DALLAS–The mainstream media’s bias in favor of critical race theory has only lit more of a fire under concerned anti-CRT parents, Texas school board member and education advocate Hannah Smith said Friday.
Smith, elected to the Dallas-area Carroll Independent School District board in May, told Fox News at the Conservative Political Action Conference that while she and other advocates had been “really successful” in getting their story out through some outlets, the liberal press has provided some accidental aid.
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Smith credited a controversial NBC News report from February in helping CRT opponents assemble against their local schools’ progressive agenda, where reporter Mike Hixenbaugh wrote on the “mostly white” parents in Smith’s Southlake community who fought against the school board’s plan to require diversity and inclusion training for K-12 students.
Smith credited the author’s narrative, which put Southlake in a less-than-flattering light, with getting outraged parents to the polls.
“You know a lot of the national media that came to Southlake was a direct result of an NBC article,” she told Fox News at CPAC following a panel on local education activism.
“And that original article was so negative and actually galvanized our community into responding because the NBC article, that painted our community as a racist community,” she said. “And people reacted to that so negatively, that they turned out in droves, for the elections, to really send a message to say we are not a racist community, you know, we are not what was depicted in that article.”
She was joined by fellow panelists Cameron Bryan, one of her fellow CISD school board members, and Ian Prior, an education advocate in Loudoun County, the wealthy northern Virginia enclave at the center of the CRT debate after concerned parents and education leaders forcefully confronted their school board.
Prior agreed there is some benefit to talking to the media about the fight for kids’ education, depending on the source.
“I think it is to a degree and it depends on the outlet,” Prior told Fox News. “If I think a reporter is going to write a slanted story, but will accurately quote what I say and provide proper context, I will still work with that reporter so as to get our message out there to counter the opposition.”
“That said, there is zero value to talking to certain outlets that have zero interest in anything other than hit pieces, false narratives, and conspiracy theories,” he added.
Parents have begun to not only confront their local school boards about CRT and progressive curricula, but to run for board seats themselves.
Positive media coverage of CRT has been hard to find since the battle over the controversial curriculum began. MSNBC publicly ridiculed CRT foe Christopher Rufo twice in the span of a week, with Joy Reid barely letting him get a word in in their 13-minute discussion, and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude Jr. rolling his eyes at him on “Morning Joe.”
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A CNN reporter this week flatly said CRT foes didn’t understand the concept, and far-left MSNBC host Joy Reid has attacked its opponents as racists and conflated them with QAnon conspiracy theorists.
