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The Media’s Guard Dog Role

How Legacy Outlets Shielded Minnesota’s Fraud Scandal and the DFL’s Enabling Policies

In Minnesota, federal prosecutors now estimate that fraud in state-administered social services programs could exceed $9 billion-potentially half of the $18 billion spent on 14 high-risk Medicaid initiatives since 2018. Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson has called it “industrial-scale” theft, with perpetrators creating fake entities to bill for nonexistent daycare services, autism therapy, housing stabilization, and child nutrition. Over 90 individuals have been charged, the vast majority from the state’s Somali community, in schemes that prosecutors say attracted “fraud tourists” from out of state due to lax oversight.

Yet for years, this scandal simmered with minimal aggressive scrutiny from Minnesota’s dominant legacy media. When questions arose, outlets like the Star Tribune, CNN, MSNBC, and others didn’t just miss the story-they actively framed critics as xenophobic while defending the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) policies and officials that enabled the explosion.

Conservative media critic Drew Holden, the Master of Receipts, captured this pattern perfectly in a thread that went viral for its archived screenshots of pre-explosion coverage:

This wasn’t neutral reporting. It was adversarial toward accountability and protective of the DFL ecosystem that turned Minnesota into a fraud magnet.

The DFL’s role is central. Under Gov. Walz’s administration, programs ballooned with minimal vetting-driven by “welcoming” policies that drew large immigrant populations reliant on generous benefits. Center for Immigration Studies data shows Somali immigrant households with children using welfare at rates of 89% (any program), 62% (food stamps), and 86% (Medicaid)-versus 30%, 10%, and 28% for native households. High participation, combined with explosive reimbursement growth (one program from $4.6 million in 2021 to over $170 million in 2024), created irresistible targets.

Military veterans who served in the Middle East and Central Asia have offered sobering cultural context for why such exploitation can flourish when transplanted into high-trust Western systems. Former Army officer @CynicalPublius wrote:

…and your tribe.

I spent a lot of my life in the Middle East and Central Asia, working closely with foreign contractors and foreign governments to provide support to American military operations. As a US Army officer with a big checkbook courtesy of Uncle Sam, I can’t really count the sheer number of times I was offered bribes to award a contract, or falsify records to do things like create larger (fake) headcounts at places like dining facilities, or to just simply be on the take for future illegal requests.

Of course I had enough sense to never comply with such requests. Moreover, they were never explicitly structured as “bribes”; instead it was usually along the lines of “Here I have these Rolexes as gifts for you and your wife to show our friendship.” (Unfortunately, too many US officers and NCOs succumbed to this siren song and ended up breaking rocks in Leavenworth.)

The weird thing about this to me was that whenever I turned down such an offering, it was treated as a grave insult. I was the one in the wrong, and not the fraudster trying to bribe me. They considered it rude that I was in their country and refused to accept how things got done. After all, why did I not want to help my tribe by helping their tribe?

Let me repeat: in these cultures, FRAUD IS NOT EVEN A CONCEPT. There is only what helps your tribe.

Such thought processes are so alien to Americans and much of the West. We are raised on the presumption that our institutions are valid, that the rule of law always prevails, and that integrity is universal. We need these presumptions to have working governments and economies, and without those presumptions-without the mental barrier that causes us not to accept outright fraud-our nation would quickly descend into the economic and social hellscape of countries like…. ummm… you know…. SOMALIA!

So when we import people en masse from cultures that accept bribery and fraud as routine, acceptable ways to advance one’s tribe, we should not be surprised that things like the $8 BILLION fraud schemes of the Somali population in Minnesota happen so easily.

Introducing a fraud-based culture based on tribalism into America is like introducing some sort of lethal virus into a population that has no natural immunity. The virus will spread and grow, unchecked, because it is so alien to the host. Similarly, a culture of fraud is anathema to American thinking, and it must be cut out before it consumes the host.

So when you see and hear patriotic Americans decrying what is happening in Minnesota or elsewhere, and when they seek deportation of the offenders, it is not “racism,” it is not “bigotry,” it is not “xenophobia”; instead, it is preserving the American tradition of responsible institutions and national integrity.

Active-duty Army LTC @infantrydort echoed this with battlefield anecdotes:

The first world is built on trust and delayed reward. The third world survives on speed, extraction, and immediacy.

The first world teaches civic duty because law protects effort. The third world teaches survival because law cannot be trusted.

The first world rewards cooperation over time. The third world rewards whoever gets there first.

The first world invests. The third world extracts.

The first world builds systems meant to last. The third world learns to live inside the ruins of broken ones.

Assimilating people from these areas is almost impossible. Certainly not worth the risk. No reward is worth it.

War veterans have so much experience with this.

Listen.

Critics, including federal prosecutors, argue fear of alienating a key voting bloc delayed action. Whistleblowers from the Department of Human Services accused Walz of ignoring warnings and retaliating. When independent journalist Nick Shirley’s December 26 video-visiting empty “daycares” funded millions yet devoid of children-went viral (now over 115 million views), Walz’s office issued a defensive statement listing belated steps: audits, program closures, a new integrity director. But as Shirley and others noted, fraud persists today.

The Star Tribune, Minnesota’s paper of record, exemplifies the problem. Publisher Steve Grove, a former Walz cabinet member (Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development during COVID relief distribution), has overseen coverage criticized as soft. The paper downplayed the $9 billion estimate as unsubstantiated, omitted Shirley’s exposés from major coverage, and even in year-end reviews ignored the scandal entirely. Conservative outlets and X users have called it a “DFL mouthpiece,” burying stories to protect Walz ahead of his 2026 reelection.

National legacy media followed suit: CNN and MSNBC offered zero broadcast mentions post-December 18 revelations; CBS recycled stale stories. Only after Shirley’s video and FBI Director Kash Patel’s December 28 announcement of a resource “surge”-calling prior cases “the tip of a very large iceberg”-did broader coverage trickle in, often framing Trump administration probes as targeting immigrants broadly.

The media’s adversarial stance-treating oversight as bigotry while lionizing DFL figures-gave fraudsters years of runway. Taxpayers nationwide footed the bill, as most funds were federal. Now, with FBI surges, congressional interest, and potential nationwide probes (e.g., California’s similar NGO waste), the protective wall crumbles.

Legacy media didn’t fail to cover the fraud; they actively obstructed exposure to shield DFL policies. As Patel follows the money, Americans deserve journalists who prioritize facts over faction.

Let’s see what happens in 2026-when voters decide if Minnesota remains #1 in anything but wasted trust.

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James K. Bishop

James K. Bishop is a conservative writer and raconteur hailing from Texas, known for his incisive and often provocative takes on political and cultural issues. With a staunch commitment to originalist constitutional principles, he emphasizes limited government, individual liberties, and traditional American values. Active on X under the handle @James_K_Bishop, he frequently engages his audience with sharp critiques of progressive policies, media narratives, and overreaches by the federal government. His style is direct, often laced with humor and wit, which resonates strongly with his conservative followers.