Warning: This article contains a book excerpt with graphic sexual descriptions.
It’s news to no one that legacy media love to publish Democrats’ unsubstantiated narratives — but the latest doozy from The Wall Street Journal is no exception.
On Monday, the outlet hopped on the Democrat conspiracy train by pushing the baseless claim that conservatives are “banning” books from schools and public libraries. In its article, “Book-Ban Campaigns Hit 4,240 Titles Last Year: Here Are the Top 10 Targets,” the Journal cited figures from the neo-Marxist American Library Association (ALA), which created a list of the top 10 books “targeted” by parents concerned about their children being exposed to these works’ pornographic and otherwise age-inappropriate content.
The newspaper regurgitated and legitimized the false, leftist-manufactured “book ban” phrase numerous times throughout the piece and gave some of the objectionable authors and ALA president space to mischaracterize conservatives concerned about what their children are consuming. For instance, here’s the author (whom the Post legitimizes as “nonbinary”) of All Boys Aren’t Blue, which includes descriptions of anal sex and sexual abuse:
“Every book that I write will probably be challenged because all of my books are going to live in the wheelhouse of queerness and Blackness, and those two things have been deemed unacceptable by those who are banning books,” said Johnson, who is nonbinary.
Johnson said book challenges were attempts to “dumb down the nation” by denying people the opportunity to read about the lived experience of marginalized communities.
The works the ALA flagged as the “most targeted” in 2023 by conservatives include pornographic content unsuitable for minors. According to the ALA report, the most contested was Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir, which contains graphic depictions of sexual acts and, according to the New York Post, glorifies trans surgeries such as double mastectomies.
One of the lines included in the book reads: “I can’t wait to have your c-ck in my mouth. I’m going to give you the blowjob of your life. Then I want you inside of me.”
The book is so sexually graphic that local Florida news stations reportedly cut their livestream when Gov. Ron DeSantis played a video highlighting its contents during a press conference last year.
Also included in ALA’s list of “targeted” works is Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan’s Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human. That book features “drawings and descriptions of masturbation, instructions for anal sex, and a guide on how to send sexually explicit text messages and images to others — with tips that include hiding birthmarks, piercings and other identifiable features,” according to the Post.
Flamer by Mike Curato — which contains depictions of underage boys “performing sex acts with each other at a summer camp” — was also included on the ALA’s top 10 list.
As my colleague David Harsanyi previously explained, contrary to Democrats’ hyperbolic rhetoric, there is no conservative-backed effort to “ban” books. There is nothing authoritarian about libraries curating their literary offerings. Moreover, books not available at public or school libraries can be purchased online with the click of a button or at retail bookstores.
What many parents and groups like Moms for Liberty are advocating for is the removal of books containing sexually explicit and other inappropriate content from libraries accessible to small children. There is no defensible reason why minors should be exposed to the aforementioned materials — especially without parental consent.
But according to so-called “news” organizations like the Journal, maintaining the innocence of children is no different than an angry mob burning books in a public square.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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