Rutherford County Library System Being Bullied by American Library Association Mirrors

Rutherford County Library System is about to be bullied by the American Library Association and other major national groups that are part of ALA's Unite Against Book Bans, including American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship.  

On March 16, 2026, the library board voted 8-3 to move books, mainly about so-called trans children, to the adult section, likely because many now believe medical transitions for children involve horrible mutilation with life worsening and shortening consequences, let alone sterilization. The library director Luanne James refused to comply with the board's directive.  Now ALA is bringing its full weight to bear on Rutherford County as it does in hundreds of communities nationwide.  This article will disclose some of the ways in the present case.

To start, the ALA has created a local group called "Rutherford County Library Alliance."  See:

• "Tennessee Walking Horses - TN Parents Astroturfed by ALA Use High Stepping Lies to Overwhelm Rutherford County Library Board; It's an ALA Pattern Nationwide," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 15 December 2023.
• "ALA Details Bribes to Convince Governments to Sell Out Children," by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries, 12 March 2024.
• "so we reached out to a, we reached out to a group and formed the alliance" https://www.youtube.com/live/Zisf2MWKcLk?t=87
• $28,999 - "Created and supported 18 local library Alliances to conduct public education and outreach about the First Amendment in Libraries, along with research into book bans."

Rutherford County Library Alliance is a bought and paid for astroturf group for ALA.  RCLA even admitted it ("we reached out to a group and formed the alliance").  ALA (via EveryLibrary) 990 filings show its standard operating procedure is to "create and support ... local library Alliances," as shown above.  Yet media treats RCLA as if it is truly local, not an astroturf group created and funded by Chicago's ALA to be the Rutherford County branch of the Chicago ALA.  The Tennessee Freedom to Read Project (TFRP) is another ALA creation, only this one admits to it: "EveryLibrary, the national political action committee for libraries, supports TNFRP's website and digital engagements."

EveryLibrary 990: "create and support ... local library Alliances"

ALA then has its specially awarded librarians write letters in support of the local group and of the library director defying the library board.  One such librarian, Kelly Jensen, who previously trained librarians how to block Christians from book readings in public library meetings rooms, has written an article listing the email of every board member and urging all of her readers to write to the board in support of the library director.  The ALA-astroturfed local group will then be at the next meeting handing out purple shirts (an ALA plan to represent red and blue voters united, which they are not when it comes to harming children in libraries) that are provided by ACLU, and books provided by NCAC.  Someone let me know what books so I can update this post.

Another way ALA is bringing pressure to bear is by doing what it usually does, namely, lying.  Recently Campbell County Public Library in Gillette, Wyoming, had a library board decide to jettison all ALA policy.  Library director Terri Lesley decided to adhere instead to Chicago's ALA diktat instead of the board's new rules.  So she was fired.  She then got help from ALA (though I have no proof for that other than it's obvious given ALA is funding multiple lawsuits nationwide) to sue the library.  Without even mounting a defense, the library settled for the full amount of insurance coverage.

ALA brags everywhere that this is a warning to library boards that library directors will follow ALA diktat, not library board rules.  It sounds that way, right?  Well it's an ALA lie.  You see, ALA in the past argued that legal settlements mean nothing.  Suddenly its library boards better dare not challenge the power of ALA diktat.  ALA argued legal settlements mean nothing when multiple lawsuits by multiple librarians for being s[*]xually harassed by p[*]rn viewers allowing by ALA policy all settled for the limits of the policy.  ALA said they were just settlements to get rid of the case, that no librarians have ever been s[*]xually harassed, and that proving such a thing in court has nearly insurmountable odds.  So when the settlement favors ALA, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  But when the settlement exposes the harm done by ALA to local communities, suddenly the settlements mean nothing and the underlying claims of s[*]xual harassment are "dubious."  So, by ALA presenting half the story, it is effectively lying.

In a nutshell,  ALA is creating then getting its local group to get ALA partners ACLU and NCAC to make a personal appearance at the board meeting to overwhelm the voting public.  And ALA-awarded librarians are writing posts to get its nationwide pressure network to bring its guns to bear on the board.  ALA itself is lying about library directors being fired for refusing to follow board directives as required by law.  In Tennessee, see § 10-3-104 - Powers and duties of library board.

So what will the board do?  Will it follow Tennessee law and stick to protecting local children from material that directly harms them, or will it cave to a massive pressure wave built up by an organization from Chicago that has been working for over 60 years to eliminate parental rights and uses various groups to give the appearance of legitimacy, including ones it created and funded, to give the appearance of local interest in ALA goals?

We shall see.

