On Thursday’s The 11th Hour, MS NOW host Ali Velshi used the show’s regular “Night Light” segment to cheer the defeat of conservative school board members in Sarasota who were backed by Moms for Liberty. Velshi accused the right-leaning group of infringing on children’s “right to read” and of banning “facts.”
Velshi began his commentary by noting those who recently won the Democratic nomination for governor and U.S. Senate in Florida, and then added:
…but something else happened in Florida on Tuesday. Quieter, lower profile. But it’s something we’ve been watching for four years on the “Velshi Banned Book Club.” In the modern era, Florida is ground zero for the dimming of maybe the most basic light there is — a kid’s right to read.
A right to read…..what? Liberals always pretend that removing a book from a school library is a “book ban,” like any student can’t find the book in a public library or a book store or Amazon. The “right to read” is not ended.
Velshi continued:
Four years ago, a conservative majority took control of the Sarasota County school board. That board banned books quietly through a process called weeding — no hearing, no explanation required. Shortly after taking control, that conservative majority voted to oust the district superintendent for reasons it never fully explained. This week, the voters of Sarasota ended it.
After noting the new liberal candidates who were elected to the school board, he added: “The voters of Sarasota were not just picking new faces, they were ending four years of exactly the record you just heard.”
He then took aim at Moms for Liberty:
Now, this didn’t start in Sarasota, and it isn’t ending there either. Moms for Liberty, the group behind these local school book bans, was founded in Florida in 2021. Their playbook spread next to Pennsylvania to two school boards outside Philadelphia — Central Bucks and Pennridge. Republicans ran both boards. Both boards banned books. In 2023, voters put Democrats in every single school board seat that was up for election in both districts, flipping control of both boards. The same playbook spread to Texas to a school board outside Houston called Cypress-Fairbanks. Conservatives ran that board, too, and banned books.
Velshi claimed that conservatives were implementing “fact bans” as he soon related:
Read Full Article: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2026/08/23/velshi-cheers-defeat-moms-liberty-champions-childrens-right-read
