Over the Target

Idaho's attorney general is taking flak from the left-wing media

Raúl Labrador launched his campaign for attorney general on a promise to stand up for everyday Idahoans against government overreach at all levels. Whereas the previous officeholder had essentially given Gov. Brad Little a blank check to maintain a state of emergency during the COVID pandemic and stood idly by while citizens were persecuted for violating draconian lockdown orders, Labrador offered an alternative: an attorney general who would serve the people, not the bureaucracy.

Since taking office more than two years ago, Attorney General Labrador has risen to the challenge. Whether suing the Biden administration to stop federal overreach, defending Idaho’s laws banning the barbaric practice of abortion, or investigating state agencies accused of breaking the law and mismanaging taxpayer money, the attorney general has been doing exactly what voters elected him to do.

Naturally, this has made him a target of Idaho’s inexplicably far-left news media. Since he took office, outlets like the Idaho Statesman and the Idaho Capital Sun have consistently run negative stories about Labrador:

• They objected to his decision to cancel the prosecution of Sara Brady, who dared to take her children to the park.

• They denounced his lawsuit against the Biden administration’s overreach on water regulation.

• They attacked him for defending Idaho’s abortion ban.

• They screamed when he investigated the Department of Health and Welfare, which was later found to have grossly mismanaged taxpayer funds.

Their latest complaint is that Labrador paid out vacation time to an employee who was reassigned when he took office, and that he removed an attorney who was allegedly working against his agenda.

Conservatives often say we don’t trust the mainstream media, but the constant barrage of negative rhetoric can wear us down. It can cloud our judgment and leave us feeling uneasy about whichever figure the media targets. We're tempted to believe that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” or we hope that if the target steps aside, the negative stories will stop.

That’s foolish, of course. We can’t allow left-wing media to wield a heckler’s veto over every conservative official or policy. Before sharing a hit piece from legacy media, ask yourself: what’s the real agenda here? The Statesman isn’t attacking the attorney general because he’s failing; they’re attacking him because he’s succeeding.

I recently saw a graphic on Fox News showing how corporate media (Fox excepted, presumably) have covered President Trump’s first 100 days.

Remember the old adage: if you’re taking flak, you’re over the target. Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Hegseth, and Elon Musk are over the target. So is Raúl Labrador.

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