Loudoun Asks Feds To Censor Local Outlet For ‘Bullying’ It By Reporting On Its Corruption

 Loudoun County Public Schools filed a bizarre complaint with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) asking the federal agency to punish the D.C. market’s ABC affiliate for its Emmy-winning coverage of the district’s corruption, calling the reporting “misinformation and disinformation” that amounted to “bullying and harassing behavior.”

For 35 pages, the manifesto by LCPS spokesman Dan Adams tattled to the government that journalists had not characterized things the way he instructed them to—for example, Nick Minock, WJLA’s lead Loudoun reporter, said that the school superintendant had missed a month of school (20 workdays) traveling on junkets, when Adams said it was 19.5 days.

“LCPS is forced to ask itself, ‘what recourse remains?’ WJLA has demonstrated through its actions and failure to communicate that their behavior will continue unabated without some kind of external action,” the FCC complaint said.

“We do not take this action lightly, as we work tirelessly to have positive and collaborative relationships with our media partners. But at this time, we can no longer stand by while WJLA and its staff consistently provide misinformation and disinformation to our community,” LCPS wrote.

The censorship attempt comes as Superintendent Aaron Spence embarks on an unprecedented spree of stifling dissent and hiding problems.

A Republican school board member, Deana Griffiths, also faced a closed-door attempt to formally discipline her last week for offering mild criticism of Spence, and revealing that she declined to vote in favor of giving him a bonus of more than $20,000.

Adams included a chart in his complaint to demonstrate WJLA had a “disproportionate focus” on Loudoun schools, a plea for the government to punish a private media station for choosing what topics to focus on.

Shortly after the complaint was sent, Minock won three Emmy awards for his Loudoun reporting, celebrating its widely-recognized accuracy and importance to the public interest.

The complaint nitpicked reporting such as how after LCPS spent $11 million adding non-gendered bathrooms to its schools —after covering up a rape by a boy in the girls bathroom — Minock reported that the goal was to accommodate transgender students; Adams claimed that was “misinformation” because non-transgender students would also be allowed to use the new restrooms.

Recently, Loudoun’s sheriff was forced to go public after Spence concealed the fact that there had been nine fentanyl overdoses by students of a single school, with Spence falsely claiming that even saying the name of the schools where it occurred would violate privacy laws.

Adams complained to the FCC that WJLA should not have been allowed to report that it concealed the overdoses, because in one case the school disclosed that “a student experienced a medical emergency,” without saying what it was. Adams said Minock “disrupted [a] public meeting” by asking the superintendent about the topic. In response to bipartisan condemnation of the secrecy, the Virginia legislature later passed a bill requiring schools to notify parents of overdoses — a bill LCPS hired a lobbyist to try to modify.

Virginia state senator Glen Sturtevant, a Republican, called for a “temporary state takeover” of LCPS in response to Adams’ screed, saying that “trying to silence a free press” that had reported on its problems shows that it is “totally out of control.”