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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina’s largest media outlet penned a scathing editorial this week accusing the Palmetto State’s election commission (SCVotes.gov) of holding an “illegal meeting” last month – irresponsibly conflating this alleged lack of transparency with the commission’s purported subservience to U.S. president Donald Trump regarding an ongoing voter list controversy.
Neither claim, as it turns out, is remotely accurate…
Nonetheless, election commissioners were branded by the #NeverTrump MSM as administration loyalists who “believe our state should do whatever President Donald Trump wants, whenever he wants it.”
It is certainly true many politicians in South Carolina are nauseatingly obsequious in their dealings with Trump – as the current gubernatorial election has capably demonstrated. But there’s a huge difference in leveling that allegation against a candidate who is seeking votes as opposed to an official who is in charge of counting them.
You’re forgiven if you didn’t read this editorial because, let’s face it… no one reads mainstream media editorials in South Carolina anymore. Opinions which once framed debates and shaped state policy (ill-considered policy, at that) are now rightfully relegated to the dustbin of discourse – to the extent they are even considered at all.
These are screeds written by elites, for elites… haughty, navel-gazing missives which employ pearl-clutching and pretzel logic in the hopes of generating echo chamber indignation and ivory tower intrigue. Their connection to the real world is outdistanced by only one thing… their connection to the facts.
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South Carolina’s liberal press – particularly the Post and Courier – has gone off the deep end in recent years, a trend which started right around the time its owner was implicated in a federal drug investigation and allegedly pressured to go woke by prosecutors in the employ of former president Barack Obama.
If you think that’s a tin-foil hat conspiracy, though, the Post and Courier‘s theories about the removal of former SCVotes director Howie Knapp are off the proverbial chain.
“The board demonstrated that it cannot in fact be trusted to obey state law,” the paper sanctimoniously screeched, dragging the integrity of the commission through the mud at the very moment its members were actually taking action to protect the integrity of our elections.
While reporters for the Post and Courier were asleep at the wheel, FITSNews – and reporter John Monk of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper – were busy filing multiple reports about alleged criminal activity involving Knapp and his former deputy director, Paige Salonich.
To recap: Knapp was already facing one investigation into “allegations of misconduct” led by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Since his ouster, we have confirmed he and Salonich are the focus of a second SLED probe into alleged wiretapping. Beyond that, Knapp and Salonich were allegedly carrying on a torrid workplace affair which has uncovered a host of additional alleged illegalities.
Sources close to the investigation say its scope continues to broaden as more information is uncovered and provided to the appropriate authorities.
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RELATED | SC VOTES SEX SCANDAL
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The only proximity to the voting lawsuit is that Knapp and Salonich allegedly lied to commissioners – and instructed other commission staff to lie – when questioned about their involvement in it. Additionally, election employees were allegedly instructed by either Knapp or Salonich to falsify records related to the aforementioned deceptions – and to fabricate false claims involving commissioners.
No wonder the commission took decisive action to cut out these cancers…
To hear the Post and Courier tell it, though, it was all a conspiracy. The paper claimed, for example, that commissioners entered into their executive session on September 17, 2025 in “zero minutes.”
How does its editorial board know that?
The Post and Courier didn’t have a reporter or and editorial writer present… so is it basing this claim of an “illegal meeting” on the word of a competitor? One whose own reporter may or may not have been late in arriving? Is that really sufficient evidence for claiming the commission demonstrated an “utter disdain for South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act?”
We get that the Post and Courier is mad about the election lawsuit drama. It wants the state to defy Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ), and it is upset the state’s supreme court isn’t playing along. But that is no excuse for manufacturing a scandal out of thin air in the hopes of assailing the integrity of the officials who were dealing with a real scandal – rogue employees whose actions posed clear and present dangers to the integrity of this agency.
The Post and Courier‘s hatred of Trump – and its insistence this transparency tiff is somehow tied to his “bull-headed effort to get its hands on voter data” – has clouded its judgment and irresponsibly impugned the actions of commissioners.
Thankfully, the more the public learns about what really happened at the election commission… the more these elites are going to be exposed as the conspiracy kooks.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
I wonder who will show us there 23 and me and show what % of Trump they have in thier DNA haha we get it.
Such a fun piece to read the sass was enjoyable. The mainstream is gray media, a “public” company with BlackRock and Vanguard as their major investors. Don’t know much about post and courier since I can’t read anything without paying.
Trumps done well dont get me wrong, but if he pardons Diddy or Ghislaine or both… all bets are off.
Nancy should just consider a Presidential run in 2028, she’d be a fish in water in that race. Take on AOC and Newsome. Respectfully of course.
“Opinions which once framed debates and shaped state policy (ill-considered policy, at that) are now rightfully relegated to the dustbin of discourse ”
Just like this dump!
What happened to the libertarian who would be outraged at this data being turned over to the feds? Or the fact that simple protest is being considered ‘rebellion’ causing a flirtation with the Insurrection Act? Or that the Felon-In-Chief cannot even rule out a pardon for a convicted sex trafficker?
But all Will can be outraged about is a legacy mainstream media outlet he considers liberal that nobody reads. FFS.
Punk rock and outlaw country souls never die, if you want that take Will out for a beer in a dive bar like our American Revolutionary leaders.
Hes got a business with the ability to influence citizens in this state, that’s a big responsibility.
“It is certainly true many politicians in South Carolina are nauseatingly obsequious in their dealings with Trump – as the current gubernatorial election has capably demonstrated.”
This is an interesting quote. You spend almost no time on this issue, and I wonder why. A commenter here recently told me they were tired of my negative comments, but this quote starts the explanation.
Whether I agreed with you or not, I used to like the fact you raged against the machine. But recently you seem to just take the easy route. You rail against trial lawyers and the judiciary, but stay completely silent on some of the other things that are happening with Trump and his sycophants.
I could say a lot about you, but I would not have called you scared of much in the past. Now the articles read like you are terrified to offend anyone in power, so you pick on the easy targets and stay away from the more difficult ones. That’s too bad.
“You rail against trail lawyers and the judiciary” but no one powerful. Ok
Yep. If one does not blindly trust this site, it’s not a particularly controversial statement.
Ok, well if jumping on Trump is your fancy, Reddit has some good subs to sate your hunger. But I’ll bite, what do you think about trump and his recent actions?