Conservative News Media Exposed Corruption in Virginia Schools, Helped Turn the State Red
In the final weeks leading up to the election of Virginia’s governor, the polls took a swift and decisive shift in Republican Glenn Youngkin’s favor.
Then, on Tuesday night, Youngkin made history by defeating his Democratic opponent.
According to polling data, it appears that what spurred this reversal was investigative work by conservative news outlets, reporting that uncovered systemic, left-wing corruption in the Virginia public school system.
Most notable among these reports was an investigative piece from The Daily Wire exposing a cover-up in Loudoun County, Virginia. The outlet’s exclusive reporting revealed that Loudoun County officials lied to parents about their knowledge of a rape that had occurred in a girls’ bathroom located in a district high school.
The perpetrator, 14 years old at the time of the incident, was reportedly “gender-fluid” and wore a skirt at the time of the attack. He was later convicted on two counts of forcible sodomy. He and the victim had “hooked-up” in the girls’ bathroom before, but — on May 28 — he forced himself on her. Then, the teenager reportedly went on to sexually assault another girl in a different school in the district.
Months after the first incident, during a public meeting, the school board lied to parents by claiming to have no knowledge of the event. This lie was made as the school board debated whether to implement a new policy allowing transgender students to enter the bathroom of their choice.
The policy was passed soon thereafter, with parents in the district not hearing about the rape until The Daily Wire released its report in October.
“Our investigative reporting wouldn’t be necessary if mainstream media outlets just did their jobs. Instead, they ran interference for Leftists in Virginia who hid sexual assault cases from parents so they could impose their radical gender ideology on Americans. It was an outrage and we’re proud that we exposed them,” The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro told The Western Journal via email.
The Daily Wire wasn’t the only conservative news organization exposing corruption in Virginia schools.
Additionally, an investigation by The Western Journal published on Oct. 8 exposed a cover-up within the Prince William County, Virginia, school district located directly south of Loudoun. The Western Journal’s report found that various local media outlets had dishonestly edited their coverage to blame parents for a disruption that led to the cancellation of the district’s Sept. 15 school board meeting.
In truth, security shut down the meeting when a Democratic official began screaming obscenities at parents opposed to the teaching of CRT.
In the weeks leading up to the election, journalist and prominent CRT critic Christopher Rufo did his fair share of reporting on school corruption in Virignia as well.
For instance, when Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe claimed that critical race theory had “never been taught in Virginia,” Rufo obtained and published official documents proving this assertion to be false.
And here’s another one: the Virginia Department of Education is currently promoting an initiative called “anti-racism in education,” which features the critical race guru Ibram X. Kendi and explicitly deriving their definitions from “critical race theory.”https://t.co/CGX07A1OOJ pic.twitter.com/aXdJAQqh8h
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 13, 2021
This has trickled down to the districts. Fairfax Co. trained teachers in the “application” of “critical race theory.” Loudoun Co. paid $625/hr for “critical race theory” consulting and the former superintendent admitted that the curriculum “align[s] with the ideology of CRT.” pic.twitter.com/vWWSrURvBA
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 13, 2021
Indeed, the evidence shows that this collective coverage from conservative outlets helped turn the tide of the Virginia election.
A study from a Monmouth University pollster conducted the day prior to Virginia’s first gubernatorial debate showed McAuliffe with a 5-point lead over Youngkin. At the time, 37 percent of voters trusted McAuliffe with “handling education and schools” whereas only 33 percent of voters felt the same about Youngkin.
Then, over the next several weeks, conservative outlets began releasing the aforementioned reports on school corruption.
Just prior to election day, polls from The Washington Post and Fox News conducted in late October showed Youngkin had all but closed the gap with voters and had gained a considerable lead with voters who cited education as their top priority.
Left-leaning establishment news outlets have long derided conservative outlets like The Daily Wire and The Western Journal for focusing their coverage primarily on aggregating news stories, rather than on producing original reports.
Now that both outlets — and others — are beginning to flex their journalistic muscles, the establishment media’s monopoly on journalism is coming to an end.
The Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boering told The Western Journal that he would like to personally thank establishment media critics for The Daily Wire’s recent successes.
“I for one would just like to thank Popular Information’s Judd Legum, the New York Times’ Kevin Roose, and all the hacks who like to point out that while The Daily Wire is extremely successful on social media, our investigative reporting could be beefed up,” Boering wrote in comments sent to The Western Journal.
“We did it, guys.”
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