David Wayne Flash is at it again. His continued attempts to make trouble for Jeff Davis County have caught up a small, unknown press freedom tracker database at https://pressfreedomtracker.us/.
Flash had his AI generate slop about this subject at his website here https://bigbendtimes.com/2025/08/03/local-reporters-arrest-entered-into-national-press-freedom-database/. One way you can tell this one was written by AI is that the URL to the entry in the database is not included in Flash’s post. It can be found here https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/west-texas-reporter-forcibly-removed-from-public-meeting/.
Once again someone is going far out of their way to tell the lies Flash has been pushing since he was detained. In the very first paragraph the tracker calls Flash a reporter. The Big Bend Sentinel used the correct phrase for Flash “the photographer behind the popular Big Bend Times Facebook page and website.” Flash is an amateur photographer, not a journalist. He uses AI to generate posts using content from other sources. He copies everyone else’s work and presents it as his own. The US Press Tracker allows anyone who claims to be a journalist to be recognized as such without anything other that holding a camera.
Next, the tracker, without any checking from local sources prints Flash’s lie that he was at ‘the county building’ to pick up recordings that day. The District Clerks office is around the corner and not in the courthouse, so there would be no reason to be at the courthouse just to pick up recordings. People at the US Press Freedom tracker also did not watch the body cam video where Flash admits someone named Mel emailed him to let him know about the meeting. “Flash told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the county building to pick up an audio recording of the meeting, only to find that the proceedings had been delayed and were in progress.” Flash said it so the tracker prints it as fact.
These next to false statement in the US Press Tracker’s story really point to he motivations of the people running the tracking database. These statements are so obviously false that it appears the people at the press tracker are trying to create a narrative for Flash to make people more sympathetic to his lies. The first:
‘At one point, Flash walks toward the back of the meeting room, and has a whispered conversation with an officer — identified by the Texas Tribune as Sheriff Victor Lopez — about taking his photo. After Lopez leaves the room, Sheriff’s Deputy Adriana Ruiloba confronts Flash, telling him, “Don’t come in my personal space,” and ordering him to “back off.”’
That is a very, very strange way to describe what can be seen on the body cam video. Flash had previously put his cellphone that was mounted on a selfie stick tripod in the walkway, far from where he was instructed to setup. Then he approached the Sheriff (he constantly lies about his saying the Sheriff approached him) and demanded the Sheriff leave the meeting to pose for pictures for David. Chief Deputy steps up to them to record the interaction and is standing next to the camera. Flash walks in to the middle of the walk way to take photographs of the Sheriff as the Sheriff is walking away. Flash quickly goes over to the Chief and reaches around her to grab his camera. Flash is clearly in the Chief’s personal space and is also not walking out of the courtroom as Flash claims. He is also reaching with his hand right next to the Chief’s firearm. Describing that as “Adriana Ruiloba confronts Flash” simply because she did not want this strange man in her personal space seems like an unfair attack by the press tracker database.
The next false state by the US Press Tracker: ‘She then walked over to him, grabbed him and pushed him toward the corner of the room, saying he was disrupting the meeting. Flash was taken to the ground and can be heard on the live stream saying, “I’m not resisting.” Ruiloba orders him to put his hands behind his back, and the sound of handcuffs clicking can be heard.’ This was after Flash had been disturbing the meeting several times and Flash was walking right up to people to take photos at close range. One can seem people turning around to avoid being in Flash’s photos, as well as turning around to see what the commotion is that Flash is creating throughout the meeting. To say Flash was detained for taking the Chief’s picture is blatantly false.
The US Press Freedom Tracker database claims that because Flash identifies as a journalist and was mentioned in the Texas Tribune, he fits the requirements to be added to the database. It seems that anyone that can create enough trouble to get mentioned in the press, and claims to be a journalist, can get added to this database. One wonders how many of the entries there are from con artists like Flash.
