This is how bad the quality of journalism has become in many parts of the United States. Instead of reporting facts and truth, they look for cheap shots against conservatives, and try to shame, defame, and intimidate them from speaking out on issues.
This is worse than yellow journalism. It's petty propagandism, and most high school newspapers can write better.
Here's an entire article written in the Dominion Post, a newspaper based in Morgantown, West Virginia. Notice how they were interested in targeting a meme posted by Cindy Frich, but then ended up writing an extensive article about the blog post I had written, all to expose them.
Here's the article:
Frich decries reporting on social media post
MORGANTOWN —
Former Republican Delegate Cindy Frich recently posted on her Facebook page an
explicit meme directed at a transgender nominee for a federal health post,
Rachel Levine.
This is the lede for an article in a newspaper. Seriously. They are writing a report about a meme posted by a local resident. How pathetic is the legacy media when this is the best that they can do.
Frich
accompanied the meme with comments — containing information long ago proven inaccurate
— regarding a controversy the nominee stirred last May in her position as a Pennsylvania
health official.
When The
Dominion Post contacted Frich and presented questions about the Facebook post, Frich
said she is a private citizen even though she has held public office and run as
recently as last November, when she placed sixth in a 10-person race for five
House 51st District seats. She’s also posted that she is a pro-family activist.
She
subsequently contacted a member of a right-wing political group to intervene on
her behalf. A member of the group made the issue public by preemptively
publishing on one of his blogs off-the-record correspondence and inaccurate
information, and by personally contacting the reporter who reached out to
Frich, as well as the newspaper. Newspapers typically don’t make themselves
part of a news story, but the actions of Frich and the blogger made it
unavoidable in this case.
The meme
Rachel Levine,
a transgender woman, was Pennsylvania secretary of Health. On Jan. 19, then President-elect
Joe Biden announced he’d nominated her to be his assistant secretary of health.
Her nomination brought back into the news the controversy she stirred in May.
Background on this is gleaned from national and Pennsylvania media reports at
the time.
At the request
of their 95-year-old mother, Levine and her brother removed their mother from a
personal care home to another residence. At the time, Levine was initiating
statewide testing at nursing homes, which her department oversees and were
experiencing the effects of a statewide outbreak. Levine took heat for the
apparent hypocrisy but defended her action, saying Pennsylvania’s Department of
Human Services, not her Department of Health, oversees care homes. The two types
of facilities offer different levels of care.
On the day of
Biden’s nomination, Frich posted the meme: A picture of Levine with superimposed
text (in all caps) reading, “I just saw my penis, 6 more weeks of quarantine.” Frich
posted above the meme: “Biden’s Assistant Secretary of Health: Dr. Rachel
Levine pulled his mother out of her nursing home to protect her from Covid-19
without warning Pennsylvanians to protect their loved ones!”
The Facebook
post prompted 114 comments (some of those Frich’s responses to other commenters),
58 emoji responses and 29 shares. At one point, Frich defended her post: “This
meme is not gratuitous. He & leftist PA Governor Wolfe placed fascistic
restrictions in the name of Covid-19. They lost in the court.” She also noted
in other comments how she cared for her Pennsylvania grandparents so they could
die at home and helped
her sister who lived in Pennsylvania.
The Dominion
Post emailed Frich Tuesday and posed questions about the post, offering her the
opportunity to respond by email or phone. Getting no response, a reminder email
was sent, as well as a text alerting her to the two emails. Frich replied later
that day with a question, sent via text and email. The Dominion Post responded
to both.
The exchanges
Frich then
responded: “Your newspaper has become quite leftist. Depending upon the
direction your article goes, you could incite further violence against me. I live
with two 86 year olds. They will not be
able to escape if our house is torched. I’ll hold your newspaper accountable.
“I am not a
public figure, I’m a private citizen. I’m waiting for an attorney to return my
phone call.
“I was doxxed
internationally and threatened by locals in the fall/winter of 2018. Why didn’t
your paper interview me about my tight loss? Why no article about how much
money we spent per vote?
“In these dark
times of censorship and cancel culture, it seems your newspaper wants to shame me
in order to intimidate others from speaking out. I’m waiting to hear from an
attorney about my rights.”
Frich contacted
an organization called MassResistance, which identifies itself as “a leading pro-family
activist organization, MassResistance provides the information and guidance
people need to confront assaults on the traditional family, school children,
and the moral foundation of society.”
Arthur Schaper,
the organization director for MassResistance, then contacted The Dominion Post by
phone and email. Schaper identifies himself as a teacher turned writer and
operates nine blogs.
Schaper ran for
a seat as a Republican in the California State Assembly and tallied 84,867
votes in November but
with just 37% of the vote to the winner’s 63%. A Los Angeles Times profile said
“Schaper is so abrasive that the local Republican Party has disavowed him.”
His email said,
in part: “It has come to our attention that your local newspaper is attempting
to shame, defame, and ultimately intimidate Mrs. Cindy Frich for her bold
stances to protect children and families in the State of West Virginia.
“It is really
shocking that your newspaper has NOT reported the numerous death threats that Cindy
Frich has endured, nor have you written about the repeated abuse that she has
taken because she stands up to the LGBT lobby in Morgantown and throughout the
state.
“We all know
what is really going on here: you are interested in writing yet another hit
piece against strong women who care about families, particularly about the
well-being of children. You are interested in shaming a woman who has stood up
to the destructive cultural marxism which has become all too commonplace in a
number of industries and institutions in the United States.
“For the
record, we have exposed everything that you have written, all in a perverse
attempt to shame, defame, and intimidate Cindy Frich.”
In the phone
call, he added that he insisted The Dominion Post back away from this story and
report on the abuse Frich has suffered. In blog posts, Schaper published The
Dominion Post’s email exchanges with Frich requesting comment.
The blog
headline reads: “West Virginia Newspaper Harasses MassResistance Activist,
Trying to Shame and Intimidate Pro-Family Activists.” The post includes the
photo and contact information for the reporter along with false
characterizations. Frich reproduced the post on her Facebook page. Schaper sent
a message to the reporter through Facebook Messenger saying, “Smile, You’re Famous,”
and a link to the post.
Frich’s reply
Frich emailed a
reply to the newspaper’s questions Friday afternoon. We print it verbatim minus
the final two sentences, which are personal remarks to the reporter, and minus
quote marks since it’s pasted directly from her email.
From: The
Official Office of Former Delegate
Madame Cindy
Frich
Pronouns:
Madame, Your Highness
January 28,
2021 Morgantown, WV
My official
public position (as the holder of the Office of Former Delegate):
This reply is
regarding your request for an interview on my recent social media meme post drawing
attention to the embarrassing appropriation of femininity by President Biden’s
newly appointed Assistant Secretary of Health.
All citizens
have the right to be treated with dignity. But not all behavior is dignified. What
is and what isn’t dignified behavior, is, and should always be, left up to
individual discernment. Thankfully the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
protects the right of individuals like myself, to call out undignified
behavior. Sometimes we do that creatively, with both photos AND captions. And I
may continue to do so.
The First
Amendment also protects our right to call out hypocrisy by progressive members
of the media. The Dominion Post’s rush to decry other types of cultural
appropriation while defending the appropriation of femininity with a misguided
sense of moral superiority, belies the reality that the majority of the
news-interested customers in this market already know. Your news reporting is
editorializing at best and in this case, bizarre science-fiction.
[Two sentences
of personal remarks deleted here.]
Sincerely,
Madame CindymFrich
The Official
Office of Former Delegate & Poster of Memes
