'Political Propaganda' Accuses Wenatchee School District Of 'Liberal Wokism'
The 'editor' of the mailer designed to look like a newspaper has close ties to 'Biblical Basis for War' author Matt Shea
A mailer titled “The Wenatchee Record” designed to look like a newspaper arrived in Wenatchee voters’ mailboxes on Nov. 2 and has some folks upset.
“What is this and who paid for it?!” wrote Wenatchee resident Samantha Belanger-Ford in a public Facebook group.
The only authors credited with bylines in the four-page broadsheet are a political activist named Glenn Dobbs and Wenatchee School Board candidates Tricia Cleek and Randy Smith.
Among other things, the trio take aim at Wenatchee School Board members Maria Iñiguez, Martin Barron and Laura Jaecks, “liberal wokism,” and “transgender ideology” in schools.
“Science has proven there are two biological genders, male and female. A person may feel uncomfortable with the gender of their birth, but no amount of mutilation of their body will make them a different gender,” Cleek wrote.
The title of Smith’s column was “English for Spanish Speakers” and in it he outlines a two-year language “emersion program” for “foreign students.”
“Frequently, a child comes to Wenatchee to live with relatives, many of whom aren’t competent in English,” Smith wrote. “Wishing the very best for the child, parents of relatives optimistically register the child in the nearest public school. The child knows no one, cannot interact in English, and is a prime target for recruitment into gangs or worse.”
The article on the front page of the mailer bears the headline “Wenatchee Schools Are Failing.” It’s the same phrase that appears on a billboard in South Wenatchee and handbills that were passed out at the Chelan County PUD, according to a whistleblower.
The body copy of that article repeats phrases and talking points used by Grace City Church Pastor Josh McPherson on stage during church services recently, as well as a website set up by two local retirees named Dale Peterson and Richard “Dick” Black. Black is one of McPherson’s followers and will be one of GCC’s new “Garden City Academy” instructors.
Some of the same talking points can also be found in a recent letter from Bill Sullivan, a Chelan-Douglas Health District board member and Covid-19 conspiracy theorist.
“Boys who ‘identify’ as girls can use girls’ bathroom – and locker rooms,” reads one bullet point used in both mailers.
Both mailers accuse the WSD of “sacrificing” or “trading” academics for politics and bemoan the institution of diversity, equity and inclusion training.
“DEI is a Marxist curriculum to foster envy and division among the races, eliminate ‘equality of opportunity’ and excellence and produce ‘outcomes’ for all (dumbing down), and acceptance of aberrational sexuality as a normal equivalent to heterosexuality and the traditional family,” reads one portion of the article on the front page.
There’s no byline on that front-page article, so it’s impossible to know exactly who wrote it. But in an article titled “Sacrificing Academics For Political Agenda” on page two the byline attributes that copy to a man named Glenn Dobbs.
According to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, Dobbs made “independent expenditures” to Cleek and Smith’s campaign totaling $4,558. The candidates received $2,279 each and according to the independent expenditure forms Dobbs signed those funds were for “Mailing.”
On the independent expenditure form that Dobbs signed, he agreed under penalty of perjury that the expenditure was not made “in cooperation, consultation, or concert with, or at the request of suggestion of, a candidate.”
However, Dobbs’ byline is just inches from Cleek and Smith’s on the same page of the publication he edited.
In addition to a missing “e” at the end of Wenatchee in the header, the mailer is also missing a sponsor identification, which is required by Washington political campaign laws. Commercial advertisers like sign companies, web hosts, printers, radio and TV stations are also required to keep a record of their political ad transactions and disclose key information upon request by anyone.
So I reached out to Dobbs via email and requested more information about his bulk mailer, writing the following:
“Hello Mr. Dobbs,
I'm a reporter based in Wenatchee and I had a few questions about your publication, ‘The Wenatchee Record,’ which hit mailboxes today.
Who paid for the mailer? I couldn't find any ‘paid for’ disclosure information, which is required by Washington state election law. How many Wenatchee addresses did the mailer go to and how much did it cost to send it?
How did you, an individual who lives in Chelan, become so interested in a Wenatchee School Board election?
I noticed your mailer came from the same address as the ‘Wenatchee Values Alliance’ letter penned by Chelan-Douglas Health Board member Bill Sullivan last week and includes much of what Sullivan wrote almost verbatim in the ‘Wenatchee Schools At A Glance’ article. Was that written by Sullivan? Or was it written by you for Sullivan? Or was it written by someone else for both of you?
I also noticed school board candidates Tricia Cleek and Randy Smith both penned opinion pieces in the issue. Are you connected to Grace City Church, and are you coordinating your campaign with theirs? Many of the talking points in your mailer have been used by GCC pastor Josh McPherson and his followers recently.
Was retired general Dick Black involved? Was retired urologist Dr. Dale Peterson involved? Is there a religious motive behind your interest in the makeup of the Wenatchee School District board of directors?
