NC news outlet slaps doxxing reporter on wrist | Hour 1

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the peak calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All right. So a little bit of the breaking news. Da da da da da da. Bill Malugin from Fox News with a breaking update within the last hour. Let me see here. Yes. Virginia's Democratic Senate President pro tempore or pro tempore. Never know how to pronounce it. When I say tempore, it sounds like a sushi item, you know? So, but then tempore just sounds a little highfalutin. So. Everybody just says pro Tem. I even asked North Carolina Senate leader, Phil Berger one time, like, how do you pronounce it? Your president pro Tem. How do you pronounce it? Is it temporary or temporary? And he says, I just say pro Tem. Like, all right, well, that that's not helpful. I guess I could ask my local data center. Anyway, Virginia's democratic Senate president pro Tem. So the top leader in the Virginia Senate, state house or the Senate. I forget if they, they don't call it the general assembly. I forget what they call it. But she's the top leader in the Senate. Her name is Louise Lucas. She has now been arrested by the federals and is now in federal custody. She's charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and firearms charge. I don't know if there's more because he doesn't. I'm just reading what he wrote and firearms charge. And there is a DOJ press conference. Yeah, I believe it's going on right now. You know what? I wasn't going to do this. Are we able to take this live, Nick? Can we can we take it live? We'll do it live. I don't know. Fox is carrying it live. Although I don't know, they've got an image of a police officer. Federal grand jury indicted Eric Lewis. Okay. That's a different case. Nevermind. It's a different, that's a different press conference. I saw, well, I didn't have my glasses on. I'm looking at the TV across the room there. And I saw Lewis. I thought it said Lucas. So no. All right. So that's not the press conference going on right now. So this woman, now, if you've ever watched the podcast called making the argument, Nick Freitas, Former Virginia lawmaker, although he has now moved to Tennessee. And so he does this podcast making the argument. I think he actually got picked up by the blaze now. Very good podcast. I enjoy watching, watching his episodes, but man, like he has all of these stories about his time. I think he was in that legislature for like a decade and he's got so many stories about and like the stuff that I've heard him say about this woman, Louise Lucas. So this was not a surprise. It was just a matter to me of will. Is there any kind of political will? Will Chamberlain from the article three project article. Yeah. He took a screenshot of, and I have not read the, the, the charging papers here, but listen to this. This is, Bullet point number 99. On or about February 9th, 2026, so this year, this past February, Louise Lucas called UCC number two. I believe that would be maybe an undercover person or maybe an unindicted co-conspirator. That's probably it. Unindicted co-conspirator. So she calls this person and discussed the language surrounding the recreational marijuana legislation that was pending in the Virginia General Assembly and the possibility of UCC number two receiving a license and sharing the proceeds with her because, quote, this is our last chance at generational wealth. I've got too old to not be greedy. Wow. Yikes. That sounds like that's on a recording. That is not going to help the defense. Two days later, law enforcement observed this UCC No. 2 person dispose of a white trash bag in a dumpster. The trash bag was retrieved, found to contain 19 packaging bags with the owner of marijuana. On or about March 7th of this year, She called a guy named Eichelberger and discussed using Tamika Johnson as a middleman for marijuana sources of supply. I believe the deal here is that Louise Lucas operates some of these, quote, medical marijuana dispensaries or something, and she was trying to get a permit for the recreational licensing. Two days after that, She telephoned a Virginia legislator, informed them she needs to get the marijuana license because, quote, I got to get the license and I got to get the money rolling in because I want to make create some generational wealth. I need to be covered under his hemp license. Hmm. All right. So that's going well for folks up in Virginia two weeks before the election. Closer to home, we have an update on the story that I discussed briefly at the end of the show yesterday, which was... There are so many different components to this story that really give you a peek behind the curtain of how reporting and politics works in North Carolina, but also. you know, writ large. So much of this stuff really is about petty personal grievances, insults and slights. And puffery of like, I'm the better reporter. I'm actually a journalist and you're just a blogger or something. So, and it also, uh, speaks to institutional biases. It speaks to personal bias. And the story is about Mr. Brian Anderson, who is a reporter for an outfit called the assembly. The assembly is a fairly new startup. It's a website. Uh, I don't know if they publish a, uh, a print copy, a dead tree copy. I'm not sure if they do or not. Um, But and this is just from my observation from afar. I know nothing about really the the publication, except that they seem to have picked up a bunch of old print reporters who either retired or took an early buyout from a newsroom that was going bankrupt, basically. And so they took the payouts and, you know, quote, retired. For example, Jim Morrill. longtime political reporter for the Charlotte Observer. And I actually had a back and forth with Jim. He interviewed me for an article. It was about the Asheville watchdog, another