Jeff Davis County Republican Party Chairman Jake Knobloch invoked accusations involving pedophilia in a recent social media post about Big Bend Reporter publisher David Flash, drawing criticism over what Flash described as an ongoing fixation and a broader political culture increasingly preoccupied with such allegations.
In a post to the Big Bend Times Dot Org Facebook page, Knobloch highlighted a negative review left on Texas Reporter and described it as:
“a very well thought out review”
The review accused Flash of promoting:
“questionable pedo ideology…”
without evidence or explanation.
After Texas Reporter encouraged supporters to leave positive recommendations to counter the review, Knobloch criticized the request, writing that Flash had called on followers to:
“drown out the truth.”
Texas Reporter had posted:
“Could some sane folks go leave us positive recommendations to push this down the page? Pretty please…”
Knobloch then escalated the post further, writing:
“We don’t know if David really is a pedo, but man he sure does post a lot of pics of children on his blogs.”
Flash said the remark was particularly strange given that Big Bend Reporter is a regional community news website that regularly covers school events across Far West Texas.
“At some point, people are allowed to ask why somebody sees school coverage and immediately jumps to pedophilia,” Flash said. “That’s a strange leap.”
Big Bend Reporter, formerly Big Bend Times, covers multiple school districts and routinely publishes coverage of football games, FFA, UIL, graduations, band performances and student achievements. Much of the photography comes from schools, teachers, booster clubs and parents publicly sharing student activities.
Flash said the approach reflects longstanding traditions in local journalism and community news.
Before launching digital publications, Flash worked for community newspaper organizations, including groups that owned the Alpine Avalanche and Fort Stockton Pioneer, and learned under longtime publisher Don Moore at Hill Country News.
“Community journalism has covered schools forever,” Flash said. “Families care about what their kids are doing.”
The post is the latest in what Flash described as an unusually sustained focus by Knobloch on one publisher.
Knobloch has previously operated a website and Facebook presence using the Big Bend Times dot org name while publishing repeated posts about Flash, reposting photos and materials connected to his work, speculating about motives and employers, and contacting people in Flash’s professional and personal network.
Flash said the broader context matters.
“There’s been this ongoing fixation for a long time,” Flash said. “At some point, people are allowed to wonder why a county political party chairman is spending this much time focused on one publisher.”
The comments also come amid broader national political rhetoric in which accusations involving pedophilia and “grooming” have increasingly been used as catchall attacks in partisan disputes, often without evidence.
