We’ve documented how the Media Research Center chose to dishonestly portray a letter written by the National School Boards Association expressing concern over increasingly violent attacks against school board members over mask mandates and manufactured right-wing outrage over critical race theory as the group calling all parents terrorists for merely asking questions. The MRC spent the rest of October pushing that false narrative.
Nicholas Fondacaro — who knows all about spreading lies — ranted in a Oct. 6 post cheering how Fox News also embraced the bogus narrative:
Last week, both CBS Evening News and NBC’s Today show peddled a smear against concerned parents protesting and rallying against their local school boards, parroting comments from the National School Boards Association attacking them as taking part in “domestic terrorism.” Now with the Biden Justice Department sicking the FBI’s anti-terrorism assets on American parents, those networks didn’t want to share how the parents they besmirched were fighting back.
[…]But with the federal government this week showing they’re determined to fight against parental rights using lies and smears, the parents weren’t going to put up with it.
“Breaking tonight, the increasing pushback against the Biden administration over its efforts to stifle dissent on the part of parents against school boards disregarding their wishes over the children’s education,” announced Fox News fill-in anchor Mike Emanuel on Wednesday’s Special Report.
Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith reported that Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke “says the Justice Department stands by its recent memo directing the government to do more to protect school board members from what it sees as an escalating threat of violence.”
The next day, Scott Whitlock huffed: “All three network newscasts this week buried the move by radical Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate and harass parents who speak out on issues like Critical Race Theory at school board meetings across the country. A Justice Department memo slimed those challenging CRT and other issues as possibly being part of an insurgent ‘violent’ effort to ‘intimidate’ schools.” But as we detailed, the NSBA cited specific threats of violence and intimidation, and it never portrayed all parenbs who speak out as domestic terrorists.
Fondacaro returned to lie some more on Oct. 18, again giving a cookie to a right-wing outlet that stayed on message with the false narrative:
Over the weekend, a group of parents gathered outside the Department of Justice to protest the suggestion that parents outraged at radical leftist school boards were domestic terrorists. They stayed on message against schools poisoning kids with Critical Race Theory and apparent pornography in school books. Meanwhile, the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC kept silent on the rally as the networks previously backed the smear or remained silent on the topic.
In later September and early October, CBS Evening News and NBC’s Today show hyped a demand from the radical leftist National School Boards Association (NSBA) that demanded concerned parents protesting at school board meetings be declared domestic terrorists and have the terrible power of the federal government brought to bear against them.
[…]As for what actually happened at the weekend rally, we look to Daily Caller education reporter Kendall Tietz. “Frustration at school boards boiled over for some parents and activists who protested outside of the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. Sunday,” she reported.
Adding: “A small crowd gathered for the ‘Parents Are Not ‘Domestic Terrorists’ Rally,’ a reference to Merrick Garland’s Oct. 4 memorandum that called on the FBI to “use its authority” in response to the ‘disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.’”
Tim Graham repeated the lie on Oct. 19 about a supposedly softball interview CBS did with first lady Jill Biden: “There were no difficult questions about how Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to investigate angry parents who attend school board meetings (as the National School Boards Association compares them to domestic terrorists). “
Fondacaro spouted the lie again on Oct. 21:
Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden administration used federal actions in an attempt to chill the exercise of free speech by concerned parents protesting their school boards after they were equated to domestic terrorists by the National School Boards Association. But on Thursday, Garland was held to account by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee in a heated hearing that went unreported by the evening newscast of ABC, CBS, and NBC.
When the NSBA was force to backtrack in the face of the dishonest attacks by the MRC and other right-wingers, Scott Whitlock was still clinging to the lie in an Oct. 25 post:
Late on Friday night, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) belatedly apologized for language that linked concerned parents to domestic terrorists. But all three networks from Friday to Monday morning ignored the organization retreating, “On behalf of NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter…. There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.”
The original letter in question claimed that some actions by parents “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” On the weekend morning and evening newscasts, as well as Monday, the apology went unmentioned. NBC’s Sunday Today, however, offered a new hit piece on parents, falsely claiming that Critical Race Theory is not in schools and also blaming the whole thing on “former Tea Partiers.”
Yet the lie went on. Kyle Drennen huffed in an Oct. 28 post about “the DOJ complying with a now-withdrawn letter from the National School Board Association labeling parents speaking out at local school board meetings ‘domestic terrorists.'”
Mark FInkelstein tried to dishonestly frame the letter in an Oct. 29 post, ironically while accusing CNN’s Brianna Keilar of dishonesting framing it:
Co-host Brianna Keilar claimed “we should be clear” that there was a letter from the school board association to the Biden administration. But rather than being clear, Keilar was clearly deceptive. She framed the letter as simply “looking for help, because clearly school boards have been suffering a lot of violent threats, and a lot of tumult.”
What she failed to disclose was that the school board association letter—signed by its two most senior officials—branded parent protests as ” domestic terrorism.”
Yes, when parents reacted with outrage to the accusation, the association subsequently withdrew the letter. But that “domestic terrorism” bell couldn’t be un-rung. It was that accusation that Garland responded to with his memo to federal law enforcement.
Of course, Finkelstein can’t point to any wording in the letter that specifically accused all parents of taking part in “domestic terrorism” — because it doesn’t exist.
One other thing worth noting: By embracing the false narrative that the NSBA letter called all parents domestic terrorists, the MRC absolved itself from ever criticizing the specific examples of intimidation and violence the letter cited — thus suggesting it endorses that intimidation and violence in furtherance of its right-wing agenda. When you’re dealing with liars, would you expect anything different?
The MRC has clearly decided that pounding right-wing narratives is more important than telling the truth. It may be politically expedient, but the ultimate result is that nobody will be able to trust anything the MRC puts out. Is that what they really want?