I wish I had a good answer, but the bad answer is: 1. Media outlets don't like to cover things that make wealthy or well-connected people look bad. 2. Media outlets don't have the resources to cover a story like South Blooming Grove (remember: We had to sue SBG once already, and are about to do so again, just to get information.) 3. Much like with Israel's actions in Gaza, many members of the media don't like to question or criticize what the Satmar (in the case of SBG) are doing because it could be perceived as antisemitic. Or claimed to be antisemitic by bad faith actors such as Yossi Gestetner or Elias Cunningham locally, or AIPAC nationally. People who will say anything if it helps out the candidates they're working on behalf of or organizations who are paying them. Or well-funded organizations themselves with PR firms. It's worth noting how often Congressman Pat Ryan has been seen with Stern and Ekstein, for example, and that his top donor in 2024 was AIPAC. 4. The FBI has trouble investigating crime within the Satmar community because it's difficult for them to infiltrate, so if the FBI can't do it, a reporter (usually) can't either. 5. SBG residents have, at various points, all complained to various state and federal agencies, but as of this writing, have not organized themselves into one coherent group. Instead we've had single individuals take action (Bonnie Rum filming the meetings, Chris Maderia filing a pro se lawsuit against AG James.) The lack of one central organization representing and advocating for SBG residents has been a major problem. All that said, we did legally file paperwork to create a sister organization to The Monroe Gazette that would advocate on behalf of SBG residents and attempt to bring this story to larger media outlets. We'll do our best. But the media landscape in 2025 is less about bringing stories to national outlets and asking them to cover it and more doing the story ourselves and bringing national audiences to us.
Why can't this be brought to a major news channel?
I wish I had a good answer, but the bad answer is: 1. Media outlets don't like to cover things that make wealthy or well-connected people look bad. 2. Media outlets don't have the resources to cover a story like South Blooming Grove (remember: We had to sue SBG once already, and are about to do so again, just to get information.) 3. Much like with Israel's actions in Gaza, many members of the media don't like to question or criticize what the Satmar (in the case of SBG) are doing because it could be perceived as antisemitic. Or claimed to be antisemitic by bad faith actors such as Yossi Gestetner or Elias Cunningham locally, or AIPAC nationally. People who will say anything if it helps out the candidates they're working on behalf of or organizations who are paying them. Or well-funded organizations themselves with PR firms. It's worth noting how often Congressman Pat Ryan has been seen with Stern and Ekstein, for example, and that his top donor in 2024 was AIPAC. 4. The FBI has trouble investigating crime within the Satmar community because it's difficult for them to infiltrate, so if the FBI can't do it, a reporter (usually) can't either. 5. SBG residents have, at various points, all complained to various state and federal agencies, but as of this writing, have not organized themselves into one coherent group. Instead we've had single individuals take action (Bonnie Rum filming the meetings, Chris Maderia filing a pro se lawsuit against AG James.) The lack of one central organization representing and advocating for SBG residents has been a major problem. All that said, we did legally file paperwork to create a sister organization to The Monroe Gazette that would advocate on behalf of SBG residents and attempt to bring this story to larger media outlets. We'll do our best. But the media landscape in 2025 is less about bringing stories to national outlets and asking them to cover it and more doing the story ourselves and bringing national audiences to us.