Where's the lie?

Where’s the lie?

In the wake of the political assassination (words / phrases used by the governor of Utah and federal authorities) of Charlie Kirk, The Shelby Independent wrote a news story with local elected officials and local candidates giving their thoughts on the matter.

This news story published on Sept. 13, 2025 was based on comments and factual information passed on to The Shelby Independent.

While it is possible at that time not everyone was aware of the information in the article, it was all proven to be the facts in this case. It has been confirmed and reported by Utah and Federal authorities. All this publication did was pass along the news.

The Shelby Independent’s mission is to report fair and factual news. We have opinions in the opinion section and editorializing in the features, but the news is just for news, something people in Cleveland County have almost lost, but is making a comeback every day as The Shelby Independent grows.

 If you read the article published by The Shelby Independent regarding the reactions of local leaders, then you know it would take a few minutes to read the news story; and then to write a comment of any significant length on the Facebook post would require another minimal amount of a minute or so.

However, one comment was posted within a minute of this post being shared on social media; in no way could this commenter have read the article and written a response in such a short amount of time. Things were mentioned in this comment that were deemed to discredit The Shelby Independent’s reporting – which, I remind you, have all been proven to be the facts of this case as it pertains to the investigation by the appropriate authorities on the matter.

For anyone that did not read the article, but saw the comment, it would look as if there were wrong and misleading things in the article, however, subtopics of The Charlie Kirk assassination were mentioned in this particular comment by a reader that weren’t mentioned in the article. Everything stated in the news story was confirmed by authorities and have been reported on by many national news outlets since the publication of The Independent's news story / article on Sept 13.

This commentor also mentioned Al-Jazeera's reporting claiming certain things were false. If you’re reading Al-Jazeera, there’s no reason to compare me to them – this was about local leaders’ reactions; I don’t care what Al-J has to say. If anyone thinks Al-Jazeera has your best interest in heart when the national American media lies to you constantly and constantly omits important information, then that’s above my paygrade. Good luck.

The misleading information, unfortunately, came from the commenter who happens to hold a position of importance in non-governmental politics – this was looked as-if to be an attempt to discredit, redirect attention, and/or damage the character and reputation of the author and/or the publication itself (The Shelby Independent).

Just because you don’t want something to be true, doesn’t mean it’s misleading or false. To accuse The Shelby Independent of anything but stating facts and reporting on confirmations is a reflection of the commenter, not this news site.

If it was published as a local story by Chuck Thompson, then it happened. To say otherwise is a biased opinion.

The Shelby Independent is too small and new to risk editorializing a news story, and it goes against the mission to bring fact-based local news reporting to Cleveland County.

You do not have to like what you read in The Independent, but we appreciate you showing up once in a while, if only for certain stories to attempt to insult, discredit or falsely suggest S.I. published anything in a serious news story that hadn’t been verified.

If reading things that you do not like makes you dislike The Shelby Independent, then you are showing that you dislike facts and truth. The Shelby Independent is very careful of what we report. Your problem is not with The Independent, it is with things you don’t want to accept and don’t want other people to know. But that didn’t stop people from reading the article. It had a very high reader traffic.

You can dislike the Shelby Independent to your heart’s content for just existing, but disliking facts of a story is a personal matter.

Trying to shut down the Facebook page – which was pointless because no rules were violated, did not, and does not, stop people from reading the news in The Shelby Independent.

The Shelby Independent is a FREE news site, and you are free to read The Independent or not. We appreciate your support. But that doesn’t change what The Independent stands for.

The Shelby Independent condemns the unfortunate comments made against this site the other day – and whoever tried to report this site to Facebook, please play fair. Thank you for reading the news here, but don’t try to discredit a site because you don’t like the reporting. Everything stated in that news story was factual. The quotes came directly from the sources and the information on the assassin came from authorities.

To censor a news story, an outlet, or a voice because you don’t like it, and are mad others will read it see it and/or hear it and find out facts that you do not want others to know, shows the alleged true character of those that hold positions of non-governmental leadership here in Cleveland County.    

I do agree with the commenter where his comment stated, “Our community deserves better than a political culture where rumors and lies are weaponized on top of grief.”

You’re right, sir, we all do deserve better and there wasn’t a single rumor or lie in that story. And if you read it, the quotes from elected officials stated in the article, were full of love, compassion and unity and disappointment. Not weaponized, and no rumors or lies…

Also, the word 'lies' was used again, it was stated in the same comment, last paragraph, “... reject the violence, reject the lies, and keep doing the work of making this country more just for everyone.”

How is that ‘more just’ for The Shelby Independent by insinuating this outlet is spreading lies when clearly there weren’t any in the article?

