On Tuesday, Chaya Raichik — the woman behind the Libs of TikTok social media account, which has done significant work exposing sexually explicit materials and LGBT indoctrination in public schools — was named to a position on the Oklahoma Education Department’s Library Media Advisory Committee.
Oklahoma is conservative. Raichik has been instrumental in the parental rights movement, so the association was a natural fit. It’s the kind of thing that, back in the golden days of the local newspaper, would get maybe 10 column inches on page D16, at best.
“Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about — lowering standards, porn in schools, and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” state Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a statement, according to NBC News.
“Because of her work, families across the country know just what is going on in schools around the country.”
In those halcyon days of column-inches, of course, the most controversial aspect of Raichik’s appointment is that she’s not a resident of Oklahoma or has official training in education — although her impeccable credentials in chronicling the current moral Babylon of state-sponsored education makes up for those. Not at NBC News, though. No, to the fine folks at the Peacock Network, the real story was that a “far-right influencer” who was inspiring “bomb threats” got the job.
A far-right influencer who was accused of instigating bomb threats last year against a school library in Tulsa has been named an adviser to a state library committee, the head of the Oklahoma State Department of Education says. https://t.co/joS0KS5Xfi
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 24, 2024
That’s not just a consummately clickbait-y tweet from NBC News’ X account, by the way: The lede to the actual story it links to is materially identical, with only a few words that don’t change the meaning shuffled around or replaced with synonyms.
“Raichik’s Libs of TikTok accounts have more than 3 million combined followers on X and Instagram,” the story, penned by NBC’s Matt Lavietes, continued.
Should this story be retracted?
“Its content — which is often laced with bigoted rhetoric — generally singles out LGBTQ people, drag queens and their employers, and it criticizes them for promoting diversity, inclusion and equity efforts.
“In addition to last year’s scare in Tulsa, posts by the account have preceded several bomb threats to schools, libraries and hospitals across the country in recent years,” the story continued. “In August, Union Public Schools, a school district that covers parts of Tulsa and some of its suburbs, said it received bomb threats for six consecutive days. The threats came after Raichik shared a critical video about one of its school librarians.”
It’s almost hilarious that this kinda-sorta-important detail was tucked away in paragraph 10 of the story: “The threats against Union Public Schools were not deemed credible, according to Tulsa police, who investigated the incident in coordination with the FBI and Broken Arrow police.”
Oh.
In fact, none of the “bomb threats” supposedly linked to Libs of TikTok have been deemed even slightly credible, nor can NBC News even cite a causal link. What they can cite is the fact that some of the institutions or instructors therein were implicated in some of the the account’s videos.
What they don’t cite is why Libs of TikTok would target a Tulsa school librarian. Unverified reports of her reading “The Lorax,” deemed by Raichik to be a piece of environmentalist propaganda by that perfidious leftist, Dr. Seuss? Dying her hair purple — clearly a sign of secret lib sympathies?
No, not quite. Instead, it was the fact the elementary school librarian in question posted this on TikTok:
This is an elementary school librarian in Oklahoma: pic.twitter.com/9ky6y7LPkK
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 21, 2023
Librarian brags about indoctrinating young children into being “woke” on social media. Someone who aggregates this kind of problematic behavior — sorry a “far-right influencer” who aggregates this not-at-all problematic behavior — posts what this educator made public on a wider stage. Non-credible bomb threats may have happened, which may or may not have had anything to do with the post itself. Meanwhile, school parents — not wrongly — have a problem with someone who openly brags about “pushing [my] woke agenda” on their kids on social media.
But you know who the problem is? The far-right bomb-threat-causer (well, maybe, not really, but why let the facts get in the way of a good lede?) who promoted something the librarian had already made public. And now she’s on a state media advisory committee! Panic, America!
Raichik, for her part, is taking NBC’s ridiculousness for what it’s worth:
“far-right” is when you’re against giving kids p*rn in school. I guess I’m far-right then 🤷🏻♀️
Raise your hand if you’re also far-right! https://t.co/XONMcnrJM3
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) January 24, 2024
After the unintentionally hilarious, inflammatory post hit social media, Raichik quoted it on her own account and said “‘far-right’ is when you’re against giving kids p*rn in school. I guess I’m far-right then.
“Raise your hand if you’re also far-right!” she added.
Over on NBC News’ corner of X, however, things weren’t going so smoothly over that bit of copy:
You guys are such morons. This is defamation. Anybody can call for bomb threats against anyone. Attack them and not @LibsofTikTok
Also, you guys are FAR LEFT propagandists. That is clear to everyone. So, enjoy the ratio.
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 24, 2024
You forgot to mention it was the news media that falsely accused her of instigating bomb threats. Kinda important detail.
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) January 24, 2024
Which one of your equity hires just put you at risk of a defamation lawsuit?
— Tony Kinnett (@TheTonus) January 24, 2024
— U.S. Ministry of Truth (@USMiniTru) January 24, 2024
I prefer people that are far-right rather than people that are far-wrong
— Dennis Peterson (@Dpete9Peterson) January 24, 2024
And that’s probably going to be the takeaway most people have from this one. Just days after a bad-viral exchange in which Joy Reid — one of the dimmer hosts on the network’s cable news annex, MSNBC — tried (poorly) to defend one of the controversial, highly explicit books parents groups are trying to keep out of school libraries with the president of Moms for Liberty, we now have the Libs of TikTok impresario being branded as a “far-right influencer” who may have suborned bomb threats, even though there’s no actual evidence of that.
Meanwhile, the piece was denuded of almost any actual context of why Libs of TikTok exposes educators for who they are, generally with videos the “targets” themselves post to social media of their own volition. How do you think the account got its name, after all? Drawing attention to what’s public already is hardly “targeting.” Assertions of bigotry are thrown around without evidence to back them up — because who are you going to believe, NBC News or someone they call a “far-right influencer?”
Don’t believe them still? Here, let me say the words again: “Far -right influencer.” And again: “Far-right influencer.” Don’t those words scare you, America?
Actually, no: The term doesn’t frighten most people anymore because it’s been used so promiscuously that readers have become accustomed to associating “far-right” with anyone a liberal media source disagrees strongly with — as opposed to, say, some neo-Nazi prepper out in the wilds of Idaho. And on that front, NBC News certainly isn’t changing any minds with sensationalist piffle like this. If anything, they’re turning it into a badge of honor.
