Fox promoted false talking point that protesting parents were labeled terrorists more than 400 times

A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump dismissed a lawsuit against Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, noting that a memo Garland issued in October 2021 “does not label anyone a domestic terrorist, as the plaintiffs suggest." The ruling puts the kibosh on a false talking point that Fox News had promoted more than 400 times since the memo’s release, according to a Media Matters review.

Last year, an alliance of conservative think tankers and activists, right-wing media figures, and Republican politicians sought partisan gain by stoking anger against school boards and educators. For months, they inundated the right-wing base with false and incendiary claims that children were supposedly being taught “critical race theory.” On Fox News, propagandists described this academic legal framework which examines the systemic impact of racism as a “civilization-ending poison” that “threatens to overturn the advances of human civilization over the last 500 years.” 

The right-wing campaign against critical race theory had serious consequences, according to the National School Boards Association, a federation that represents local elected school board officials. The group issued a September 29, 2021, memo to President Joe Biden detailing “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” in light of false information about critical race theory and mask requirements, which it termed “a form of domestic terrorism,” and asked for a Justice Department response. On October 4, 2021, Garland responded with a memo stating that the DOJ would implement policies “designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel” (emphasis added), and asking the FBI to convene interagency meetings to “facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”