On Feb. 20, the Deschutes County Republican Party held its monthly meeting, with guest speaker John Guandolo, president of Understanding the Threat, addressing the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood to the United States. In The Bulletin article the following day, reporter Julia Shumway relied heavily on biased and uninformed sources to smear the speaker and members of the DCRP.

Not only did Ms. Shumway ignore the main point of the presentation, which was about the danger posed by radical Islam acting through its agents in the Council of American Islamic Relations, North American Islamic Trust and other Muslim Brotherhood front groups, she also selectively quoted DCRP representatives.

For example, she failed to include Paul deWitt’s comments about Pew Research studies that demonstrate significant numbers of Muslims in the United States who support imposing Shariah (Islamic Law) and the actions of violent jihadists.

Ms. Shumway engaged in journalistic malpractice in her presentation of a distorted view of the event and the implication that participants condoned Islamophobia, and by giving credence to the description by the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center of Mr. Guandolo as an “anti-Islamic extremist.”

Before the meeting, the local Deschutes Democrats posted on their Facebook page a defamatory attack on Mr. Guandolo in an attempt to have the meeting canceled. The Deschutes Democrats described Mr. Guandolo as a “conspiracy theorist” whose “forte is stirring up hate against immigrants and Muslims in particular by spinning wild tales of infiltration around every corner.”

John Guandolo is a decorated Marine Corps officer and Iraq War veteran who served 7 years as a combat infantry platoon commander and member of a Marine Force Reconnaissance unit (special operations capable).

John subsequently spent 13 years as an FBI Special Agent, assigned to the FBI’s Washington Field Office counterterrorism division, where he investigated the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamic movement and terrorism.

Designated a subject matter expert, he created and implemented the FBI’s first counterterrorism training program. He received two U.S. Attorney’s awards for investigative excellence, was presented the Defender of the Homeland award by Sens. Jon Kyl and Joe Lieberman, and was inducted into Who’s Who for his work on national security.

The entirety of Mr. Guandolo’s presentation was based on source documents.

As a trained investigator, he uses only first-hand materials, such as Muslim Brotherhood archives discovered in 2004 following a raid on the home of a material witness who was linked to the leader of Hamas in the United States — a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Mr. Guandolo stated the following in response to the Deschutes Democrats’ Facebook post: “If anyone can demonstrate that anything UTT says/teaches/briefs about the Muslim Brotherhood and their network in the U.S. or Shariah and its foundation/authority in Islam or about what Shariah actually says, we will stop teaching it, remove it from our materials and give the person bringing that information to our attention $1,000. In the 3 years we have offered this to MB leaders, Imams, Islamic scholars and socialist organizations, we have never had to pay. No one challenges the veracity of our information when it is presented to them in person.”

If Ms. Shumway had bothered to check the facts Mr. Guandolo presented instead of relying on false charges and innuendo to frame her story, it would have been more credible.

The story ended with the following quote from Susan Gregory, chairwoman of the Interfaith Network of Central Oregon: “Christians are the people who bomb abortion clinics.” Abortion clinic bombings are reprehensible and rare. Is this allegation intended to excuse the thousands of instances of extremism perpetrated by Islamists by suggesting some sort of moral equivalence?

People like Ms. Gregory and Ms. Shumway would benefit from a dose of reality, such as that offered by Mr. Guandolo, instead of repeating hyperbolic and unsubstantiated accusations.

— Paul deWitt is vice chair of the Deschutes County Republican Party. Sam Carpenter is a Republican candidate for governor.