In a June 20 post, the Media Research Center’s Nicholas Fondacaro asserted that NBC’s Chuck Todd “tried to lie to viewers by claiming that parental opposition and outrage to Critical Race Theory was “manufactured at Fox [News],” claiming that the claim was “even more obviously untrue” because Todd had on a reporter who “had covered the ‘dozens and dozens and dozens of parents’ that turned out the Loudoun Country school board meeting in Virginia to speak out against the racism inherent in Critical Race Theory.”
Well, Todd’s not completely right, just not in the way that Fondacaro wants you to think. Not only is anti-CRT outrage manufactured by Fox News, it’s also manufactured by the MRC.
On June 22, the day of a Loudoun County, Va., school board meeting, the MRC sent out an email to subscribers declaring that the “MRC will be at the Loudoun County school board meeting today as teachers and parents fight Critical Race Theory, ‘Trans’ In Any Bathroom, and ‘Genderless Pronouns’ In Loudoun County, Virginia Schools.” The email went on to rant (random bolding in original):
On Tuesday, June 22, staff from the Media Research Center (MRC) will be on hand to cover the incendiary Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Board meeting, in Ashburn, VA, as concerned parents, teachers, and students fight the leftist agenda to cement Critical Race Theory, the admission of “trans” students into any bathroom or locker room, and the banning of “gendered speech” in all district schools.
[…]The LCSB meeting begins at 4pm ET, and its agenda includes “adoption of Policy 8040” as well as discussion of the bathroom/locker-room policy, and word is spreading that this will be a powerful moment for the kids, parents, teachers, and ALL taxpayers forced to pay for the increasingly progressive agenda being pushed by the bureaucracy.
As an MRC Action member, we want you to know what the MRC team is doing, right there, on the scene, to keep families and friends informed about this very important battle, and the ideology against which the Loudoun residents fight.
Transgenderism, the claims of “inherent racism” leveled against innocent people by the pushers of Critical Race Theory, the destruction of the language, and even the inclusion of biological males in girl’s bathrooms — it’s all being exposed, today, at Ashburn.
Thanks to you, the MRC will be there.
Please keep us and the good folks who fight for their kids and their tax dollars in your prayers.
The MRC went on to tout one of the people who spoke out against the school board:
You also might have seen MRC chatting, in person, with Lilit Vanetsyan, a Fairfax County-based teacher who, at a recent Loudoun board meeting, also railed against the LCPS policy proposals, especially Critical Race Theory, explicitly saying that the proposed policies will push a radical lesson plan prompting kids to “root for socialism by the time they get to middle school.”
[…]Now, Vanetsyan and others are pushing for the removal of six LCPS Board members and the vanquishing of these anti-family, anti-reality, collectivist agendas, this afternoon, at 4pm ET.
The MRC didn’t tell you that Vanetsyan is no mere school teacher — if she is that; it’s unclear which school, if any, in the Fairfax County district Vanetsyan actually teaches at — she’s a right-wing activist who’s affiliated with Turning Point USA and is a former reporter for the highly biased Right Side Broadcasting Network. (Also: Why is a teacher in one school district trying to speak out against policies in another school district? Isn’t that out of her jurisdiction?)
The MRC got the provocation it was seeking at that meeting — chaos reigned, and at least one arrest was made. But the MRC couldn’t have been more delighted, as an email it sent out the next day showed (typographical effects in original):
Leftist Local VA School Board SHUTS DOWN Dissent Over Critical Race Theory, Trans In Bathrooms – AND The MRC Was There
Local Loudoun, Virginia, residents who have become national heroes turned out in the hundreds on June 22 to oppose the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Board plan to adopt Critical Race Theory and perverse sexual “identity” rules in schools across Loudoun County, Virginia, and the Media Research Center (MRC) was on the scene.
As MRC Action members likely are aware, both CNS News and MRCTV have focused time and manpower to bring tell the nation about the plight of Loudoun County taxpayers, children, and numerous teachers, as the LCPS board prepared plans to force racist Critical Race Theory ideology into classrooms and as it prepped its scheme called “Policy 8040.”
Policy 8040 would require schools to admit “trans” students into any bathroom or locker room, and would ban “gendered speech” — i.e. pronouns that conform to the correct biological sex of the individual being addressed — in all district schools.
On Tuesday, June 22, the board abruptly ended the public comment period, even as taxpayers lined up to add their voices to the scant number that the bureaucrats allowed to speak. Tuesday also saw Sheriff’s Department police ARREST individuals who tried to be heard while the board members walked off.
But Tuesday saw the courage that is lighting fires nationwide — fires that could help others stop Marxist Critical Race Theory and Trans-permissive bathroom, locker room, and speech policies from being imposed on them, other taxpayers, and kids.
[…]MRCTV’s Libby Kreiger Tuesday also reported on the meeting, revealing how these bureaucrats — formerly insulated from public outcries by COVID-related lockouts of the public — shut down dissent, and police cuffed and arrested citizens who tried to voice their protestations, claiming they were engaging in “unlawful assembly.” Which is curious, since the First Amendment prohibits the government from infringing on the right to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances…
Clearly, the leftist Loudoun way is not the American way.
[…]This story is receiving far less national news attention than it is from conservative and libertarian talk radio hosts and web commentators, and MRC Action and the Media Research Center will follow this, thanks to YOU.
Your care about freedom and the generations to come are the fuel for our never-ending efforts.
The MRC, meanwhile, cares about fomenting and exploiting chaos to advance its right-wing political agenda.
P.S.: It’s not like the MRC went through any huge effort to turn this school board meeting into a launching pad for activism. Loudoun County is just a few miles from the MRC’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, so it just cost MRC employees a little gas money.