Red, White and Blueprint released its latest docuseries, Episode 7 -“Change”– on Jan. 15. It is chock full of big talk, but in signature Red, White and Blueprint fashion, it is light on facts.
Episode 7 demonstrated how the RW&B media company, along with the Shasta General Purpose Committee/Recall Shasta, is charging forward in their push to recall District 2 supervisor Leonard Moty on Feb. 1.
The episode was produced by Jeremy Edwardson and Carlos Zapata. Jon Knight served as its executive producer. All three co-own Red, White and Blueprint. Elijah Kay, who has worked as a videographer for the company since its inception, served as the episode’s director of photography.
Kay owns a small local media production company and was questioned by Shasta County Assistant District Attorney Nolan Webber during the Zapata, Meagher, and Bailey trial in September before the jury found Zapata guilty of disturbing the public while fighting for his role in the attack on Nathan Pinkney last May.
Jeremy Edwardson kicks off invitation-only premier
The night before the new episode was released to the public, an invitation-only viewing party was hosted by Red, White and Blueprint.
The list of people who attended the party included Supervisor Patrick Jones, Terry and Sally Rapoza (two leading voices in the anti-government State of Jefferson movement), and Colt and Molly Roberts.
Colt is an alt-right candidate running for the District 5 seat this summer, who claimed during the recent Red, White and Blueprint debate that he carries a firearm wherever he wants. Molly is a Shasta County Sheriff’s deputy.
One preview-party attendee joked that Jeremy Edwardson was drunk while welcoming the audience, after he claimed Red, White and Blueprint started in 2019 instead of 2020. He responded by stating he was not drunk, but that he would be soon.
Edwardson is a record producer, engineer, mixer, and songwriter. He owns a music studio in Redding and has worked closely with the Bethel Music label. He has also produced music for Sean Feucht, an alt-right evangelical Christian preacher and musician who has a home in Redding and maintains close ties to Bethel Church. Edwardson was witnessed with Feucht and the team of individuals the latter worked with to produce his most recent “Let Us Worship” event on New Year’s Eve in Miami.
After Edwardson’s address, which included a shout out to Jones for doing a great job as a supervisor, the small group sat down to watch the episode.
Top left to right: Jeremy Edwardson, Colt and Molly Roberts with Woody Clendenen. Bottom left to right: Carlos and Rebecca Zapata, and Terry and Sally Rapoza. All attended the Red, White and Blueprint viewing party.
From left: Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones watches Episode 7 during viewing party. Terry Rapoza raises a fist at the episode’s conclusion.
Opening Scene
Episode 7 opens with a shot of Woody Clendenen’s driveway on the Tehama County side of Cottonwood. It looks like a typical chilly overcast winter day. An oak tree comes into focus as the camera pans forward. The tree’s branches, which reach into the gray sky, are bare and pointed.
From the driveway, the viewer is taken for a look inside a barn where Clendenen walks a horse around as the camera pans to a GMC truck that has just pulled up and parked. It is Carlos Zapata.
Slow-motion horse riding and stringed music follows as Clendenen and Zapata gallop off into a field of winter green.
As Zapata and Clendenen ride through the field, the episode cuts to an October clip of KRCR-TV news reporter Mike Mangas as he reads a Recall Shasta press release that says enough signatures have been collected to get an election to recall Moty on the ballot.
Carlos Zapata and Woody Clendenen (bottom right) in the opening scene at the “Clendenen Ranch.”
Quote from John Adams shared in the opening scene.
Mike Mangas of KRCR-TV responds
When Mangas was contacted and asked about the use of his reporting in Episode 7, he shared what he’d requested from Red, White and Blueprint when they use clips of his on-air broadcasts.
“Personally, I have asked the producers of the Red, White and Blueprint to make sure it doesn’t appear I am advocating for them,” Mangas wrote via a private Facebook Messenger text.
“My job is to report what goes on, not take sides, and let viewers make up their own minds.”
Recall Shasta and Red, White and Blueprint & retrospective
Following the opening scene and the clip of Mangas, the episode featured a 3-minute retrospective look at the Red, White and Blueprint and Shasta County General Purpose Committee/Recall Shasta.
The result was a series of disjointed segments with abrupt transitions. First, the now-familiar footage appeared of Elissa McEuen, one of the leaders of recall movement, yelling into her blowhorn during a May 2020 board of supervisors meeting that wasn’t fully opened to the public because of a rise in COVID-19 cases.
