Leftists on social media went berserk after some outlets misrepresented a campaign contribution Chip and Joanna Gaines made to a family member running for a seat on a local school board.
The famous duo donated $1,000 to Chip’s sister Shannon Braun, who is running for a spot on the board of the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District, according to Dallas Morning News.
Braun, among other things, opposes infusing critical race theory into school curricula. She pledged in a recent campaign video to “vote down anything and everything that further promotes critical race theory in our school district and actively work to remove all critical race theory.”
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And, like clockwork, the unfair reporting began.
The Hill ran an inaccurate headline suggesting the Gaines donated explicitly to a “campaign against critical race theory in schools.”
Dallas Observer reporter Paige Skinner wrote an article with a similar headline and even took to her Twitter account to discourage people from purchasing any products or watching TV shows from the Waco couple.
“Stop giving them [your] money challenge,” she tweeted.
Many on the left were quick to slam the Gaines after seeing the reports.
“Shocking the gentrifyers are against even knowing about actual American history,” wrote one respondent.
Another pledged she “will not watch their show or buy their products.”
“I am so disappointed to hear this,” added someone else. “I love their program. But I’ll have to boycott it [and] encourage everyone I know to boycott it as well. Sorry Chip [and] JoAnne [sic], I can’t support anyone who’s against factual American history. We white people have been persecuting [people of color] for way too long.”
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One person explained she is “glad” she read the misleading news report because she was preparing to purchase a subscription to Discovery+, where the Gaines’ burgeoning Magnolia network will be hosted.
“Won’t need that now,” she wrote.
Conservatives, on the other hand, were pleased with the Gaines’ donation and critical of the way the media reported the contribution.
Another person added he “will finally start watching their show on Discovery+.”
“It’s his sister,” wrote another critic of the media. “He gave a grand to his sister, who is running for school board. Though I can see why those who work at The Hill would be wildly confused about not hating your family.”
One Twitter user also lauded the home renovators for “fighting against racism.”
This is not the first time the media has targeted the Gaines.
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In 2016, BuzzFeed News published an article attacking the famous couple for attending a church that holds to a mainstream biblical view of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Writer Brandon Ambrosino, who is gay, defended the Gaines at the time, writing in an editorial for The Washington Post he couldn’t come up with “any other intention” by BuzzFeed other than to “tell stories in certain deceitful, manipulative ways to take down conservatives.”