Ryan Langston-Walters conducts secret operation to catch agency leakers and whistleblowers!

When I woke up this morning – a little later than normal after a night out – I checked my phone and had several texts from Ogle Moles containing screenshots of a strange email that Matt Langston – the Texas-based political operative who’s working for Ryan Walters to destroy Oklahoma education from the inside – bcc’ed to agency employees, demanding they not leak documents to the liberal woke media. 

As opposed to earlier emails from OSDE staff that contained a more constrained and professional tone – you know, like the one we shared back in January – this one quickly set off my B.S. detector, as it seemed crafted with the explicit purpose and intent of being leaked online. 

In my semi-hungover, drowsy state, I decided to hold off on sharing it, figuring it was either A) a hoax, B) a silly trick to catch leakers and whistleblowers, or C) a desperate ploy to get some attention. 

After letting my dogs outside, and grabbing some coffee and a breakfast bar, I then opened up Twitter and saw that some media heads had already taken the bait…

See what I mean? Something felt very contrived about the email. It was like Matt served it on a silver platter filled with danishes, scones and muffins from the Habor Mountain Coffee House, along with a sign that said “Please Please Share Me!”

The Frontier’s Clifton Adcock – who also has a solid B.S. detector – thought the same thing. He took a closer look and noticed some slight discrepancies in the two emails making the rounds. Check this out:

Put the leaves and bamboo over the hole in the ground! It looks like we had a classic "Canary Trap" on our hands. (According to Wikipedia, it’s a method for exposing an information leak by giving different versions of a sensitive document to each of several suspects).

Once the local media started to realize they were duped and used as pawns in a special operations exercise to expose agency whistleblowers, they started to check around and… womp womp.

FIRST OF ALL, can the media folks stop the whole trend of using ALL-CAPS when sending newsy tweets? Please? For all of us?

I don’t know why Ryan and Matt are so eager to catch whistleblowers. The two guys obviously love attention and sticking it to the libs, so you’d think they’d be all for people inside the agency leaking their plans to destroy Oklahoma public education from the inside.

I mean, how else will all their grifter buddies, homeschool moms, and private charter school pals know to thank them for executing their disingenuous, clandestine plan to not apply for federal education grants? 

I guess Matt was pretty proud of his plan to expose whistleblowers within the agency, so he sent a weird tweet implying that Clifton and I – the only two people who seemed onto the ruse –  helped execute the plan:

While we’re sarcastically sucking each other’s dicks, I’d like to congratulate Matt and Ryan for coming up with a clever little scheme to catch the few remaining employees who still work in the agency! Well done! You’re regular old A-Team. I can’t wait to hear Ryan discuss how this went down at the next CPAC – you know, if he can get in.

That being said, don’t lump me in with the people who helped you accomplish your stupid goal! I was on the sidelines and knew what play was being called before the ball even snapped! I expect better from them next time.

Clifton eventually asked Ryan about the sneaky scheme and...

Yeah, Matt and Ryan shouldn’t get too excited here.

As Manufacturing Consent documents, one of the biggest weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the media – especially in today’s instant day and age – is that it’s way too easy for flacks to control and manipulate. As a guy who’s worn both a PR and quasi-journalist hat, it’s not hard to do. Beating your chest over this would be like bragging about beating some exhausted football players from Ringling who just did a set of up and downs in a race. 

Anyway, now that Matt and Ryan have planted a fun little trap on state employees and media folks, the obnoxious clown inside me thinks it’s time to get even! If you have any ideas on how we can settle the score by conducting our own secret operation, hit us up on the TLO Tip Line. This should be fun. 

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.