very similar kind of enterprise out in Asheville. And when I was in Asheville, a bunch of. Former reporters out of Florida who retired to Asheville, because I think that's, it's in the state constitution that if you're a liberal and you need to get out of the state, cause it's gotten too red. So you retire, you got to go to Asheville. It's required. Um, I think anyway, they, a bunch of these old retired print people happened to be at the very same, you know, cocktail party or something. And they were like, oh my gosh, you have a Pulitzer. I have a Pulitzer. Isn't that amazing? Whatever. And so they started their own little, uh, nonprofit newsroom startup called the Asheville watchdog. And I was not impressed. Um, And so Jim Morrill interviewed me about my views on the Asheville Watchdog. And I told him. And then he chopped out the first part of what I said in order to rob it of its context. Because what I had told him, and then I went back and forth with him in an email, like, why would you cut out the first part of what I said? Because what I said at the beginning was that the industry has handed out Pulitzer Prizes to for reporting that has turned out to be not true. And they've never returned those prizes. There's been no repercussions for it. So the fact that, because he asked me like, oh, these people are award winning. And I said, yeah, but the awards don't mean anything. Because. people like me who pay attention, they see that the Pulitzers aren't worth anything because you give them the liars. And he just took the second part. The holidays will be here before you know it, and so now is the time to create precious and priceless family heirlooms that will last for generations. Take your old photos, slides, films, and tapes to create a video in Mint Hill. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events captured forever to pass down to future generations. Create-A-Video's skilled team will professionally transfer your family's stories onto easy-to-use USB drives or DVDs, that won't deteriorate over time like the old photos and tapes are doing right now. They will create a keepsake video that you can share and copy and keep forever. I can see it now. You're gathered around the holiday table with your loved ones, watching all these memories and people of your lives. 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Somebody pointed this out on my live stream last night when we were talking about it, shout out to Nick Craig, by the way, who joined the, uh, who joined the live stream, uh, uh, to weigh in on all of this too. that the only thing that Brian Anderson, a reporter for the assembly, the only thing that he tweeted out during an entire speech of Donald Trump, Michael Watley, Lori Buckout, right? This big rally that was held in Greenville, North Carolina. And the only thing that he tweeted out as a reporter, the only thing he tweeted out was that Michael Watley spreading an unfounded claim regarding Roy Cooper's health. So number one, there is no unfounded claim in what Watley said. I'm going to read to you, and this is a quote that Brian Anderson himself put out. A reporter, quote, No wonder, this is from Michael Watley, no wonder he's got a little slippage going on right now. You may have seen the reports. I have to be careful asking about his mental acuity or I'll get sued. See, there's no claim being made there. He's pointing out that any mistake that Cooper makes, if I say anything about it, I'm going to get threatened with litigation. And that is a reference to the fact that that the North State Journal and its reporter, A.P. Dillon, who we have on the show every Monday, that their campaign, the Cooper campaign, received a question about his health and that they had sources that had told them that Roy Cooper was experiencing neurological issues. And we don't know what those are. That was all it said. All they had to say, as I went over yesterday, all they had to say was, no, he's not. He'll serve out the remainder. He'll serve out his full term. He has no health issues. That's all they had to say. Instead, they send a letter from the Elias Law Group, Mark Elias' law firm, that scummy guy. That law firm sends a letter threatening litigation for defamation, which they really wouldn't have a case. Jonathan Turley just ripped him apart over this threat. Which then, of course, now makes that the story that you're threatening a media outlet with a cease and desist letter or else you're going to get sued for simply asking a question. And all you had to do was just say no. This is why I called it the Streisand effect. Right. Your response made the story way more far reaching to the point now where the president references it. The vice president referenced it. Michael Watley is referencing it. And that is not an unfounded claim. But in Brian Anderson's mind, it is. How dare you suggest such a thing? Suggest what exactly? Suggest that if you notice Roy Cooper making any flubs on the campaign trail, that you're not supposed to ask about his mental acuity because if you do, you could get sued. That's not an unfounded claim because the letter... That was sent to the North State Journal. They published it. And Mr. Anderson quoted from it. He says, and this is where the fight started. Because then he calls A.P. Dillon, who is a reporter for the North State Journal, has been for like seven years or something like that. When a conservative activist inquired about both Senate candidates' health, a Cooper attorney replied, quote, any suggestion that he is experiencing a neurological issue or that any health condition would prevent him from completing his term is categorically false and defamatory. So is that an unfounded claim? Because Mr. Anderson, when AP Dillon starts taking him to task for this, Like, hey, how come you didn't link to our story? How come you didn't