After McEuen, the focus jumped to comments made by Red, White and Blueprint cast member Lani Bangay regarding how he got involved in the organization. Bangay claimed that the locking of the board chambers to prevent the spreading of COVID-19 was the epitome of government dysfunction.
Bangay co-owns County Strong Fitness and Country Strong Learning Center, a homeschool co-operative, in Palo Cedro with his wife. Bangay’s fitness center received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $11,910, forgiven in January of 2021.
Elissa McEuen and her bullhorn. Lani Bangay with his exercise ball.
Reids and Gormans discuss the Oct. 18 school walkout
After the scene with McEuen and Bangay, a roughly 7-minute-long segment featured two couples who’ve become increasingly known as some of Shasta County’s most vocal citizens with regard to state pandemic mandates in education and healthcare settings: Martin and Krista Reid, and Authur and Katie Gorman.
You may recall Martin Reid as the Enterprise High School English teacher who refused to receive a vaccine or be tested for COVID-19. The story was covered by R.V. Scheide in October.
One of Reid’s claims to North State fame was that he published a letter on social media that contained COVID-19 misinformation, widely shared Carlos Zapata, Bill Johnson of Bethel Church, and others.
“What’s going to happen, which I argued in my letter, is that our educational system will, in one way, shape, or form, collapse,” Reid said.
Reid’s wife, Krista, and Katie Gorman also have a background in teaching. Authur Gorman is a nurse at a local hospital. All four participated in the Oct. 18 school walkout rally at the Riverfront Park in Redding. All four have participated in “medical freedom” rallies.
Red, White and Blueprint’s Episode 7 segment with the Reids and Gorman couples was filled with vague statements about “power” and “tyranny” but it lacked substantive examples; a hallmark of all Red, White and Blueprint productions.
Martin and Krista Reid (top), and Authur and Katie Gorman (bottom).
The Oct. 19 Board of Supervisors meeting
The segment that featured the Reids and Gormans was followed by coverage of the Oct.19 Board of Supervisors meeting. It focused on Supervisor Jones’ motion to send a letter to Governor Newsom to express yet again supervisors’ displeasure with mandates regarding masks or vaccinations, despite the fact the county has no authority over the state.
During that Oct. 19 meeting, the board voted 3-2 to not send the letter, with District 5 Supervisor Les Baugh District 4 Supervisor Jones casting the minority yes votes. It was the second time in a month that the supervisors voted to not send a letter opposing vaccine mandates to the governor. The board has previously sent letters to the state that voiced opposition to state pandemic mandates, yet there’s been no response from the state.
Supervisors from Districts 1, 2, and 3, Chimenti, Moty and Rickert, respectively, voted against the letter because supervisors had already passed a resolution in September that officially opposed state-imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
As usual, Red, White and Blueprint failed to mention the fact that county supervisors have no jurisdiction over state vaccine requirements and mask mandates.
Red, White and Blueprint debate
After showcasing the Oct. 19 Board of Supervisors meeting, the episode moved on to the Red, White and Blueprint-sponsored supervisor candidate debate that took place in Cottonwood at the American Legion Post last month.
At the start of the segment, Knight and Bangay are seen tending a bonfire on a dark night in a field at the “Clendenen Ranch”. Willie Nelson’s version of “Midnight Rider” plays in the background. As the men squat down and go through the motions of pretending they built the fire, Zapata and Clendenen ride up on horses. This scene is just as corny as the opening scene, as viewers are left with the impression that Zapata and Clendenen have just arrived from a long cowboy journey.
On a related note, Jeremy Edwardson shared a picture of himself cowboyed up on his Instagram page, perhaps taken while shooting the scene, despite the fact he did not appear in the scene.
Cowboyed up Jeremy Edwardson.
In reality, the scene was filmed not far from Clendenen’s house and barn, which can be seen in the background, along with nearby Interstate 5.
Jon Knight and Lani Bangay tending to the fire as Carlos Zapata and Woody Clendenen ride up on their horses.
While the segment included candidates’ soundbites, most of the focus was upon opinions about the candidates expressed by Zapata, Knight, Clendenen and Bangay.
