After spending months relentlessly attacking the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas for not implementing radical Critical Race Theory curriculum, on Wednesday, NBC Nightly News eagerly touted how the network’s smear campaign had been rewarded. Earlier in the day, the Biden Department of Education announced that it would be launching multiple civil rights investigations into the not-sufficiently-woke school district.
“The Texas schools in a firestorm over race. The new civil rights investigation,” anchor Lester Holt teased at the top of the evening newscast. Minutes later, he breathlessly proclaimed: “Tonight, there’s developing news in Southlake, Texas following the in-depth reporting NBC News has done there on the issue of race and education. A new federal investigation is now underway.”
Correspondent Antonia Hylton, who has devoted an entire NBC News podcast to hyping the pro-CRT push in the Texas town, welcomed federal intervention:
In Southlake, Texas, the U.S. Department of the Education has launched three civil rights investigations at the Carroll School District over unspecified allegations of discrimination based on race, nationality, and gender....For almost a year, NBC News has covered the clash over race and education in this wealthy Dallas suburb....Volunteers spent almost two years developing a school diversity plan. But some parents pushed back, launching a lawsuit that effectively killed the plan....Experts say only 5 to 10% of these type of discrimination complaints become official federal investigations.
One of those experts, Association of Title IX Administrators president and lawyer Brett Sokolow, warned: “They’re going to look into it more deeply and try to figure out if there have been violations of various federal laws.”
Hylton eagerly predicted that the Biden administration could be harassing the Southlake school system “for years to come”: “The investigations could take well over a year, and if the federal government finds violations, the school district could be forced to make policy changes and could be monitored by the Department of Education for years to come.”
While NBC has been happy to spend nearly a year stoking racial tensions in a single school district, it willfully ignored multiple scandals – including two student sexual assaults – rocking the entire Loudoun County, Virginia school system, which had a major impact on the commonwealth’s closely-watched governor’s race.
When news of the federal investigation into Southlake schools broke Wednesday morning, Hylton appeared on MSNBC in the 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. ET hours to hail the development. She first told anchor Jose Diaz-Balart:
...this is a big deal. These are investigations that are going to probe issues relating to racial, gender, and sexuality discrimination. And you know, in terms of the – to put this in context for you, you know, experts that we’ve spoken to say that this office does not open investigations just into any school district. This is a sign that they believe that there’s serious information, serious violations, Title IX violations here at this school.
Later, she bragged to anchor Craig Melvin:
This comes on the heels of months of our reporting on major racial tensions and conflict in this community here. One of the first towns in the country to start fighting over Critical Race Theory, how we talk about racism and history in schools. They were one of the first towns to launch a major backlash to a diversity and inclusion plan, with many conservative parents raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and launching a lawsuit to ultimately make sure the diversity and inclusion plan didn’t move forward in this district.
Meanwhile, there were students, parents, teachers of color on the other side trying to get the district to pay more attention to what they are years worth of incidents of racial and gender-based harassment here.
The notion of a left-wing interest group – in this case NBC News – pressuring the Biden administration to abuse its power and launch federal investigations into education-related matters sounds nearly identical to the leftist National School Boards Association urging the Biden Justice Department to treat concerned parents of schoolchildren like “domestic terrorists.”
NBC cheering its ability to get the Biden administration to go after those it deems to be un-woke was brought to viewers by Jersey Mike’s and Liberty Mutual. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the November 17 report on Nightly News:
7:09 PM ET
LESTER HOLT: Tonight, there’s developing news in Southlake, Texas following the in-depth reporting NBC News has done there on the issue of race and education. A new federal investigation is now underway. Antonia Hylton has details.
ANTONIA HYLTON: In Southlake, Texas, the U.S. Department of the Education has launched three civil rights investigations at the Carroll School District over unspecified allegations of discrimination based on race, nationality, and gender. Southlake, which is just 2% black, was thrust into the national spotlight in 2018 after a video of students chanting the N-word went viral.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN [SOUTHLAKE SCHOOL PARENT]: My son has been told that his skin is too dark, that his nose is too big, that our family does not belong in the neighborhood.
HYLTON: For almost a year, NBC News has covered the clash over race and education in this wealthy Dallas suburb.
NIKKI OLALEYE [FMR. CARROLL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT]: They don’t know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a student of color at Carroll. They never will.
HYLTON: Volunteers spent almost two years developing a school diversity plan. But some parents pushed back, launching a lawsuit that effectively killed the plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN [SOUTHLAKE SCHOOL PARENT]: There will be no home for this toxic ideology here in Southlake.
HYLTON: Experts say only 5 to 10% of these type of discrimination complaints become official federal investigations.
BRETT SOKOLOW [ASSOCIATION OF TITLE IX ADMINISTRATORS PRESIDENT & LAWYER]: And that usually signals that they consider something potentially to be amiss. They’re going to look into it more deeply and try to figure out if there have been violations of various federal laws.
ROBIN CORNISH: I’m hopeful that with the federal government intervening that it’s a wake-up call for everyone.
HYLTON: Robin Cornish, who we first met a year ago, had five children graduate from Carroll.
CORNISH: It was bad. It was bad. And it made them, you know, have issues with their self-esteem, self-doubt.
HYLTON: Has this school been responsive to parents like you?
CORNISH: I think that they could have done way better and we wouldn’t be where we are if they had done better. Marginalized students are not protected in this school district.
HYLTON: The school district told NBC News that it “is fully cooperating with this process and diligently pulling all documents requested.” The investigations could take well over a year, and if the federal government finds violations, the school district could be forced to make policy changes and could be monitored by the Department of Education for years to come. Lester?
HOLT: Antonia Hylton, thank you. You can hear much more about all this on our NBC News podcast, Southlake, available now.
