Every once in a while, I make an exception. For instance, most days I try to eat healthy, but today I had chili-cheese-fries for lunch. So sue me. Also, I have banned political speech from these pages, yet sometimes I sneakily skirt the edges of decency with some sly reference to 45. But most days, this is a politics-free zone. And overall, I stand by that editorial decision. I think it makes dewconsulting.net/blog a more enjoyable space for more kinds of people to pull up a chair, have a chuckle, and maybe even gain some insight. If you wanna enter into battle over the 2020 campaign, there are plenty of other places for you to do that. And if you feel called to fight the culture wars, please go some place else. I wish you godspeed.
But today, there was an editorial in the DP that I found so perplexing, I almost choked on my chili-cheese-fries. The thing almost sounds like half-an-editorial, with the key part that would reveal its true meaning – and maybe put it in proper perspective – cut out. I’m not usually so dense, so please tell me if you see something I missed. Go here to read in full.
On Friday, Jan. 17, Megan Schrader, editor of The Denver Post’s editorial pages, decided we would no longer run Jon Caldara’s weekly column. Caldara had been providing that column on a freelance basis to The Post since 2016….
We believe it is both possible and desirable to write about sensitive subjects and about people with whom one disagrees using respectful language. In exercising our right to edit material submitted for publication, we make changes and suggestions to uphold that standard. We expect writers to work with us in a collaborative and professional manner as we strive toward that goal.
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I was so mystified, I searched through Caldara’s recent DP columns to find the following. You can read it in full here. It explains a lot.
It is fascinating how the built-up frustration to the main-stream media carried Trump to victory. It’s more fascinating that the media has shown absolutely no introspection into their role in the phenomenon. They really think most Americans see them as they see themselves — brave warriors of truth, not torchbearers for progressive ideology.
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Before we go any further, let me say that there are lots of topics on which I find myself in stark disagreement with Jon Caldara. Gun control, public vs. private education, you name it: The guy’s a libertarian’s libertarian. Additionally, he’s the kind of professional devil’s-advocate – always doing his darndest to stir the pot – that I find supremely distasteful. But in this case, I think he may be on to something. The DP, of course, is welcome to publish works of whatever free-lance pundits they so choose. There’s no contract with Caldara, nor is the DP required to give editorial space to anyone, regardless of where they fall on whatever spectrum.
I guess I’d say what’s most glaring – by way of omission – from the “Editor’s note on discontinuation” is any positive indication of what got Caldara canned. Was he “disrespectful?” “Uncollaborative?” “Unprofessional?” Or maybe so politically Incorrect that he finally crossed over some invisible line into journalistic no-man’s-land? We can only guess. And when it comes to the editorial pages, “making us guess” is probably the biggest sin an editorial writer – or indeed, an editor – can commit.
Further, I’d say all of this lends credence to exactly the kind of arguments Caldara was making in his Jan. 3rd op-ed, the gist of which is that the MSM is so blind to its own innate biases that they unwittingly abet the cause of getting 45 re-elected. And if that doesn’t give the DP editorial board a moment’s pause… well, then maybe it should.