The newest episode of 60 Minutes should be used by mainstream media as a blueprint for how to responsibly cover far-right ”parental rights” group Moms for Liberty.
Too often, Moms for Liberty and its co-founders have received coddling rather than questioning from mainstream media outlets. In many interviews, Moms for Liberty representatives mischaracterized the group’s activities without meaningful pushback from reporters. Critical details were omitted, including Moms for Liberty’s routine harassment, extremism, and violent threats directed at librarians, teachers, and school officials.
It’s likely that Moms for Liberty was expecting standard media coddling, because the moment 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley began asking even softball clarification questions, co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich visibly fumbled.
At one point in the interview, Descovich asserted that “there are rogue teachers in America’s classrooms right now,” followed by Justice repeating a classic Moms for Liberty talking point: “Parents send their children to school to be educated, not indoctrinated into ideology.”
Pelley asked, “What ideology are they being indoctrinated into?”
Descovich jumped in with a non-answer, “Let’s just say children in America cannot read.”
Instead of dropping the question, Pelley highlighted their evasiveness and continued to ask, “What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into?” No answer.
Justice’s fearmongering claim that children are being “indoctrinated into ideology,” followed by her inability to actually articulate what ideology she was referencing, is representative of Moms for Liberty’s overall strategy of creating fear about something the group can’t even identify.
Pelley later asked Justice and Descovich about Moms for Liberty’s frequent use of the extremist smear “groomer” to describe those that disagree with the group’s activities, ranging from librarians to, well, us.
“I’m just asking, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by ‘grooming’?” inquired Pelley.
Justice ignored the question, saying, “Parents want to partner with their children’s schools. But we do not co-parent with the government.”
Pelley continued, “‘Grooming’ does not seem like a word that you want to take on.”
Justice, again, ignored the question. “You know, we did some polling and we asked — we really wanted to know where are the American people on this issue of parental rights and what’s happening in our schools.”
Instead of giving air to Justice and Descovich’s hollow talking points, the 60 Minutes segment moved on to a different part of the story with a transition that acknowledged that the Moms for Liberty founders were “dodging questions.”
Pelley wasn’t asking hardball questions, but Justice and Descovich were clearly unprepared for even the slightest bit of pushback. Unsurprisingly, right-wing media are already scrambling to vilify 60 Minutes and conduct damage control for Moms for Liberty.
Justice appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room the day after the interview aired and accused Pelley of dishonestly editing the segment. Justice then spoke with Fox News Digital, claiming that the interview was “heavily edited” and they were “censored” by CBS News. Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said 60 Minutes was “advocating for the LGBTQ agenda in schools” and described the segment as “biased.” BlazeTV’s The Steve Deace Show jumped to defend Moms for Liberty’s use of “groomer.” Megyn Kelly — who previously hosted a Moms for Liberty fundraiser — blasted Pelley for the interview, saying he “failed America’s children'” and calling him “disgusting.”
Despite these protests from right-wing media, 60 Minutes showed that it took minimal prodding for Pelley to unmask Moms for Liberty’s façade and expose the group's strategy for what it is — loudly repeating empty talking points about right-wing boogeymen like “critical race theory” or accusations of “groomers” in schools, all intentionally crafted to mobilize its extremist base. However, the illusion is shattered when its leaders are pressed for details because their boogeymen aren’t real.
