The Plot Sickens: Ryan Walters' Weird Drama

The Walters weirdness just got weirder.

Specifically, two members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education described "retro" scenes of nudity playing on state Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters' office TV set during an executive session of the board. That was, let's face it, plenty weird.

Enhancing that weirdness was board members' description of Walters' flustered demeanor, his struggles to turn off the TV, and his abrupt resumption of the board meeting without comment – as if something weird had not just happened.

A few days later, Walters held a doozy of a press conference – talk about weird! He sanctimoniously accused board members of fabricating the incident, implying there were no naked ladies, retro or otherwise, on his TV screen. He declared they had fabricated the story as part of a nefarious plot to "assassinate [his] character." He offered no evidence of this, but ramped things up by calling out the "political agenda" of not only the board members, but also accused Gov. Kevin Stitt of conspiring against him.

Weird stuff.

He also falsely claimed that he had already been cleared by two investigating agencies. Kind of a weird thing to lie about something so easily disproven with a couple of phone calls. In full stride, he also blamed the media for having the audacity to report to the public what the board members had seen. He intimated at retaliation against all parties concerned.

A weirdly strident Walters displayed the wrath of a superintendent scorned. To some observers it came across like a classic case of "The Superintendent doth protest too much, methinks." Not a great look.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff Department had just begun their investigation of the naked ladies scandal. Since then, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has also been asked to investigate. The state Office of Management and Enterprise Services had already provided their technical report on the TV set at the center of the scandal. OMES confirmed that the TV has the capacity to stream videos internally or from other devices [like most TVs in the 20^thcentury]. This is only notable because it contradicts Walters' claims that the TV as connected only to a cable box and had no other streaming capacity – thus adding to Walters' ever-growing list of false statements.

It begs the obvious question: why lie, Ryan? Why lie? It's so weird!

Now, courtesy of the speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Kyle Hilbert, we add a new flavor of weirdness into the mix.

That's right: Jackie Chan.

Speaker Hilbert released a statement announcing that "I believe we have some answers now" about the whole weird deal. [Hilbert called it "unusual" and "bizarre." Tomahtoes, tomaytoes.]

Apparently, he did a bit of investigating on his own. Hilbert states he contacted Samsung to find out what programming might have been streaming on Walter's TV during the board meeting in question. He also states he spoke with "Walters and all law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation."

Sherlock Hilbert's elementary deduction: it must have been The Protector, a 1985 action movie starring Jackie Chan ... and a couple of naked ladies.

According to Hilbert, "The most plausible explanation for what occurred that day is that the television, which had only been in the superintendent’s office for fewer than two months, automatically launched Samsung’s free streaming service and began playing a film that contained explicit content, without anyone in the room realizing it at the time."

Weirder than the Jackie Chan connection, though – in a bad sense of the word weird – is Hilbert's assertion that his discovery "seems to vindicate both the State Superintendent as well as the two board members."

At least one of those board members begs to differ.

As NonDoc reported, maligned board member Becky Carson asked, "What is [Walters] vindicated of? It proves that we saw what we saw, that we weren’t lying. But it does not erase the fact that he stood before not just Oklahoma — this went worldwide — and so he stood up in front of the world and called us liars, defamed our characters, basically did a character assassination and thinks he can just walk away from it.”

I'm with Carson.

During his over-the-top, vile-spewing press conference, Walters accused Carson and fellow board member Ryan Deatherage of colluding with the governor to impugn him as a politically motivated vendetta against his Christian nationalist-inspired policy agenda. Walters decried the news media for covering the news – including this spectacularly weird news which, let's face it, begs for coverage. He maligned news media with the vehemence we so often hear from his hero, Donald Trump

Let's break down Ryan Walters' inflammatory comments from his July 29 press conference:

"[Nudity being broadcast on Walters' TV] is the nastiest, biggest lie ever lodged at an official in Oklahoma. I cannot begin to describe the disgusting nature of the lies leveled against me by board members, by the media, and by the teachers' union."

Except that it wasn't a lie. If we are to believe two eyewitnesses and the Republican House speaker, women in full frontal nudity did in fact appear on his office TV. Also, as Carson has repeatedly pointed out, she and Deatherage never accused Walters of anything. They only reported what they'd seen.

