A report by Vice News from last fall claimed Chaya Raichik‘s popular social media account, Libs of TikTok, was to blame for a surge in college weapon threats.
According to the writer, Tess Owen, “bomb threats targeting schools or college districts following Mofs of TikTok articles appears to be a particularly menacing escalation.” She then cited a “disturbing style” from 11 college towns.
Newly obtained emails, released Thursday by Raichik, suggest that Owen was n’t completely truthful in her reporting.
In a blog on X, TikTok’s Composites claimed that Vice News and Owen “knowingly withheld vital information about me because it disregarded their narrative.”
In her Oct. 4, 2023, account, Owen wrote:
On September 13 and 14, Libs of TikTok messages targeted the Minnesotan Anoka-Hennepin School District. On September 15, they received a bomb risk via internet. Director of Communications for the region, Jim Skelly, explained to VICE News that it was uncommon for the area to collect threats like this directly from email. This was the second primary risk that the area, which is Minnesota’s largest, received in the last two decades. More widespread threats often come from students or are made via social media and are immediately processed as “non- reliable” by law police, said Skelly.
On Thursday, Raichik and the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project obtained files of Owen’s communications with the Anoka-Hennepin School District. ( The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet. )
Owen neglected to reveal two important facts Skelly told her, according to their Sept. 28, 2023, internet change.
- ” The district did get a’ threat’ via email on Sept. 15 which was immediately determined to be no- believable by law enforcement”.
- The area has no information about whether this bomb threat is connected to the Libs of TikTok messaging.
But despite these errors, Owen wrote Thursday on X that” I stand by my investigating. And I suggest that you consider how internet was not the only way to communicate.
Owen did n’t explain why she omitted the details Skelly provided.
Mike Howard, the Oversight Project’s executive chairman, called Owen’s history part of a” planned media strategy which is fiercely attacking Chaya Raichik”.
According to Howell,” so-called journalists are implicating her in crimes and launching love mobs her way.” ” A major problem for them is that they’re bad, but I suspect they already know that. Tess Owen was allegedly informed in the letters we found that there was no connection between the bomb threat and TikTok’s Libs. That circumstantial evidence was omitted from Tess Owen’s content.
When Vice Media significantly reduced its workforce and stopped publishing on Vice .com next month, Owen was let go.
