A media outlet called the Missouri “Independent” launched in October of 2020, featuring a team of familiar reporters with an extensive history covering this state and branding itself as “a nonprofit news organization covering state government and policy” under the umbrella of a national organization called States Newsroom. The press release announcing their formation includes a promise to operate as a transparent, nonpartisan outlet focused on “fair and tough reporting.”
“We're part of States Newsroom, a network of sites dedicated to putting journalists back into state capitols after years of steep decline. But just like our name suggests, we are independent."
However they are far from "fair and tough reporting" but rather another fake news media outlet funded by Liberal dark money groups. States Newsroom was founded by a tangled web of “dark money” groups identified with the political left, and its affiliates in other states have a documented history of partisan bias – both of which are cause for concern. Recently, it has come to light that the left-wing dark money groups that fund States Newsroom, and subsequently the Missouri Independent, raised more than $1.6 billion during the 2020 election - when the Missouri Independent was founded. Using dark-money to fund the veneer of delivering transparency in government is an absolute contradiction of character.
Since their founding they have been on the attack against Republicans in Missouri despite their thin veil of "independent" reporting. Most recently they have gone after Governor Parson about COVID.
Unlike other states, Governor Parson has never caved to the mounting pressure from the media or left to lockdown Missouri or institute a mask mandate. Now they have resorted to cherry picked information and unscientific "studies" in order to push a left-wing narrative and misrepresent conservatives.
The Independent claimed the following study “The study compared infection and death rates in St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Jackson County with the rest of the state. New state health Director Donald Kauerauf wrote in an email that the study’s findings showed the effectiveness of mask mandates and forwarded it to Parson’s office.”
Here are the actual facts:
- Using metrics of per 100,000 population as a basis when many Missouri counties have less than 10,000, creating false and misleading conclusions.
- Over the past 7 days Gentry County has 47 cases out of a population of around 6,600 - they are ranked worst case rate per county at 730.5 per 100,000 while Jackson County has almost 10x as many cases (438), but due to the larger population is less than 1/4 the per 100,000 rate with 164.3.
- Using the same measurement looking at total cases to-date, St. Louis County which had an aggressive mask mandate was ranked #71 out of 118 subdivisions meaning that more than 30 Counties had lower rates without any mask mandate. Kansas City #64, and Jackson County #45 also had mandates and fared even worse than almost half of the Counties in the state with no mandates.
Bottom Line
The dark money funded liberal media is no longer limited to the coasts but is now in our backyard. It is important we sound the bells when liberal funded groups try to influence voters with fake news. We must call upon the "Missouri Independent" to actually be independent and not beholden to their far left liberal donors!
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