And naturally, I'll send this in an email to the board, via email addresses I got from a prominent member of ALA's pressure wave.  I'd be curious to find out just how many people showed up or wrote emails in response to the pressure wave.  I can guarantee you local citizens have no such organized action network as ALA has where essentially every entity opposed to the board is ALA, ALA generated, or ALA aligned.  It's like being attacked by multiple mirror images and giving up because you think you're outnumbered.

Let's hope the local Tennessee children win, not the Chicago ALA (ALA), the Chicago ALA (EveryLibrary), the Chicago ALA (RCLA), the Chicago ALA (TFRP), the Chicago ALA (ACLU), the Chicago ALA (NCAC), the Chicago ALA (Luanne James), the Chicago ALA (Kelly Jensen) and the Chicago ALA (media).

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Legal Defense for SLAPP Suits Against Free Speech

Tennessee Walking Horses - TN Parents Astroturfed by ALA Use High Stepping Lies to Overwhelm Rutherford County Library Board; It's an ALA Pattern Nationwide

American Library Association [ALA] creates, funds, fund raises for, and advertises local groups to appear as if they were grassroots.  This is called astroturfing as in fake grass.  In reality, local groups just do what ALA wants.  

In Tennessee, like Tennessee Walking Horses, parents are trained to high step ALA's lie that children have a First Amendment right to anything whatsoever, such as books that guide children how to meet a man for a night using the Grindr app.  They explicitly rely on ALA's "Library Bill of Rights" that makes it age discrimination to keep anything from children, although in all other areas of society children are given limited access, like tattoos, voting, drinking, driving, video games, music, etc.  Then, as trained by ALA such as with Unite Against Book Bans, they claim people oppose homosexuality, not that children are receiving CSAM from public libraries. 

So, in Tennessee, there's the "Rutherford County Library Alliance."  It is an ALA astroturfed organization.  Here's where the astroturfing is documented, and when reading EveryLibrary (and its Fight For the First), know that's just a crypto ALA organization created by and working closely with ALA to do what ALA cannot do directly.  See: Rutherford County Library Alliance.  One of its members, for example, is "TM,"—notice how membership is hidden.  TM is Tasslyn Magnusson, pictured below.  She has her "Book Censorship Database by Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson" prominently displayed at EveryLibrary, with her name even in the URL itself: www.everylibraryinstitute.org/book_censorship_database_magnusson

So it's astroturfed.  Faked grass roots.  Created by ALA.  With one of its own members as a member of a local astroturfed organization, someone who helped create the web site, "Support Teachers CRT Toolkit."  

Is this person's views even known?  Do they represent the local community in Tennessee?  ALA features her in a blog post.  Look what she says, because she's targeting parents groups who oppose the indoctrination of school children by librarians and teachers and decries "censorship":

Tasslyn Magnusson is an educator and a member of children’s literacy organizations who has worked to create the website CRT Toolkit to support educators, parents, and community members who are concerned about misrepresentations and attempts at unjust censorship. 

She said that when googling Critical Race Theory, she found “fear-based ‘toolkits’ for parents to get active at their school boards and in their kids’ classrooms created by organizations with names like Heritage Action for America and Citizens for Renewing America.  And they were very much NOT trying to support educators and books and stories that represented all of American history and diverse stories.  I was astonished by the instructions and detail these toolkits gave to parents—and appalled by the disinformation throughout the kits.”

“I decided if I needed tools—other parents and community members might need them too.”

Source: www.oif.ala.org/practical-steps-for-navigating-intellectual-freedom-challenges-interviews-with-tasslyn-magnusson-and-ashley-hope-perez/

She's got tools, alright.  And she's turned them against local communities by appearing AS A MEMBER of that local community.  She doesn't like "Heritage Action for America" nor "Citizens for Renewing America," but she's okay with being a member of "Rutherford County Library Alliance."  She's no Tennessee Walking Horse, she's an ALA stalking horse.

As I go on, know this: many "parents" groups around the nation pressuring libraries to keep children exposed to inappropriate material are actually astroturfed creations of ALA, the very out-of-state organization exposing children to harm.  It's an ALA pattern nationwide.  Is your library getting a lot of out-of-towners pressuring your library board into what the community supposedly opposes?  Good chance it's an ALA astroturf mob.  Sort of like when school librarian Martha Hickson handed out trademarked logos of ALA in a New Jersey school board meeting, but I digress. 

“Flamer” is the new Bible for the cult of indoctrination in K-12 schools.