For example, Zapata said that Colt Roberts will not back down, and Clendenen said that Roberts had all of the right answers. The soundbite of Roberts selected by Red, White and Blueprint for that scene included comments about how Roberts wanted to cut salaries of employees who reside in Shasta County’s “Ivory Towers” – without mention of which towers, inhabited by whom.
In another scene, Jon Knight shared his thoughts about District 1 hopeful Kevin Crye.
“Dude, Kevin Crye, is a superstar, dude,” Jon Knight said, adding his belief that Crye could be a senator or a congressman.
Crye owns Ninja Coalition, a Redding-based American Ninja Warrior television-show-themed gym. The business is described on its website as an “an elite ninja warrior management agency and gym”.
Crye received the most time allotment and attention in this segment of Episode 7, which included a long quote from Crye at the debate about his willingness to step up and join the fight for freedom in Shasta County.
District 1 candidate Kevin Crye at Red, White and Blueprint debate.
Kevin Crye meets with Reverge Anselmo
As an aside, in a Jan. 11 interview with former KRCR reporter Courtney Kreider, Crye claimed he recently used his own money to fly to Phoenix to meet with Reverge Anselmo, the East Coast billionaire and disgruntled former resident of Shasta County who donated $450,000 to the Shasta County General Purpose Committee/Recall Shasta to help finance the recall movement. He previously donated $100,000 to Supervisor Jones’ campaign, thought to be the largest single personal campaign donation in Shasta County history.
It’s unknow why Crye received more attention in Episode 7 than the other Supervisor candidates. Perhaps it’s because Crye sought an audience with Reverge Anselmo, or perhaps it’s because the RW&B guys favor Crye, or perhaps there are other reasons.
Jan. 4 Board of Supervisors meeting
The next event covered in Episode 7 was the Jan. 4 Board of Supervisors meeting that resulted in the election of Moty as chair by a 3-2 vote. Jones and Baugh, of course, cast the two “no” votes. The segment is very similar to the video distributed by Red, White and Blueprint in the days before the episode was published.
The depiction of the Jan. 4 meeting in Episode 7 was one of the most flagrantly dishonest pieces of video ever produced by Red, White and Blueprint to date, which says a lot.
Moty falsely framed as tyrant
Video footage from the meeting recorded by Red, White and Blueprint videographers was heavily edited to make Moty appear as a tyrant who wouldn’t allow people to speak. The truth was that Moty was attempting to implement his new bifurcated-meeting concept to ensure more decorum and ways for the public comment period to be more evenly layered between board business, the consent calendar and yet more public comments.
Moty did nothing wrong by making these changes, but the edited footage in the episode made it look as if Moty was trying to take away the right of the public to express themselves at Board of Supervisors meetings.
The segment also made it look as if Moty had broken rules when he spoke with Shasta County leadership prior to the meeting about assuming the chair position, something Supervisor Baugh made a big deal about during the board meeting. During that same meeting Supervisor Rickert asked Baugh a few pointed questions about meetings Baugh had with county administration. It was revealed following Rickert’s inquiries that Baugh, who’d hoped to have been appointed chair, who lost that seat when his only support came from Jones, had also consulted with county administration about the chair position before the meeting, another fact omitted from Episode 7.
Zapata thinks the alt-right is going to win
In another bonfire scene, Zapata shared his thoughts about the recall election, as well as his future with regard to other Shasta County elected positions.
“If Leonard Moty doesn’t actually get recalled. If he stays in office, if we don’t get a new DA, if all these things stay the same, but they know that we’re watching, if that’s all we accomplish, that’s a big accomplishment,” Zapata said.
“That’s not a loss. Now, do I think that’s the case? No, I think we’re going to win. I think we’re winning these battles, and I think we’re going to see a new DA. I think we’re going to see a new superintendent of schools, I think we’re going to replace Leonard Moty.”
Carlos Zapata describes what he sees coming out of the alt-right chaos he helped create in Shasta County.
Episode 7 had beautiful aerial shots of Redding and country scenery, something we’ve seen in other Red, White and Blueprint docuseries. But this episode shared glaring similarities found in all previous RW&B episodes, namely, what it lacked in facts and quality content it made up for in drama and corniness. Nearly every scene included overbearing string music that intruded on the senses. Many of the statements made by people in the episode lacked substance; another Red, White and Blueprint trademark.
Most of all, Red, White and Blueprint’s Episode 7 exhibited a potentially dangerous display of profound alt-right misinformation in a part of California in desperate need of more truth, and less lies.