cite the North State Journal? And he's like, well, we don't link to unsubstantiated claims. You just quoted from it, dude. You just literally quoted from the letter that only appeared in their story. Because they're the only one that got the letter. This is the standard for what it takes to be a reporter, you see. Not AP Dillon. She's not a reporter. I'm a reporter. Look at my standards. This was the only tweet that he sent out in a four hour rally. That's some brilliant reporting there, Mr. Reporter. All right, real quick, every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. All right, so after this reporter for the Assembly, Brian Anderson, makes these tweets about the unfounded claim, quote-unquote, that the Cooper campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the North State Journal for simply asking about his health, Timothy Wiginton, who runs the Blue Ridge Times web-based publication out in the And he said, so in your view, AP Dillon and the North State Journal are best characterized as, quote, conservative activist. He then posted a screenshot. Of a woman's voter registration. From the Board of Elections website. And a screenshot of her old blog called Lady Liberty. And. made the argument that, see, she's registered Republican. Spoiler alert, A.P. Dillon is apparently registered as unaffiliated, but made the argument somehow in these screenshots that because she ran a blog and she's a registered Republican in New Hanover, I believe it was, which is like halfway across the state from where she actually lives, that somehow This proves she's a conservative activist and not a reporter. Okay. And AP Dillon then responds, first off, that's not my voter registration. So whoever you just doxed is owed an apology from the assembly. Second, I am a reporter with the North State Journal and have been since 2019. Third, that's my old blog site and it's mainly education reporting. The only activist here is you, Brian. Brian then responds, thanks for letting me know someone had passed the registration info along as there's only one Andrea Dillon registered to vote in the entire state of North Carolina, but I removed it if that wasn't in fact you. Okay, it was not in fact her and you, Mr. Reporter, trying to enforce standards that dictate who is and who is not a reporter. You just admitted that you just took information from somebody, some random person on Twitter and use that to dox another reporter. And then he says, not going to get into a back and forth on the conservative activist title. So in other words, shut up. I'm calling you this. You can't do anything about it. This is what you are because I said so. She said, that's an apology. You are unreal. I'm a reporter, Brian. That's my title. If reporting for eight years, going back to 2016 on sexual assault by staff and K through 12, then using that reporting to get laws changed. If that makes me a conservative activist, then you need your head examined. I pointed out yesterday that if, um, If you worked for one of the preferred media outlets and you get onto a story and you get a law enacted or changed, you win awards for that. She, running a blog and, dare I say, reporting on sexual assaults in K-12 schools and ended up getting a law changed. She will not get an award for that. She got a law changed to help protect kids. But she didn't get an award. She actually, for her troubles, she got doxxed. She was always just known as Lady Liberty. Then she got doxxed by a bunch of leftists who were mad that she was actually uncovering this stuff. It all worked out for her because that ended up getting her the job at the North State Journal. It turned into a paying gig for her. So good job lefties on that one. Anderson then responds to her saying, can't say I am aware of any North Carolina political reporters who headline county party events and accept money from political groups. But feel free to let me know if I am wrong. Again, if that's your standard where you don't know something, so you're just going to throw it out there and make somebody have to defend themselves from it. If you don't know something, then you shouldn't be reporting. You shouldn't be reporting it, Brian. That's the point of being a reporter is you track it down because spoiler alert, Republican chapters invite people all the time to come and address them. I've spoken at several. I was at one two weeks ago. I did not get paid for it because you know me, I'm a giver. So, Here's the thing. They would never invite you as Ms. Now, MSNBC, as they invited you last night. So you appeared on that left-wing cable outlet. You appeared on their station. They probably didn't pay you either. But they'll extend an invitation to you because you will say things that they want to hear. You will say things that their audience wants to hear. Here's the thing. Republican parties... Don't want to hear what you have to say, Brian, because they don't trust you, which is kind of a big deal if you're a reporter, but they'll ask her to come. They'll ask AP to come. And then the money that they paid her is what's called in the industry, an honorarium. And this is pretty standard too. I've been offered honorariums, but I like one group, the, uh, The Chapel Hill Republican group, the college Republicans up there, I drove up there and did a speech for them. And they offered me an honorarium. And I said, no, keep it. You're a college group. You should keep the money. It's fine. So this is standard, too. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean there's something wrong with it or there's a problem there. He then says to her that if she disagrees with the conservative activist title, feel free to let me know, and I'd be more than happy to take that up with an editor. So there again, so he's passing the buck on responsibility. I'm only calling you that because the editors say that's what I should call you. No, dude, it's your Twitter account, and you're going to the mat to call her a conservative activist rather than a reporter. And so you know what I did? Because, again, I'm a giver. I went and looked up the definition of the word reporter. Do you want to know what it means? It's a noun, and it means a writer, investigator, or presenter of news stories. And that is what A.P. Dillon is. It's what she has been for years. She's a writer, investigator, and presenter of news stories. That's all it takes. This is why I say, though, that this is a microcosm of the entire mindset, the mentality in this industry, which is that we're authorities. We are the standard. I'm a reporter because I work for this particular outlet. That gives me bona fides. Like, that is the credential. And then I get to determine whether you are of the same thing as me. As if, and the implication there, by the way, is that I'm better than you. And I'm better than you because I'm not biased. You're biased. You're just a conservative activist. Because I'm a reporter. And reporter means unbiased. And that, my friends... is BS. And we all know that. Every reporter has biases. So yesterday, as all of this blew up, we covered it for the last segment or two on the program. I get home, open up the Twitter machine, and I find there's an update to the story. The Assembly, the publication, posted up onto the Twitter machine at 1.51 p.m., The assembly's editors are aware of tweets from our reporter that violate our social media policy. These tweets did not meet our organizational standards and are being addressed internally. Oh, thank goodness. You're addressing it internally. And then, nine minutes later, the reporter, Brian Anderson, says... In last Friday's caucus, so I guess that's their newsletter or something that they push out, Friday's caucus or something. And in my recent social media posts, I described a staff member. He still can't bring himself to call her a reporter. Still can't do it. I described a staff member of the North State Journal as a conservative activist. It would have been better to describe her as a, quote, conservative writer. No. No, Brian. It would not. And to all of the editors over at the Assembly, she's a reporter. I don't know why this is. I do, actually. I do understand why this is difficult for you. You don't want to acknowledge you were wrong about something. So, you know, humility, obviously. Not a strong suit. That's okay. See, it's still bad for different reasons. It's still bad because now... you're essentially just doubling down on your pettiness. I don't want to call her a reporter, even though she is, because, and I gave them the definition of what a reporter is, a writer, investigator, or presenter of news. And A.P. Dillon, from the North State Journal, qualifies. And as I pointed out to both Brian and the assembly, you are not a credentialing service. You don't get a certificate, that college degree in mass communication, journalism, broadcast, whatever it might be. I have one. It is not a credential. You graduating from a program does not make you a reporter. You know what makes you a reporter? It should be obvious. Reporting. That's what makes you a reporter. It's like being a witness. The only requirement there is that you witnessed it. That's it. Up until a few decades ago, you didn't even need a college degree. There were no programs like this to make sure that you are from the right family, you're from the blue bloods, you go to Columbia Journalism School, and you get your diploma, and that means you're part of the elite crowd. You're okay. For most of reporting history, reporters were blue-collar people. A lot of them had no college degree at all. You don't need a college degree. You don't get a certificate that says you are now a reporter. Simply reporting makes you a reporter. Now, you could be a good one. You could be a bad one. You could be a fair one. You could be an unfair one, right? There are all kinds of reporters out there. And that's why, you know, buyer beware. People should read the bylines to see who it is that they are reading on the regular. And so I asked the assembly, given the timestamp on your tweet and then your reporter's tweet, I guess this is what you mean by being addressable. Internally. So that's it. It's pretty weak. It's pretty weak. Also, the bigger issue remained unaddressed. Because while you're fighting over whether or not she's a reporter or a writer or an activist, is she a conservative? Now, by the way, I've pulled Brian's voter registration as well as his wife's. Do I make any determination about his bias based on that information? No, I just read what he writes and then I discern the bias. For example, he cares more if Michael Watley can name three players on the Carolina Hurricanes than he does if Roy Cooper will vote to pack the U.S. Supreme Court as a senator. That's the bias that Brian brings to his job as a reporter. That's his bias. As such, I know this about him that he doesn't care what Roy Cooper will do when he's in the Senate. He doesn't care. The only thing that matters is can I get a selfie in front of the Stanley Cup after the Hurricanes' victory? And whether or not Michael Watley had a staffer that used some AI-generated image on a tweet in support of the Canes during the Stanley Cup Finals. That is more important to Brian. Because it doesn't hurt Cooper, you see. The bigger issue, though, is that he tried to dox a person and... in the process, mistakenly doxxed an innocent woman halfway across the state. That's the bigger problem. The standards that he exhibited should be disqualifying as a reporter because this is the level of work that you're doing. We now see, like, this is how you approach your job. Not good, Brian. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.