Dr. Spiehs provides context on his remarks toward Kansas Reflector Editor Sherman Smith as the news source gets called out on Twitter

Article/Media - 7 minute read

Dr. Justin Spiehs made himself known in Douglas County in 2021 and 2022 where he protested mask mandates on kids and ran as a Republican for Douglas County Commissioner District One. During his campaign, he created a YouTube channel where he still continues to upload on occasion. In his most recent video, published on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, he provided context to—as the Kansas Reflector put it—his “profane tirade” at the Kansas Legislative hearing.

The video starts out with the last 30 seconds of Dr. Spiehs’ three minute speech at the Kansas Capitol for the Kansas legislative hearing. He says some explicit language regarding editor of the Kansas Reflector Sherman Smith, and then it cuts to present day Dr. Spiehs explaining why he did this.

Dr. Spiehs said in the video that Kansans were able to speak at this hearing for three minutes regarding the COVID policies that were in place. Originally, this was going to be a one day hearing, however, so many Kansans signed up that it became a two day hearing. Interested in what others were saying, Dr. Spiehs went online looking for information when he came across Smith. Dr. Spiehs explained that the Kansas Reflector covers politics from a “far-far-left perspective,” referring to them as “extremists.”

“He was live-tweeting at the state capitol while people were giving their testimonies,” Dr. Spiehs said in the video. “He was just being the most snotty, snarky motherf*cker with all this sh*t. He was being condescending. No empathy whatsoever. He couldn’t care less about any of these people that were up there talking about how they had their livelihoods impacted by these COVID mandates and these public policies.”

Dr. Spiehs decided that when he would go speak the next day, he would call Smith out once he was given the 30 second notice. Dr. Spiehs went into the details of the issues of manipulations of the public record.

In one story specifically, Dr. Spiehs said Smith was interviewed claiming that Dr. Spiehs attacked him like that because Smith wouldn’t cover the protests Dr. Spiehs was putting on. Dr. Spiehs said in the video that this was not true.

“At that point I had had contact with lots of reporters, and I had turned down reporters coming over and wanting to cover, and I didn’t want to deal with you because it was on their terms—they wanted to do the interview here, or there, and I wasn’t willing to do that,” Dr. Spiehs said. “So, I was turning down reporters. It wasn’t about him not covering my story. I couldn’t care less about that.”

Dr. Spiehs said his words at the hearing were strictly due to Smith being a “condescending, smug, *sshole the night before to American citizens” that were speaking on how their livelihoods were negatively impacted by the COVID policies.

The video ends with the full three minute speech Dr. Spiehs gave at the legislative hearing.

The same day that Dr. Spiehs uploaded this video, Sedgwick County Rep. Nick Hoheisel (R) tweeted out the following:

In the last screenshot, Rep. Hoheisel provides the link to a Washington Post article on propaganda, specifically in regards to the “faux news site” Courier and the funding they get from Acronym, described in the article as a “liberal dark-money group.”

Opinion editor for the Kansas Reflector Clay Wirestone responded, saying hiding the comment was a “mistake” that was now fixed. Rep. Hoheisel pointed out that it takes two clicks on a phone to hide a comment, referring to the “mistake” as a “pretty big coincidence.”

One commentator pointed out that the “left leaning McClatchy organization” runs conservative op/eds every so often, but hasn’t seen the Kansas Reflector do anything of the sort. Wirestone responded to the commentator encouraging the commentator to submit a piece.

This all came after some tweets by Rep. Hoheisel on May 1 where he called out Wirestone.

We’ll get into the whole “arsonist” thing as we need to talk about that. However, I first want to mention that Kansas economist Michael Austin quote tweeted Rep. Hoheisel’s tweet agreeing with him.

Rep. Hoheisel went onto say the following:

“It appears that their accountability lies solely with their undisclosed liberal donors, who seem to only be interested in tarnishing the reputation of Republicans. It's sad that they present themselves as journalists, as it undermines the credibility of real journalism.”

There are a lot of people on the left in Kansas who do follow the Kansas Reflector. On Twitter alone they have 11.8K followers. So, there are people who do regard this source as legitimate.

One man who is apparently known by some Twitter users on the left as “Hateful Nate” also commented on this tweet. We will not confirm, nor deny the claim, but it is interesting.

Hopewell Fund is a 501(c)(3) funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting firm. This organization manages a number of left-of-center single-issue advocacy groups, and has millions upon millions of dollars at their disposal.

Going back to the whole “arson” issue, this was in reference to an opinion piece by Wirestone. In this opinion piece there were a lot of “interesting” takes. Some were hypocritical, for example, one take was that Republicans “want to control your body.” Specifically when it comes to issues regarding abortion and wanting to take away licenses of health care providers that provided transgender services to those under the age of 21 years. However, as Dr. Spiehs pointed out in his video, this is an organization ran by people who were absolutely okay with vaccines and masks and, according to Dr. Spiehs in his video, at least some of them really didn’t have a problem that the policies implemented were impacting people’s livelihoods. Another one was that Republicans are “filled with all consuming rage.” This was said as if House Democrats didn’t tell Rep. Marvin Robinson (D) that he needed to die for voting in favor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

However, to get to the point on arson, Wirestone states,

“These folks are not Republicans, at least not the kind our country has known and occasionally loved for decades. They aren’t sensible, coherent leaders with a penchant for fiscal responsibility and traditional values. They aren’t pragmatic partners with whom one can sit down and hash out a compromise.

“These are arsonists.

“No explanation needed here.”

Again, this is also tone-deaf. This is said as if today’s Democrats aren’t completely different than those from 20 years ago who could also be reasoned with. I, myself, push back on Republicans when it’s warranted. Those articles don’t tend to do as well since most of my readers are conservative, but also, I don’t really care. Pushback is necessary so we’re not just living in an echo chamber. However, the left is known for harmful policies. They work to infringe on constitutional rights seemingly constantly. Earlier this year Sen. Pettey (D) went against a portion of a bill that literally upheld the constitution. Smith covered the same hearing that I did and didn’t mention this at all. It was almost like we covered two completely different hearings, but that’s why I also tell my readers to get both sides. I know I cover things that only I’m going to cover, but when there are other sources, I do encourage you to look at them.

All of this is important because, as we just learned on Monday, a new poll from the Associate Press found that 74 percent of Americans believe media is doing more to increase political divisions in the U.S. while only six percent believe media is decreasing political divisions. Another 18 percent believe there is no effect. When it came to the question of “Is the news media hurting democracy?” 61 percent of Republicans, 23 percent of Democrats, and 36 percent of Independents said that news media is hurting democracy. Of those polled, 90 percent also said that misinformation is a problem. Furthermore, 33 percent expect a news story on social media to be inaccurate.

On the plus side, this has given an open for other news sources, like The Kansas Constitutional, to come in and provide news and points of views that Kansans aren’t really getting elsewhere. And The Kansas Constitutional isn’t the only news source to come about the past few years. Kansans are starving for news that they’re simply not getting, and we live in a capitalist society where, when a need gets noticed, people come about to fill that need. Due to this, when I get asked if it’s hard competing with news sources like the Kansas Reflector, I always say that I’m not really in competition with them. They are selling a product I have no interest in selling. We may both be news sources, but we operate in separate markets.

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