Crossroads -- Life in two 'Truman Show' Americas

A major 'parental rights' case in Indiana is big news, only it's being ignored

Mary and Jeremy Cox are living in a nightmare world after Indiana officials removed their child from the home, because of a clash over their son’s decision to change his name, pronouns and gender identity.

Here is some additional information, care of The New York Post:

In M.C. and J.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services, Mary and Jeremy Cox are appealing to the Supreme Court after they were investigated by Indiana officials for refusing to refer to their son using pronouns and a name inconsistent with his biological sex. 

The parents’ Catholic faith is at the heart of the story, of course. Also:

Notably, upon completing the investigation, the state determined the allegations of abuse against Mary and Jeremy were unsubstantiated, but still argued that the disagreement over gender identity was distressing to their child.

A quick online search reveals that this latest showdown over parental rights and religious liberty is — #ShockedShocked — being ignored by the mainstream press, especially in elite newsrooms in deep blue zip codes. This is another one of those “religious” and “conservative” stories beamed into conservative news silos, but not into their progressive or new-liberal counterparts.

It’s like American news consumers are living in two competing versions of “The Truman Show,” that classic parable in which a reality-television star is raised, without his knowledge, inside a domed world and he is never allowed to venture outside into the real world. That was the journalism theme that I stressed in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.

Is this Indiana story news? Parental rights cases are making headlines from coast to coast, especially in public-school conflicts and, yes, battles over gender identity. And this is a religious-liberty case, as well. It is likely that this case, or one like it, will be another First Amendment drama that eventually reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. Is America divided, when it comes to the validity of parental rights claims? Of course. In the old days, intense interest in this kind of conflict was a reason for journalists to cover a story, not ignore it.

Meanwhile, what about those leaked files and even Zoom video discussions in which leaders in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) share what they really think about the messy details of their global efforts to promote hormonal and surgical transitions for minors?

Well, there is this.

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