Every week, the media make a conscious decision to broadcast certain stories — usually, the stories that further their favored political narrative — and refuse to cover others. Here are three of the most important stories the media did not cover in the past week:
1. Public school employees behaving badly
Since Zoom sessions during the pandemic brought parents face to face with what’s being taught in their children’s schools, tension has grown between families and public school administrators (and the unions and politicians who protect them). This week, multiple school officials were caught in incidents, including the sexualization of minors, that would only deepen that rift:
- A homecoming event in Hazard, Kentucky, featured a teenage boy in a dress giving lap dances and moving suggestively toward the principal, while scantily clad students twerked or writhed in front of other school officials. The incident went public when the school district uploaded photos, which have since been deleted, to its Facebook page. Hazard High School Principal Donald Mobelini, who is also mayor, can be seen smiling as the male bends over in front of him. Other middle-aged men can be seen as students touch them. Some of the teenage girls were dressed as Hooter’s employees. “It’s disgusting. It appears they are sexualizing young adults,” Nema Brewer of the anti-school vouchers group KY120 United, told the Lexington Herald-Leader. The Kentucky Department of Education said on Thursday that the investigation is being handled by Hazard Independent Superintendent Sondra Combs.
To complicate matters, Kentucky sports journalist Nate Bryan posted video online reportedly shot at the 2020 homecoming of a male student writhing on the floor in a white dress to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” before the mask-clad student appears to wrap his arms around the mask-clad Mobelini’s head.
Governor Andy Beshear (D) said that “what happened in Hazard, shouldn’t,” and “my hope is” the investigation “will be public.”
- A county school board member in Florida took a group of elementary school students to a gay bar. Broward County School Board member Sarah Leonardi appeared to indicate this was an annual event, tweeting: “I was SO honored to be invited to chaperone Wilton Manors Elementary’s field trip to the incredible Rosie’s [Bar and Grill]! The students and I had a fun walk over and learned a lot about our community! A huge thank you to Rosie’s Bar and Grill for hosting this special field trip every year!” The bar’s website promises “sassy fun” to all patrons, “whether you are LBGTQ+ or an ally.” The local media responded by highlighting alleged death threats made to Leonardi, a familiar Judo-like tactic to shut down media criticism and deflect accountability.
- The embattled Loudoun County, Virginia, school district has required parents to sign a non-disclosure agreement-like document in order to see certain curriculum being taught to their children. Parents believe the “Second Step” curriculum teaches children concepts based on the controversial Critical Race Theory. The policy instructs parents that “copying, broadcast or recording of any kind is prohibited.”
- The president of a school board was caught on a hot mic saying “f*** you” to a concerned parent during a public meeting on Tuesday. Los Alamitos Unified School Board of Education President Marlys Davidson made the remark after a mother in the district, Lauren Roupoli, addressed the issue of mask and vaccine mandates. “We are vocal, because we are our children’s biggest advocates,” Roupoli said to rousing applause, as Davidson dropped the f-bomb. Davidson later expressed regret, telling KTLA, “I reaffirm my commitment to serve our community with dignity and integrity, and I hope they will accept my sincere apology.”
Legacy media outlets like CNN and MSNBC, which mock parents as either misinformed or malicious, would do well to cover the real roots of parental backlash: public school administrators’ indefensible actions.
2. U.S. government considers paying some illegal aliens $450,000 apiece in settlement
The Biden administration is considering paying some illegal immigrants up to $1 billion in reparations for separating adults from their children, The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively on Thursday. “The Biden administration is in talks to offer immigrant families that were separated during the Trump administration around $450,000 a person in compensation,” or “close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift.” The ACLU says 940 people of the 5,500 individuals the group has identified as having been separated by DHS have sued the government. Those lawsuits ask for an average of $3.4 million per family. In a separate lawsuit, the ACLU is demanding the government provide the children with “mental-health and other services, along with a permanent legal status,” according to the WSJ.
The U.S. is in talks to offer immigrant families separated at the border in 2018 about $450,000 a person in compensation, people familiar with the matter say https://t.co/mmY60OIfHy
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 28, 2021
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) retweeted the story with the comment, “Absolutely not.”
While the media obsessed over President Donald Trump’s policy of putting “kids in cages,” the many children in detention under President Biden have attracted less media attention.
Stephen Miller said the looming settlement represented an act of “collusion” between the Biden administration and the illegal immigration lobby. “This is what happens when you go from an America first to an America last presidency.”
“These individuals were put in jail for breaking federal law,” Miller told Laura Ingraham on Fox News Thursday night. “American families who got to jail and are separated get no cash compensation.”
“That’s insane,” Miller said.
3. Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry’s politically connected investments
The Washington Free Beacon has reported two cases in which Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Climate Envoy John Kerry appear to be benefiting financially from the political policies they advocate. Kerry owns a $1 million stake in Hillhouse China Value Fund L.P., which in turn became the second-largest shareholder in LONGi Green Energy, a Chinese firm that manufactures solar panels. “LONGi has come under fire from human rights groups and U.S. lawmakers for sourcing many of its raw materials from companies suspected of using forced labor in Xinjiang,” reported the WFB. Meanwhile, Kerry has advocated against sanctioning Chinese solar panels. WFB reported:
“On the one hand, we’re saying to [China], ‘You have to do more to help deal with the climate,’” Kerry said last month. “And on the other hand, their solar panels are being sanctioned, which makes it harder for them to sell them.”
Is this a conflict of interest? No one in the legacy media seems much interested in finding out.
The story takes place at the same time that the Speaker of the House may have her own green energy stock issues. Her husband, Paul, owns “as $1 million of Tesla call options, one of the largest transactions of Tesla shares disclosed by a member of Congress.” Meanwhile, Madam Speaker is promoting President Biden’s “Build Back Better” act, which will make a massive investment in electric vehicles. “Democrats are proposing nearly $120 billion to fund various clean energy projects, and another $34.5 billion dedicated to zero-emission vehicles. The reconciliation bill also proposes $42 billion in tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles, which Democrats hope will incentivize new car buyers to purchase electric vehicles instead of gas-powered cars,” reported the Beacon. Members of Congress can purchase stocks, but not if the purchase is based on insider information. It’s not clear that is the case here, although at a minimum the stock deal has the appearance of impropriety.
These stock issues may be as innocent as Kerry and Pelosi say, but as a matter of potential corruption, they deserve investigation. While the legacy media rightly gave strong coverage to Republicans Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue’s stock history, these cases received much less coverage — which is to say, virtually none outside WFB.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.