Politicized media not doing its job
To the editor:
Trump gave his America positive speech this month and true to form the news media reported it as focused on divisions in the country instead of his major points about the improving economy (from Biden’s disastrous term) and the great expectations for 2026.
The same media had nothing but applause for Biden’s few empty speeches.
When this country was developed, the news media was called the Fourth Estate with the chore of reporting honestly and critically in an unbiased way. How else can voters learn what the people who won elections are doing with their promises.
Most of the news media have ignored their responsibility.
For example, the biggest news today, is the $1-9 billion of fraud in Minnesota, a very blue state with a very blue governor. The fraud was little known until just announced by the federal government. Among their many frauds, Minnesota had the distinction of having the largest fraud of pandemic money of any state in America and their population is only 6 million.
Somali criminals were among those who learned that they could get rich by fraudulently qualifying as recipients of government handouts that included, school lunches, pandemic give aways, autistic children, HSS, Medicaid and others.
For example, criminals paid thousands of Somali parents $300 to $1,500 per month to keep their child in the autistic program after first declaring that their child was autistic. Note this crushes the idea that only a few Somali were involved. The criminals then received millions of dollars of Medicaid benefits, not for the children but for themselves.
One scammer, who is not Somalian, defrauded the state’s autism-treatment program for tens of $millions. She billed Medicaid for fake autism therapy sessions, used untrained staff and billed Medicaid. She spent money on big homes, luxury autos, lavish vacations and Kenya real estate investments.
Another program, the Housing Stabilization Services was established to help those needing housing. Governor Walz was proud to budget $2.6 million annually in Minnesota. Instead, in 2023 it spent $100 million and was on pace for $120 million in 2025.
The addresses listed on the HSS and Feeding Our future claims led to empty parking lots, non-existent office suites and legitimate businesses with no association to the fraud entities.
Can you imagine a state government that sees the actual being almost 40 times more than the budget doing nothing?
Some government workers say they told Gov. Walz and Attorney General Ellison but they dismissed it because the 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota had been captured as a Democratic special interest group. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating.
Note other states monitor the many federal handouts, not always well, but they don’t lose billions even with 5-6 times the population.
The local news fell in step with the governor quoting his comments that Trump was not being fair to the Somali people and Walz denied any responsibility for the fraud initially. Walz then said that all fraudsters will be punished and that they are investigating the fraud. After four years and $billions stolen the governor acknowledged the fraud.
Ilhad Omar, congresswoman from Minnesota has served for eight years. Her wealth has grown from insignificant to possibly as much as $30 million in eight years. Not bad for a congresswoman’s pay. With all the billions floating around in the Somali community maybe she found some of it.
Our news has been so tainted that 73 million people voted for Gov. Walz and Kamala Harris and their failed history.
No, the news is not new, just the same biased reporting pushing a socialistic agenda.
John Benedict
Cape Coral