Wenatchee School District Responds To Wenatchee World Printing 'Political Propaganda,' Platforming Anti-Education Activists
WSD Spokeswoman Diana Haglund said the World's decision to publish "misinformation" has led to"eroded trust" and "lost credibility" for the paper
Last fall The Wenatchee World printed a political mailer rife with misinformation about the Wenatchee School District, public education in general, and the only person of color, Maria Iñiguez, running for school board in the run-up to election day 2023.
It was a veritable potpourri of rightwing tropes – few of which have anything to do with what average students are learning in public Wenatchee schools.
“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,” an unattributed article on the front page read.
That publication went to about 6000 households and was created and paid for by a Chelan resident named Glenn Dobbs, who has ties to domestic terrorist Matt Shea. I covered the mailer at the time, as well as Wenatchee High School students’ reaction to Dobbs’ false claim that the state superintendent of public schools said Wenatchee schools were failing.
Wenatchee School District Superintendent Kory Kalahar responded by calling the flyer “political propaganda” designed to look like a legitimate newspaper and blasted it online and in an op-ed in the World.
That phrase triggered a warning from Julie Norton, an attorney and member of the Wenatchee School Board.
Norton said she told Kalahar he could be in violation of RCW 42.17A.555, regarding the use of public office or agency facilities in campaigns.
Kalahar’s response prompted local Covid-19 activist and Chelan Douglas Health Board member Bill Sullivan to file a complaint with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, which administers and enforces Washington's public disclosure law regarding political campaigns.
Last fall, Sullivan also sent out a mailer designed to influence the Wenatchee School Board election. In it he used many of the same phrases as Dobbs did in The Wenatchee Record and urged voters to support GCC-affiliated candidates Tricia Cleek and Randy Smith.
You can read that in its entirety here.
And while he engaged in activism clearly designed to influence the election, Sullivan in his complaint to the state accuses Kalahar of doing that very thing.
“Wenatchee School District, represented by Superintendent Kory Kalahar, violated state election law by using school resources for political activity to influence an election during the final days of the 2023 General Election,” he wrote.
Kalahar responded to the complaint on July 31 and said no public resources were used and that his response to Dobbs’ propaganda was not intended to sway the election, but rather set the record straight.
After Sullivan filed his complaint, he sent out a press release to local media outlets to publicize it. The World picked it up and ran with a story that WSD Spokeswoman Diana Haglund felt was one-sided. She also noted that The World’s editors failed to acknowledge the fact that it was their printing press that printed Dobb’s flyer.
“Many people contacted the district as soon as it came out. They were upset and frustrated,” she said.
Haglund said she understands printing press operations aren’t supervised by the editorial staff – but most people don’t know that.
“Knowing that this misinformation was published by your local newspaper I think has really called into question the credibility of the World,” she said. “And eroded that trust with many of our staff and our community members.”
She said she brought the issue up at an invite-only meeting of community leaders Wick Communications held a few months ago. That meeting was led by Wick CEO Francis Wick, who recently resigned as head of the interstate media company.
“During that meeting, I was pretty vocal in that it’s important for us to have a positive relationship with our local journalists and our media partners, but at the same time our concern was the fact that an incident did happen where a part of their business did publish a piece, that again, we believe had misinformation and inaccuracies about our district,” she said.
Haglund said its frustrating because every time this issue comes up in the media, it brings the false claims and misinformation back up.
And what’s to stop Dobbs and The World from publishing another edition? That’s the question she said she ended with. It was a question left unanswered.
“And it continues to be a concern,” Haglund said. “What filters are in place? How do they evaluate what gets printed? You know they’re not printing things like pornography.”
Seeking Clarity about The World’s Standards and Practices Ahead of New Editions of ‘The Wenatchee Record’
I reached out to Wenatchee World Publisher Sean Flaherty and Managing Editor Nancy Niles to ask about how they will handle print jobs like The Wenatchee Record in the future, and if they would print a second edition should Dobbs want to create one.