Just days after the tragic death of a teen at Justice High School in @fcpsnews, @KarlFrisch swears in as a new school board member with his hand above a pile of books including “Flamer,” a coming of age… https://t.co/u9g2TVQS5M pic.twitter.com/2aUGUb9vRq

— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) December 15, 2023

Supporter Angela Frederick, an area representative for the Tennessee Association of School Librarians [TASL], writes on Facebook in support of the astroturfed parent group to get them to get out huge numbers, and the books she's talking about that the library removed are "Gender Queer," "Flamer," (detailed above in a post by Asra Nomani to give an example of what a school librarian is defending and how it and books like it are promoted by any means necessary, including as a substitute Bible for being sworn in on a school board—it also illustrates how political activists like someone from Media Matters for America will get on boards simply to promote political agendas, similar to what ALA astroturfed groups are doing to pressure boards) "Let’s Talk About It," and "This Book is Gay," books that promote kink and pedophilia:

TN Public Library Supporters:

I am writing today to let you know of a situation currently affecting the Rutherford County Library System. 

Several books were removed from the collection by the RCLS Library Board back in August.  The steering committee of the Rutherford County Commission met in November and stated that the library board had sought their help in ensuring that the library staff didn't purchase any other objectionable materials using taxpayer funds.  The steering committee directed the library board to come up with a plan to prevent these purchases, and stated that if such a plan was not acceptable to them, they would pull county funding from RCLS. 

Currently Rutherford County funds 60% of RCLS's budget, so no county funding will essentially close the libraries.  This would obviously be a travesty for the residents of Rutherford County. 

If you are a resident of Rutherford County, please contact the steering committee and let them know how a defunded public library would affect our community.  You can copy and paste these addresses to contact them directly:  (district8@rutherfordcountytn.gov, district13@rutherfordcountytn.gov, jbeverly@rutherfordcountytn.gov, district18@rutherfordcountytn.gov, district7@rutherfordcountytn.gov, craigharris@rutherfordcountytn.gov, district3@rutherfordcountytn.gov)  

Another way to help is to attend the next meetings of both the library board and the steering committee.  The library board will have a specially called meeting on Monday, December 18th at 5:00 p.m. at the Rutherford County Courthouse.  The next steering committee meeting is on Monday, January 8th at 5:30 p.m. at the Historic County Courthouse Commission Chamber.  We need all the attention we can get on these two meetings. 

Helpful links:

The Rutherford County Library Alliance: https://www.fightforthefirst.org/petitions/support-the-rutherford-county-library-system

Interview with Rutherford County Library Alliance members: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zisf2MWKcLk&t=29s

Thank you,

Angela Frederick

TASL Member

[Ed: TASL Area Representative, Buffalo River Region, term ends 2024]

-- 

Angela Frederick

angela.frederick@gmail.com

See that?  "The steering committee directed the library board to come up with a plan to prevent these purchases, and stated that if such a plan was not acceptable to them, they would pull county funding from RCLS."  That's a double standard, meaning a lie.  Librarians brag about pulling funding from libraries in states that adopt the "Right to Read Act" that explicitly makes ALA's "Library Bill of Rights" into state law without any discussion of its radical 60s roots.  They are gleeful about that.  See: "To Fight So-called Book Bans, Some States are Threatening to Withhold Funding," All Things Considered, NPR, 14 December 2023.

But here a library is going to pull funding if the librarians keep buying CSAM, and suddenly this ALA astroturf group led by a CRT Toolkit creator from out-of-state is crying about a denial of rights.  Double standard.  

The whole astroturf published on Facebook was about "defunding" the library because CSAM was removed and they feign fear more will be removed.  They want people to write to the board.  They want people to attend the meetings.  "We need all the attention we can get on these two meetings."  

But it's not locals who want this.  It's ALA!  ALA is using an astroturf group they created, funded, and gave publicity!  

So if Tennessee wants to see Tennessee Walking Horses putting on a show after being trained by ALA with direction to make excuses for CSAM by claiming children have a First Amendment right to that, then go watch the circus in action.  Do go, to support the board against the ALA's astroturfed group.  But the board should stay on course and serve common sense, community standards, and the law, and not some Marxist-led group of librarians from Chicago, Illinois, who created a local group to pressure and bully the board.  

So now the board knows the truth.  Now we know Rutherford County Library Alliance is a stalking horse for American Library Association, being used to obtain a temporary advantage so that out-of-state ALA can target what it really wants: children in Murfreesboro, TN.

And this kind of circus set up by ALA is happening in community after community, set up by ALA.  Everyone, not just Tennessee, should learn about and ignore/defeat the ALA astroturfed acolytes.

I'll be sending this to the email addresses I learned from the astroturfers.

By the way, here's ALA targeting children, because if a board allows an ALA astroturf group to pressure it, it might as well see what ALA wants—children:

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