NBC interrupts Loudoun blackout to boost Terry McAuliffe
Get him over the finish line.
NBC News has finally reported on the Loudoun County, Virginia, school sexual abuse scandal, which involves teenage sexual assault, a cover-up by school administrators, and a raucous school board meeting that resulted in the bloodying and arrest of one victim's father.
However, NBC hasn't ended its weeks long blackout to cover the scandal’s most newsworthy details, including government malfeasance, chronic school sexual abuse, or even law enforcement misconduct, but to suggest the subsequent outrage the story has inspired may be part of a plot against Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
As usual, a corporate newsroom ignored a bombshell story that reflects poorly on Democratic politicians and policies long enough for it to be repurposed against conservatives.
“A school board in Virginia is at the center of a firestorm,” said anchor Lester Holt. “Parents [are] demanding resignations after they say a sexual assault on campus was covered up.”
He added, “Now, it is a hot button issue in the state's very tight governor's race.”
Holt then turned to NBC Nightly News correspondent Catie Beck, who started out well enough recounting the major details of the story.
Virginia small business owner Scott Smith’s daughter was beaten and raped in a school bathroom on May 28 by a “gender-fluid” 15-year-old male, who wore a skirt at the time of the assault. A judge this week ruled against the male assailant, who awaits trial for an additional sexual assault he reportedly committed in October at another school.
Loudoun school officials tried initially to cover up what happened to Smith’s daughter, opting to deal quietly with the matter in-house and dismissing the abused girl's father as a nuisance. Later, at a June 22 school board meeting, the one where Smith was forcibly removed by police officers, school officials denied there were “any” assaults “occurring in our restrooms." That school board meeting, by the way, was the same one where school administrators debated a proposal to expand special protections to transgender students, including allowing them to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender with which they identify. (The measure passed in August.) Smith, for his part, attended the June meeting to confront school officials about what had happened to his daughter, as his wife’s protestations make clear in video footage of his arrest.
Since the hearing, Loudoun officials have admitted they were aware of what happened to Smith’s daughter, contrary to their earlier, knowingly false denials. By conceding they were aware, they've implicitly admitted they failed to keep other students in the district safe from her attacker. As mentioned, Smith’s attacker allegedly assaulted a second girl in October. School officials have also admitted they have a history of mishandling sexual abuse cases.
Parents are outraged by how poorly the county has mishandled the matter. They’re additionally outraged to learn school administrators have lied about the number of sexual assaults that have occurred in their district.
But this is not the story NBC News wants to tell. Rather, it’s interested in how parental outrage may be used to hurt McAuliffe in the governor’s race.