Thank you for your time,”
Dobbs has not responded, but if he does I will update this piece.
Some folks thought the mailer was a special section of The Wenatchee World. The masthead fonts are similar and the mailer was in mailboxes with that day’s edition of the World, which is now delivered by mail.
Longtime Wenatchee resident Steven Hays reached out to the World to express his confusion and anger.
“When I pulled this out of my mailbox, at my first glance, I thought it was a Wenatchee World flyer until I took a closer look. I am not the only person to do this. It is bad enough that they spoofed your typeface and signature look, minus the apple. Their propaganda is nothing but deception, deceit and barefaced lies,” Hays wrote. “Somebody has a print shop and I am pretty sure it resides at a big compound in Sunnyslope. However, you should be outraged that this deceptive flyer has besmirched the reputation of The Wenatchee World in its sneaky use of your print style.”
The Wenatchee World’s print facility did print the mailer, Managing Editor Nancy Niles admitted in an editor’s note on a story they wrote about the “propaganda” as Niles described it.
“The Wenatchee Record, which appeared in several thousand mailboxes recently, was printed by The Wenatchee World’s commercial printing arm. And while it is common for commercial printers to produce flyers, mailers, postcards, and other political information during election season and throughout the year, we realize that, for many of our readers and those in the community at large, this particular mailer bore a strong resemblance to The Wenatchee World — from the name of the publication to the fonts used in the mailer’s nameplate. I want to assure our readers that The World newsroom had no part in authoring it. In fact, for many, including ourselves, it is a well-timed reminder of how political manipulation can be found in all media formats, not just social media or the internet,” She wrote. “The Wenatchee World values its readers and the trust they place in us. We pride ourselves on keeping opinions on the opinion page, clearly identifying opinion pieces, and making sure our readers know the difference between news and commentary. Our promise to you is that you never need to fear that we will disguise political agendas as news.”
The mailer also prompted the Wenatchee School District to release a statement this morning.
Glenn Dobbs’ Christian Nationalism and Ties to ‘Biblical Basis for War’ Author Matt Shea
Glenn Dobbs is a former Washington state legislator and longtime political activist. He talked about the many political campaigns he has worked on and helped fund, as well as his close ties to controversial former lawmaker and author of “Biblical Basis for War” Matt Shea, on Shea’s podcast “Patriot Radio” in 2019.
In this excerpt, Dobbs talks about how he met Shea and became something of a mentor to the firebrand politician.
You can listen to the entire podcast on Facebook via a page titled “Redoubt News” here.
In 2019, while serving in the Washington State Legislature, Shea was accused of domestic terrorism by fellow representatives after an investigation into his ties to “The Patriot Movement” that sees the federal government as an enemy to be fought with violence if necessary.
“Independent investigators commissioned by the Washington State House of Representatives found that Shea, as a leader of the Patriot Movement, ‘planned, engaged in, and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States government’ between 2014 and 2016,” NPR wrote.
I have also covered Shea in the past, and he is on record advocating that “patriots” like himself and Dobbs stockpile firearms and train with them to prepare for “the coming Civil War.”
Shea and Chelan County Republican Chairman Cary Condotta also have a friendly relationship, and Condotta has used his platform on the NCWlife channel to promote Shea and his agenda in the past.
The Chelan County GOP, as well as Condotta’s employers and owners of LocalTel and NCWlife, Dimitri and Brenda Mandelis, also contributed to Randy Smith’s campaign. According to the PDC, the GOP kicked in $2,500 and the Mandelis’ each gave $500 – representing roughly a third of all the money Smith has raised to fund his run for school board.
Neither Mandelis or the GOP gave money to Cleek’s campaign.
You can see a list of Smith’s donors via the PDC here, and Cleek’s here.
Dom,
Hunter S. Thompson wrote: “In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.” ― "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
It would seem you have penetrated a closed society, exposed the guilty, and caught the idiotic scurvy shyster bastards red-handed while the ink was still wet.
I have been around, and while I have met many intelligent thieves and liars, I never met a smart one. There’s a big difference because stupidity and greed are bedfellows. The holier-than-thous who are trying to commandeer the school board (and mayoral) election are blinded by their greedy goal which leads them to make silly, stupid mistakes. Their spoofed propaganda flyer is proof positive of my posit—that you’re dealing with intelligent idiots, who are blinded by dogma and therefore are incapable of honesty and subsequently are prone to make stupid mistakes.
On the upshot, "The Wenatchee World" finally had to file a statement. Hopefully, some journalistic reporting will follow. But as the old saying goes, “Wish in one hand and sh*t in the other.” By now, we all know which one will fill up first.
Living in Georgia now it's amazing and disgusting to me that the White Nationalist Nazis in the Wenatchee area are even worse than the ones here in Georgia. Reinforces my belief that all churches need to be taxed out of existence.