POLITICS: The lefty media are trying to hide Minnesota’s massive fraud scheme

In a sane society, news that Minnesota was robbed of billions through social-services fraud would be the biggest story in the country, with every media outlet playing it up — and joining outraged pols in demanding answers.

Yet Minnesota is a blue state, and the fraudsters in question are a favored community of migrants. So the scam is muted by a conspiracy of silence, misleadingly ennobled by saccharine liberal pieties.

The latest revelations, uncovered by citizen-journalist Nick Shirley, demonstrate that publicly funded day care outlets in Minnesota, run largely by Somalis, are mere fronts for collecting government cash and laundering it.

Child-care centers with no cars in the parking lot and no children in attendance have been receiving tens of millions of dollars in public money.

Yet amid all this, much of mainstream media has gone radio silent, even as it’s looking to be a tale of fraud of staggering depth.

Indeed, a Mediaite review of MS NOW and CNN’s broadcasts and websites since Dec. 18, “when prosecutors claimed the fraud operation was much larger than previously reported,” found not a single mention of any of it.

What little mainstream coverage has appeared has generally been of the “conservatives pounce” variety, spinning the story as another example of right-wing media making prime rib out of a nothingburger.

Some reports, following a time-tested playbook about race and crime, imply it’s xenophobic to draw attention to the overwhelmingly Somali origins of those involved.

CNN praises Minnesotans for expressing a “wave of solidarity” with the community, which “state leaders have been quick to publicly embrace.”

Sure, pols like Gov. Tim Walz know just how to skirt blame for closing their eyes: The governor, who in the 2024 vice-presidential debate cited a program that helped Somalis establish day care businesses as one of his top achievements, insists he “strengthened oversight” and “supported prosecutions” of fraud.

Thanks, gov, but it looks like the US Justice Department — not Attorney General Keith Ellison — is managing to prosecute fraud without your help.

Walz also sought to turn the tables, condemning President Donald Trump for “sitting on the sidelines and throwing out accusations,” and for “demonizing an entire population,” as though the real crime here is making Somalis feel bad.

Let’s be real. This fraud has been going on for well over a decade, even as the press has tried to hide it. The first major prosecutions were in 2014.

Dem Rep. Ilhan Omar and her predecessor in Congress, Keith Ellison, also a Democrat, were instrumental in championing legislation that facilitated sending large sums back to Somalia.

Social-services fraud, engineered by Democrats and funneled through politically connected non-profits, appears to be part of the fabric of blue-state governance.

And covering it all up seems to be the role of the left-leaning media.