NPR investigates Nick Shirley—not his allegations of widespread Somali fraud in Minnesota

NPR has now taken aim at Nick Shirley, the YouTuber whose journalism has now sparked a nationwide focus on alleged fraud in Minnesota and beyond, after the independent journalist's latest video report has been seen over 130 million times on X alone and has nearly 3 million views on YouTube. Since Shirley's report, NPR itself does not appear to have a report detailing their own investigation into Shirley's claims.  

Shirley posted the 42-minute video online the day after Christmas, where he and a local in Minnesota by the name of David went around to various daycares and health centers they have alleged are committing fraud to get government subsidies to the tune of millions. When they went to the various daycares, there were little to no children present in the middle of the day on a weekday.

NPR, in its report, like other mainstream media outlets, took aim at the allegations as unverified, and cited that a manager at the Somali-run Quality "Learing" Center in Minnesota said Shirley came outside of operating hours. The daycare, which became a running joke online because of the misspelling of "Learning" on its sign as "Learing," has since corrected the sign.

The manager of the center told reporters on Monday that the hours of operation for the daycare ran from 2 pm to 10 pm, Monday through Thursday. However, according to the daycare center's licensing agreement, it can only be in operation between the hours of 6 am to 6 pm.

The Minnesota government also claimed on Monday that the daycare had shut down the week prior to Shirley's video release. However, the same day, the daycare worker insisted to the media that they were in operation as children were reportedly seen there for the first time by local residents who were not employed by the daycare center.

NPR said the YouTuber started out "shock" YouTuber, and then questioned claims that he had been attacked while reporting in the United States.

The outlet, however, did not quote Shirley and had quoted journalist Cam Higby from the Trump administration's Antifa roundtable event, "I'm attacked every time I do my job. When I leave my house to go to work, I'm violently assaulted. I've been bear sprayed and beaten down. I've been almost killed."

NPR, while falsely attributing the quote from Higby but pointing to Shirley, said the claim was made "without citing specifics." An online search for "Nick Shirley pepper-sprayed" also results in a video posted by the reporter of him getting pepper-sprayed by an alleged Antifa militant. Higby, likewise, has been attacked and assaulted while reporting on the ground on Antifa.  

NPR, after questioning the quote, wrote in their reporting, "According to recent research from the Harvard Kennedy School, the thousands of local protests during Trump's second term have yielded an extremely low number of injuries, property damage or arrests.' Shirley directly accused the mainstream media — particularly broadcasters — of undercovering and downplaying the violence of those protests," further attempting to downplay the attacks and threats on Shirley, which are easily accesible and on video.

In the outlet's reporting, NPR also downplayed the organization of the terror group Antifa, characterizing the group as an "ideology" on the far-left, which the outlet said is "opposed to fascism." There are multiple Antifa cells around the US, some with websites where you can contact them to "get involved."

Shirley is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has spoken about how keeping his faith has kept him clean from usual vices, and that media attacks won't work.

"I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t do drugs, I’m a virgin, I don't have sex with random girls. You're not gonna catch me on no sexual allegation charges. I don't have any addictions, I don't have any vices. So what are these people going to get me for? They're done. I’m religious. I believe in God ... I have nothing to hide,” Shirley said in a recent podcast.