PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: Left lane or Right lane? We’ll keep it in neutral

When I was out and about last week it was brought to my attention that Suzanne Downing of the blog site ‘Must Read Alaska’ decided to drop a line about which way the Frontiersman may lean politically. Those who shared the opinion which was part of her email newsletter also shared a good laugh with me. Here is what she wrote:

FRONTIERSMAN'S ALT-LEFT EDITOR: Folks in the Valley may think they have a conservative paper in The Frontiersman, but read what the managing editor writes in the Anchorage Press week after week, and you'll have a lot clearer picture of who is calling the shots in the newsroom that covers the most conservative part of the state.

I shared a laugh with those pointing this out because they actually read the Frontiersman. They know there is no hidden agenda on our pages. We’re a community newspaper not left or right of persuasion just stories regarding our community. Our stories are not rife with our reporters’ opinions. We take the Joe Friday approach, “Just the facts ma’am.” Our opinion page is open to everyone because everyone has one — an opinion that is.

Our very own Greg Maddux

Apparently, we can no longer define people as left, right or center. We’re riding a five-lane highway adding alt left and alt right lanes. Calling our Regional Managing Editor Matt Hickman alt-left can be likened to calling Will Rogers alt-anything. Hickman uses a dry, satirical approach to his columns. You think he’s making a certain point, but if you keep your eye on the ball he generally is playing with the subject and a different outcome. I compare him to Hall of Fame Pitcher Greg Maddux. Maddux never took the mound thinking he was going to blow fastballs past the hitters. He finessed his way through every at bat, mixing up his pitches keeping hitters off-balance. When you read Hickman’s columns you think you’re getting an 85 mph fastball until you start your swing and realize at the last second the pitch is breaking late and you didn’t recognize the slider. His slider can break left or right, and you just never know unless you follow the pitch all the way to the bat. It can be frustrating.

Since Hickman and I have worked together at the Frontiersman, we’ve been labeled everything from conservative fascists to left-wing snowflakes. It comes with the territory. If you read Hickman’s body of work he can fall left, or right and he takes it one subject at a time.

Labels

Now-a-days everyone wants to put a label on folks. Alt is the new phobe. When someone has a differing opinion on a subject they get a phobe label or an ‘ist’ label. Speak out against transgender bathrooms and you’re a homophobe. Speak out against women not receiving equal pay for the same job and you’re a feminist, and so on. We can no longer have differing opinions without feeling the trepidation of name-calling or labeling. Express your opinion anyway. Labels be damned.

You can call me anything, just don’t call me late for supper.

Back in May, when House Representative David Eastman gaffed with his “women in the bush” comment. Hickman wrote a column for both the Frontiersman and the Anchorage Press. Both columns called out Eastman for his comments, but the Anchorage Press column was a little more snarky, OK a lot more snarky. I’m the publisher for both newspapers and Hickman is the editor for both newspapers.

There is a writing style that one can get away with in the Anchorage Press that we’re not going to use in the Frontiersman. Alternative weekly newspaper versus a community newspaper — there is a difference.

Amy Demboski read the Anchorage Press column and decided to call out Hickman on her afternoon show on KVNT. No problem.

I also wrote a column about Eastman’s comments and I wasn’t as harsh on him as Hickman was and in some parts of the column, I defended him. But in an around about way I wanted folks to not label the man something he isn’t. Dembowski stated on air that she had read Hickman’s column and basically was appalled. She openly asked why we didn’t publish it in the Frontiersman. We did but apparently she doesn’t read the Frontiersman and made an assumption.

“I read the publisher’s column, I think his name is Dennis Johnson or something like that — I thought it was fair.”

My last name is Anderson, Amy, but I’m not offended and to be fair, I called you Amy Dembrowski for about a year. Dembowski and her producer spent less than a minute on my column that she deemed was fair, but decided to lambast Hickman for his column the remainder of her show. It went off the rails when her producer Justin (I didn’t bother researching his last name since neither one of us can get last names right) decided that because Hickman took Eastman to task he must not like veterans and freedom-loving warriors. And he has to be influencing the Frontiersman to the left. He even went as far as calling Hickman a ‘pencil-necked metrosexual.’

There’s nothing like making a point to your argument with good old name-calling. Atta kid Justin, way to hang in there looking for the fastball.

The bottom line is…

The Frontiersman is not left or right. It is community stories with a mix of state news and hopefully a complete reflection of the community’s opinion on our opinion pages.

If you don’t think it is then you’re more than welcome to submit a column or letter to the editor. You see, there is no left or right wing laboratory in the basement of the Frontiersman trying to come up with formulas for you to think like we do. Quite frankly, we are so diverse in opinions in our building that we couldn’t come together to sway you if we tried.

That is why we don’t label our in-house opinions “The Frontiersman says…”. Whoever writes the column puts their name on it and owns it. We’re not your political Holy Spirit and you can form your own opinion. My advice is the next time you read a column from Hickman go back to the fundamentals. See ball, hit ball. Watch the ball out of his hand and into the catcher’s mitt. If you swing and miss on it don’t shake your fist and cuss at the writer. Tip your cap and go back to the dugout. In your next at bat go with the pitch and hit an opposite field home run. Take your time rounding the bases. It’s a much more satisfying feeling.

Thank you for reading the Frontiersman!