Local news ‘investigative report’ uses Democratic Party head to bash conservative school board, but fails to mention her job
A local station in North Carolina used the head of the local Democratic Party to bash conservative school board members, without disclosing her party or job title.
In a written report…
A local station in North Carolina used the head of the local Democratic Party to bash conservative school board members, without disclosing her party or job title.
In a written report carried on the local WSOC TV 9 news site, reporter Almiya White follows up on the investigation of 123 pages of text messaging between conservative school board members that the station obtained.
The school board members, in part, were questioning the district’s superintendent on “why handing out gay and transgender flags is a good idea” according to WSOC.
“This should not be pushed on a bunch of middle schoolers,” said board member Abby Trent, of the Iredell-Statesville School Board (IB), according to the investigative report of the texts by the local news station.
The report was dramatically titled “9 Investigates.”
“What is the best way to drive home to the IB schools (and to all schools) that the gay, transgender, and woke agendas being driven by these people (are) not acceptable?” asked board member Michael Kubiniec in a text.
To question the content of the text messaging for the story, WSOC used Beth Kendall, chair of the Iredell County Democrat Party, without mentioning the partisan position of Kendall, whose bio includes the line: “She is passionate about electing democrats.”
Said the report:
County resident Beth Kendall said the texts were ridiculous and terrible and that it’s, “Something any elected official should be ashamed of.”
Now she wonders why they would want to serve on the school board.
“It was clear these members were much more into furthering their agenda rather than helping students,” Kendall said.
What’s unclear is why the station would use a Democrat, described simply as a “county resident,” without explicitly stating she is the head of a local political party.
The Lion reached out to the reporter via telephone and asked her why the station decided to cut Kendall’s professional political affiliation from the story.
“Because my managers made the decision not to turn this into a political story,” White said.
When it was pointed out that the story was already highly political by the inclusion of Kendall, White refused to answer why the station made the issue ideological, not covering both sides of the story.
“We’ll get back with you on that,” said White.
When asked if White could put The Lion in touch with the managers who made the decision, she demurred.
“You can email us at the assignment desk,” said White, giving the station’s email address carried on the website.
But when asked the name of the editor to contact, White again refused.
“Once you email that, it will go to the person who it needs to go to,” said White.
The Lion reached out to board members Kubiniec and Trent for comment, but neither responded at the time of publication.