And the article never mentioned crowd size (something questioned by the commenter)… What does crowd size matter when a man is murdered in cold blood? What does the name of the hospital they took him to matter? What does that change in regards to the motive and the murder itself? I never mentioned crowd size, why mention that at all? A man was assassinated. Good grief.

What should matter is they tried to get him to a hospital. Why question the name? That is just another small hope to mislead people into thinking the article was incorrect and thus question its credibility.

If Al-Jazeera says my claims are false, then I’ll take it as a compliment.  I never heard anyone mention crowd size and it wasn’t in my article. I have no idea what crowd size has to do with the 22-year-old shooter or the victim.

It’s not hard to pick up a phone and call any news outlet, any government agency anywhere in the country or around the world – half of journalism is making calls / making contact to get the information. Not sure why some decide this is impossible to do. That news story did not contain any misleading information.

The Shelby Independent is NOT your enemy; however, the truth apparently is, allegedly.

When you post a comment in a matter of moments after a news story is posted on social media, knowing there wasn’t enough time to read this news story and write a post, then insinuating that The Shelby Independent posted misleading and/or false information in a news story can lead to possible deprivation of potential sponsors / advertisers by attempting to tarnish the reputation of The Shelby Independent.

I have no problem admitting when the Independent gets something wrong, and will print a correction when / if this happens. But there are absolutely no corrections to be made on that story.

I’m sorry you don’t like it, but I don’t like a lot of things I read or when my favorite sports teams lose a game, but oh well – it happens.  

While all readers are welcomed and comments are encouraged, any intentional act to hurt The Shelby Independent on its social media or website is disappointing.

It's a huge disappointment coming from 'leaders' of an established political party in Cleveland County. But, I guess that's the world we live in now.

I encourage anyone that hasn’t read the story with the headline: ‘Local elected officials, current candidates react to Charlie Kirk’s assassination’ please read what some don’t want you to know – that which everyone knows by now from multiple outlets, confirmed by federal law enforcement officials, and the governor of Utah.

The Shelby Independent is a small news site that just launched (officially) on July 1. It strives to be fair with its reporting and to keep the opinions in the opinion section. It's astonishing that it already has detractors, but this is the world we live in nowadays, as proven on Sept 10 for the nation, and as many of you witnessed here on Sept 14 and 15 with the clearly misleading comments under the Kirk post, and the next day temporarily placing The Independent’s social media under review, which was cleared of any violations.  

I am not corporate media. I am one person working hard to give Cleveland County residents local news, entertaining opinions, and hopefully thought-provoking editorials. To slander The Shelby Independent is an attack on a person just trying to make a living in exchange for giving the people of Cleveland County FREE and FAIR, FACTUAL local NEWS.

You do not scare me – you only further push me to be less neutral. That is not what Cleveland County needs. The Shelby Independent is FREE, I work for free, too; basically. It's a lot to deal with for not getting paid... but the readers make it worth it. 

It's understandable if you are not a fan, either, simply because you don't want to give it a chance because you don't like change, or you have some undying loyalty to another media option, that's perfectly understandable. I, too, am a reader of other news options in Cleveland County and enjoy reading their local news.

My only suggestion is you can just ignore this news site; you can skip over it. Why fight against it? It's possibly (just my opinion) the least biased news you'll find in the area. There are several good publications here and you might enjoy them more than The Shelby Independent. That's everyone's own personal decision.

If you can’t move past a site that is not in the pocket of the usual agenda-driven protestors, then please seek professional help. In light of recent events, you would think you would want to tone down the rhetoric...

To those that have put energy into making The Shelby Independent your nemesis: This is all in your head – You are not my enemy; please don’t convince me you are – I have read the personal comments attacking me as a person on Facebook. You can say what you want, but one day, as we have all seen, you will convince the wrong person that anyone one of us, in journalism or politics, is a problem / threat and something horrible could happen just as it did on Sept 10. (I saw screenshots from social media about me on Sept 9, the day before Kirk's assassination; and by Sept. 10 it wasn’t amusing anymore... It's concerning). 

You need to tone it down. However, the more you want The Shelby Independent to go away the more I want it to grow and thrive and still be a beacon of local news and truth a hundred years from now - in whatever shape or form it will be. I hope it survives.

To end this editorial, I want to mention what the commenter wrote in the very beginning of his own comment, “Let’s be clear about what is fact and what’s rumor…”

I agree.

The truth is, The Shelby Independent reported the facts, and that’s all there is to it.

All I am trying to do is report local news without editorializing, and entertain you with the Sunday Column; why is that such a problem for anyone?

I am disappointed.

To all the readers, whether you read to be informed, or read to hate:

You are all sincerely appreciated. Thank you for your support.

The Shelby Independent