I sent them the following email on Aug. 13:
“Hello Sean and Nancy,
I'm working on a story about The Wenatchee Record propaganda flyer, the PDC complaint filed by Bill Sullivan and the World's involvement in the story and I had a few questions.
First, why wasn't the fact that the Wenatchee World's printing press printed the flyer disclosed in Oscar Rodriguez's article this week?
And why wasn't the fact that Sullivan also sent out a mailing with the intention of influencing last year's Wenatchee School Board election mentioned?
Third, why is an individual filing a complaint with the PDC news? Do you cover any time a citizen files a PDC complaint regarding a local election or just when they send you a press release about it? Other than in this instance, has the World ever done a story covering an individual filing a PDC complaint?
Fourth, what is the evaluation criteria for materials you print? If Dobbs decides he wants to print another Wenatchee Record flyer will you print and distribute it?
Do you feel that the World has lost credibility due to its involvement in the production of the propaganda flyer? Did Wenatchee School District officials express their concern about that involvement? Did anyone from the World reach out to WSD officials to apologize or clear the air after you printed the first edition?
Thank you for your time.”
As of Aug. 17 they have not responded.
I also reached out to Glenn Dobbs to ask if he plans on producing a second edition of “The Wenatchee Record” and if he would use the World’s printing facility to print it.
“There will be future editions of The Wenatchee Record,” he wrote. “It will be printed at the facility that offers the most cost effective rates and greatest efficiency for the printing and distribution.”
Sullivan has not responded to recent requests for comment.
My Two Cents
After the World printed Dobbs flyer last November and I was preparing to write an article about it, Nancy Niles called me and begged me to leave out the fact that The World’s printing press printed and distributed the flyer. She acknowledged that Dobbs was mostly likely mimicking the Wenatchee World’s masthead font in an attempt to fool members of the public into thinking it was an official World print product.
She said they would acknowledge the fact that they had produced the propaganda publication as soon as they came up with a coordinated response, which to their credit they did at the time. She also said the fact that they weren’t aware of what the press was printing was a problem to be addressed.
So I demurred out of professional courtesy and because I understood that the editorial staff had no oversight or say over what the printing facility was producing. During that conversation it sounded to me like there would be communication between editorial and the press in the future when it comes to stuff like this. So I figured the problem would work itself out.
But the fact that Wick’s CEO couldn’t give a definitive answer to Haglund, and Flaherty and Niles didn’t respond to questions about the matter shows a clear lack of transparency and accountability from a company that makes a large portion of its money off the Wenatchee Valley community.
Furthermore, the lack of acknowledgment about the World publishing Dobbs’ flyer in Rodriguez’s Aug. 12 article falls short of what one would expect from our local paper of record. The World’s role should be noted in all coverage regarding Dobb’s flyer.
And finally, the choice to cover Sullivan’s complaint uncritically in any way is beyond the pale. He used the same stock phrases and talking points as Dobbs in his mailer and both were clearly trying to influence last year’s school board elections.
The mere fact that Sullivan made a complaint and then sent a press release about it should be met with suspicion by any reporter or editor worth their salt.
Covering the complaint gives Sullivan’s claims weight. He has a clear agenda, and to allow yourself to be used in furthering that agenda falls short of what we should expect from our community newspaper.
The appropriate time to cover this issue is if the state sanctions Kalahar and the district because they found Sullivan’s claim to have merit. Covering it at this juncture only serves to further legitimize Sullivan and his cohort’s narrative.
And that narrative is something we’ll be delving deeper into in the coming weeks, because Sullivan has been a busy activist recently.
How Bill Sullivan, an anti-science person, got on the advisory board of the health district, a group that should be founded in science, is simply beyond me.
Thank you for this, Dominick. From this distance, (I live out-of-state now) it appears that since the Wenatchee World was sold it has fallen into confusion and neglect - who is minding the store? Wilfred must be tossing in his grave.
I so grateful for your attentive reporting.