&#8221; that the letter &#8220;does not necessarily reflect a consensus of the 133 superintendents.&#8221; The text of the article has been slightly altered to describe the letter as &#8220;representing the views of state superintendents.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One might argue that some journalists actually don&#8217;t care about the truth, especially when promoting the false version of a story is beneficial to the (Democratic) politicians they support. And it was! Examples of Democratic politicians and activists amplifying the lie on Twitter can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JenniferWexton\/status\/1502329645005524992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vademocrats\/status\/1502362880171286535\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arlingtondems\/status\/1502064441298497568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Fritschner\/status\/1503454180324876295\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JesseFFerguson\/status\/1503362374119608321\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenLouiseLucas\/status\/1502087699896881198\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WendyGooditisVA\/status\/1502705454769713152\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZachLincolnVA\/status\/1502661466373210112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VATeenDems\/status\/1502306232631283713\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoshforVirginia\/status\/1502331333737172994\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinjohnrogers\/status\/1502286175905759247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">&#8220;EVERY SINGLE ONE of Virginia\u2019s 133 superintendents has come together to urge\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"r-18u37iz\">@GovernorVA<\/span>\u00a0to end his backward policies,&#8221; Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D., Va.) wrote, falsely.\u00a0&#8220;Every. Single. Superintendent. In. Virginia,&#8221; huffed L. Louise Lucas, a Democratic state senator.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party of Virginia gloated that Youngkin was &#8220;slammed by all 133 school superintendents for overreach and discriminatory practices.&#8221; Democrats in Arlington, Va., concurred. &#8220;It&#8217;s unprecedented that all 133 Virginia School Superintendents have said Governor Youngkin could \u2018set public education in Virginia back many years,'&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Rogers, a spokesman for the state&#8217;s teachers&#8217; union, the Virginia Education Association, promoted the lie as well. &#8220;133 superintendents signed this letter, and there are *checks notes* a total of 133 sitting superintendents in VA. Oh,&#8221; he wrote, sanctimoniously.<\/p>\n<p>You get the idea. Probably just a random series of events, rather than a coordinated effort to spread misinformation. That would be wrong. The sort of thing only Republicans would do.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media Washington Post eagerly promotes misinformation about GOP governor  Andrew Stiles \u2022 March 15, 2022 5:15 pm Journalists and other Democratic activists love to complain about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1382531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1382531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}