On 12/15/22 Colorado Community Media published an article: “FEC United attends school district meeting,” with the scary subhead “Security provided.” The clear intent of this piece was to alarm Douglas County residents because “two members of a private armed organization were among the audience” at a meeting of the school district’s Equity Advisory Committee (EAC). This article is an example of how the media turns a “news” story into an inflammatory opinion piece to advance a leftist agenda.

Even the headline is wrong: two members of the United American Defense Force (UADF) attended the meeting, not the FEC (Faith, Education and Commerce) United group, though the two organizations are allied. It was an open meeting that the district encourages citizens to attend, yet the reporter quotes EAC member Cathy Lees claiming an FEC Facebook post encouraging people to attend was “an intimidation tactic that successfully silenced under-represented voices.” How ridiculous. Of course, there’s no way Lees would know that. Maybe the reporter should have asked Lees just who was silenced?

And why didn’t the newspaper focus on what actually happened at the meeting rather than repeatedly calling the ADF “an armed” group, implying the two UADF attendees were armed and dangerous. Maybe they intended to shoot up the equity meeting? Not until the fifth paragraph do we discover they weren’t armed. Never mind, the leftist meme pushed by the DOJ that ordinary citizens are domestic terrorists has been served, as has their anti-gun hysteria.

Never is it mentioned that UADF founder John “Tig” Tiegen is an honorable hero of the 2012 Benghazi attack who defended the U.S. Embassy in Libya against the Islamic terrorist onslaught that killed the ambassador and another. He’s no terrorist thug, he’s a military and security consultant. The article even hints his UADF group’s Denver pro-police rally had something to do with a Navy veteran being killed by an unlicensed security guard hired by 9News.

To further vilify FEC United’s patriots, they are accused of being “deemed anti-government by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” But I searched and couldn’t find FEC United in the SPLC’s 733 (!) “hate groups” or “extremist files.” So. Anyhow, the SPLC is notorious for using its nonprofit multi-millions to file harassment lawsuits against pro-family and free speech groups like Liberty Counsel, the Alliance for Defending Freedom, ACT for America and many others. SPLC calling FEC United anti-government would be an honor. 

Readers are increasingly distrustful of these neighborhood newspapers because of political bias in articles like this. I recommend impartiality as a new journalistic norm.

Joy Overbeck

Parker