The Friday edition of the taxpayer-funded PBS News Hour cast a negative shadow on the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty, which hosted GOP presidential candidates for its convention last week. This organization advocated against school closings, masks, and vaccines, as well as critical race theory and gender identity teachings in schools.
The segment’s introduction on PBS was an attention-grabbing attempt to label the group with a disparaging term: “GOP presidential candidates appear at far-right Moms for Liberty event.” On the other hand, there is no mention of any story on the News Hour’s archives with the tag of a “far left” portrayed.
Host Geoff Bennett set off the segment by claiming that “Republican presidential candidates appear at an education event run by a group with increasing ties to far-right extremists.” This allegation was immediately followed by Laura Barron-Lopez’s report, to which only one source was presented: a journalist from Vice News.
Barron-Lopez questioned David Gilbert from VICE News, “who have done multiple investigations into this group, which has spread very fast in a short amount of time. Who are they? And are they as grassroots as they claim to be?”
Gilbert answered, “Moms for Liberty was founded in late 2020 by a couple of former school board members who lost their seats and decided that they wanted to continue staying in this world, I guess. And throughout 2021 and 2022, as you say, they had explosive growth. And on the face, it seems like they’re this grassroots movement of suburban moms and their only aim is to protect students and support public education.”
He continued, “But you very quickly realize when you start looking into them that what they actually are is this Astroturf movement backed by senior figures within the Republican Party and right-wing conservative groups, and they have been able to leverage those connections to give themselves this national platform almost instantaneously. Furthermore, they have used harassment tactics in order to get what they want at a local level by harassing teachers, students, superintendents, and school board members.”
Not questioning the blunt accusations, Barron-Lopez further asked for more. Gilbert explained that “their tactics were to go to school board meeting and shout the loudest and harass and attack school board members, and not just in school board meetings, but also outside meetings. They attacked them online. And, in several cases that I found, they were able to go to those people’s houses and physically and verbally attack them at their, where they lived.”
His exposé, published on May 2023, went even further, accusing Moms for Liberty of being a right-wing extremist group, “We treat Moms for Liberty like the KKK. If you knew that a KKK meeting was happening in a church down the street from your house, everyone would be alarmed.”
Overall, it was clear that the PBS NewsHour, with its lack of other sources and no dissenting view, only featured one opinion about Moms for Liberty. Unfortunately, this one source happened to come from a left-wing outlet with pre-established negative views on the organization in question. As previously mentioned by Elon Musk, this could be an example of the media’s “far-right” tic.
PBS=People believe shit.
Funded by you, the tax payor.