Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee to be North Carolina’s superintendent of public schools, is a QAnon conspiracy theorist with an extensive history of making far-right remarks. According to a new Media Matters report, though, she also spent years working for a group that has spread extreme conspiracy theories.
Morrow was the spokesperson for Liberty First Grassroots, a North Carolina-based political action committee. This group has spread conspiracy theories claiming that the “deep state” is behind school shootings; 9/11 was an inside job; former President Barack Obama has a “Hitler blood line” because “allegedly Hitler is Obama’s grandfather”; elites drink the blood of children; and public schools are part of a “plan set up by the Illuminati to mold the brains of our children.”
Morrow has credited the group with being an integral part of her political journey and has touted her work with Liberty First Grassroots in media interviews as a candidate. Moreover, the group has endorsed Morrow and organized support for her campaign.
The far-right and extremist views of Liberty First Grassroots have so far gone largely unreported in the media. I invite you to read Media Matters’ entire report here.
A bizarre saga unfolded last week as NBC hired and then swiftly fired former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel over the course of just a few days. It was a complete embarrassment for the network, but the incident also points to an important political crisis the Republican Party has caused.
News outlets that historically host commentators to present views of both parties have faced a problem ever since the now-twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former President Donald Trump descended a golden escalator to announce his first campaign in 2015. His dishonesty, bigotry, corruption, and authoritarianism were unique in recent American politics, meaning that networks or newspapers which wanted a pro-Trump voice had to make their peace with hiring someone who would inevitably deceive their audiences. This crisis reached a new level with Trump’s attempted coup following his 2020 election loss.
Trumpian networks have no problem with this — in fact, it’s a necessary part of success in today’s Republican politics to pledge complete fealty to Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was rigged and support his efforts to overturn the result. For outlets that attempt to deliver actual news, however, this is an inherent paradox: Anyone they hire who would accurately represent the views of the GOP is by definition someone who will lie to their viewers about the 2020 election — and they will inevitably support a future Trump attempt to overturn the results of the 2024 vote.
NBC learned this lesson the hard way this week. And despite faux outrage from Fox News over McDaniel’s swift ouster, more credible news outlets must make a choice. As Media Matters’ Matt Gertz writes:
“They must decide whether they want to prioritize paying to air the views of the Republican Party or supporting democracy. A world where you could do both because both major political parties support democracy would be preferable. But thanks to the choices Republicans and their Fox propagandists made, that isn’t the world we live in.”
On March 26, a cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the bridge to collapse. Following the tragedy, right-wing media figures baselessly claimed that the incident was a terrorist or cyber attack.
- Infowars host and prolific conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed the collision “looks deliberate” and that “WW3 has already started.”
- Conspiracy theorist Lara Logan suggested the bridge collapse was a “cyber attack” and claimed that “they are going to have a hard time selling this one as an accident to those who know how these things are done.”
- Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson suggested the bridge may have collapsed due to terrorism.
Other right-wing media figures used the bridge collapse to continue their crusade against diversity initiatives and “open borders.”
- Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo suggested the collapse could be due to a “wide open border.”
- Right-wing conspiracy theorist and MAGA troll Jack Posobiec shared a meme suggesting the collapse was caused by DEI.
- On Newsmax, Victor Davis Hanson blamed the bridge collapse on diversity hires.