Further, to my knowledge neither of Oklahoma's teachers unions [OEA/NEA, AFT] have accused Walters of wrongdoing, but Walters finds demonizing them impossible to resist.

"This has been a coordinated attack to crucify me."

Does this express a Messiah complex, a martyr complex, or a little bit of both? Ryan, dude. Tone down the MAGA melodrama.

"For the last five days, my kids have seen headlines that are lies."

One wonders what news outlets they're reading. The headlines I've seen have reflected known facts: full frontal nudity was seen during an official meeting coming from Walters' office TV; different agencies are investigating; and there is a perceived irony about the event in question taking place in the office of a holier-than-thou Christian nationalist who has slandered Oklahoma school districts for promoting "pornography" in their school libraries and illegally mandating that teachers provide biblical instruction in their classrooms. Since he brought them up, let's invite Walters' kids to engage in a critical thinking exercise: identify the lies – in either Dad's statements, or in the headlines.

“ ... [The] press corps has shown why the public has zero trust in their reports."

Perhaps it is the state Superintendent of Public Instruction who has lost the public's trust, not the journalists reporting on his behavior conducted on the taxpayers' dime.

"These board members have a lot to answer for and so does the governor of the state of Oklahoma. Did he direct these members to lie about me?"

I think we call this "shooting the messenger," where the board members are concerned, and threatening to punish legally protected whistleblowers. Where the governor is concerned, we could call it paranoid; or we could call it deliberate deflection, taking an inflammatory cheap shot at his political friend-turned-foe in a pathetic attempt to shift attention away from himself [for a change!].

"We have had our name cleared by both OMES and the sheriff's office." Wishful thinking, Ryan. Shortly after Walters told this lie, the Sheriff's spokesman confirmed that the investigation was "in its infancy," and that "we have cleared no one." OMES' investigation consisted of a technical report after inspecting the TV set in Walters' office, drawing no conclusions about Walters' or anyone else's culpability. [On a less important note, is it just me, or is Walters' self-important use of the royal "we," well, weird?]

“There was nothing scandalous that I was a part of whatsoever."

Who said there was? Certainly not those he accused of it – although understandably, plenty of eyebrows were raised. What is scandalous are the blatantly false statements Walters made to the press and the public.

“Those individuals that tried to assassinate my character ... will be hearing from us and from all Oklahomans."

Good luck with that. First Amendment protections aside, fans of rhetorical logic recognize Walters' use of the "straw man fallacy." This when a speaker raises the specter of someone [non-existent] who has done a terrible deed [that didn't happen in order to provoke listeners' outrage against this [invented] atrocity. How, Ryan, did these would-be character assassins attempt to besmirch your good name? [Just for the sake of argument, let's concede his "good name."]

Walters' casual use of disinformation to defend his own reputation here is not only desperate, it is unnecessary. Why go ballistic when an unintended mishap took place? Why not just apologize for the incident, thank the board members for bringing it to his attention, and promise to get to the bottom of it with full transparency? Why, instead, did Walters indulgently pose as a victim? Why concoct a conspiracy theory? Why threaten "consequences" against people who voice absolutely legitimate concerns, slandering them as devious liars?

Mind you, Walters's bold, reckless dishonesty is based not just on wishful thinking. As he has done many times before, Walters is engaging in projection. He demeans others by accusing them of doing what he himself is guilty of doing to avoid owning up to it.

Let's take Becky Carson's words to heart: "He stood up in front of the world and called us liars, defamed our characters, basically did a character assassination and thinks he can just walk away from it.”

I encourage Becky Carson, Ryan Deatherage, and others Walters attacked to consider taking legal action against him. Alas, Oklahoma taxpayers are already paying to defend him against numerous other lawsuits based on his exercise of terrible judgment. Holding him accountable in this case for deliberately misleading the public and slandering others is a justifiable expense.

I truly hope that, as Walters said, "the lies will have consequences." He needs to be denounced. He needs to be reprimanded. He needs to be sued for slander. Most of all, Ryan Walters needs to be replaced.

That would not be weird at all.