Native media blasted for poor protection of Minnesota’s large fraud scandal

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Minnesota’s sprawling fraud disaster has garnered nationwide headlines in current weeks, however a number of critics say the issue festered for years, aided by native media that appeared bored with holding folks in energy accountable.

"In newsrooms, they’re advised, ‘We will’t run that as a result of we’re going to be accused of being racist,’" Townhall columnist Dustin Grage lately told Fox News Digital about information shops in Minnesota primarily enabling the fraud by not calling out surprising taxpayer waste occurring primarily throughout the native Somali neighborhood.

The outlet that's thought-about by many the highest information supply within the area, the Minnesota Star Tribune, has confronted criticism on social media in current days over a few of its headlines, together with "Minnesota Somali neighborhood grapples with fraud instances whereas pushing again in opposition to stereotypes" on Nov. 26 and "Trump claims Minnesota misplaced billions to fraud. The proof thus far isn’t shut" on Dec. 11.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors held a press conference the place they revealed that the true scope of the fraud scandal may find yourself costing taxpayers round $9 billion, prompting some conservatives on social media to level out the Dec. 11 headline.

MINNESOTA’S FRAUD SCANDAL WAS ‘SHOCKINGLY EASY’ TO PULL OFF, IS LIKELY WORSE THAN REPORTED: EX PROSECUTOR

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sits for an interview with Star Tribune journalists in his workplace on the State Capitol in St. Paul on Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photographs)

"The Minnesota Star Tribune masquerades as a newspaper," New York Submit columnist Miranda Devine posted on X . "It is truly a Democrat entrance, hiding information, twisting information, mendacity outright. One of many worst within the nation."

Moreover, the paper’s CEO is a person named Steve Grove who served as Gov. Tim Walz’s former commissioner of employment and financial improvement, which has sparked criticism from some who say that the paper is hesitant to pin Walz to the fraud disaster.

Fox Information Digital spoke to a number of locals who argued that media shops both didn’t cowl the scandal totally sufficient or, in instances the place it was coated, Walz’s oversight position was downplayed.

"The Minnesota Star Tribune has confirmed itself to be nothing greater than communist fish wrap," Republican Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota sixth Congressional District, advised Fox Information Digital.

"They’ve proven their true colours all through their sorry protection of the huge fraud in my house state. Fraudsters stole over a billion {dollars} from taxpayers on Tim Walz and [state Attorney General] Keith Ellison’s watch. Nonetheless, the blame additionally falls on the most important, most generally learn newspaper within the state for failing to carry Minnesota’s so-called ‘leaders’ accountable as respectable journalism requires. Their bias stinks to excessive heaven, however that’s not stunning on condition that their high canine is a former Tim Walz appointee."

INSIDE MINNESOTA’S $1B FRAUD: FAKE OFFICES, PHONY FIRMS AND A SCANDAL HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) speaks throughout a press convention with members of the Republican Research Committee and different members of Home Republican management, on the twenty eighth day of the federal government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)

Final week, the conservative media watchdog Newsbusters reported that even after the scandal broke into the nationwide highlight, main information broadcast networks had been nonetheless downplaying the fraud subject and focusing extra on President Trump’s rhetoric on the matter.

Grage advised Fox Information Digital the information panorama has shifted during the last decade or so from a degree the place the information was coated pretty within the period of governors like Impartial Jesse Ventura and Republican Tim Pawlenty, into "complicit media that carries water for Democrats."

"Conservatives in these newsrooms, they've advised me that they attempt to push tales, however a whole lot of the time they stumble upon roadblocks with their newsrooms," Grage advised Fox Information Digital.

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The solar shines on the Minnesota State Capitol. (Steve Karnowski/Related Press)

Grage painted a common image of newsrooms in Minnesota stuffed with staffers sympathetic to the DFL, Minnesota’s Democrat Celebration equipment, and mentioned a key downside is the worry of being labeled "racist" of their protection of fraud within the Somali neighborhood.

"In regard particularly to the Somali fraud scandal, newsrooms will come again at them and say, ‘Effectively, we will not run that as a result of we're gonna be accused of being racist.’ And on the finish of the day, that is the place a whole lot of this has stemmed from," Grage advised Fox Information Digital. "I imply, we are able to discuss concerning the media complacency, the extreme funding deficits for Republicans in our campaigns, however a whole lot of the time it is simply merely put, persons are afraid of being known as a racist."