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The O. Zone: Silencing discussion of political violence is not how we end it

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September 4, 2024, 12:45 pm

The Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

So you don’t think Donald Trump’s well documented and closely studied War on the Press is a big deal? In fact, you kind of enjoy it and see it as part of his tough-guy persona?

The O Zone by David O. Williams
David O. Williams

Well, it turns out it is having a chilling effect on media coverage, including right here in our happy valley. Before I saw this letter to the editor in the Vail Daily, I too was wondering what had happened to regular Tuesday columnist Richard Carnes.

I reached out to Richard, who declined to comment on the record for RealVail.com. But then I read this blurb in Colorado College journalism instructor and all-around Colorado media-coverage king Corey Hutchins’ Inside the News in Colorado newsletter:

After 1,257 columns (in a row), Vail Daily’s Richard Carnes is no longer publishing 

Over a career that spanned 25 years, Vail Daily columnist Richard Carnes says he published 1,257 Tuesday columns — consecutively. 

But that stretch ended last month when Carnes turned in a column following news that a 20-year-old man had shot at Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania and left the former GOP president with a bloody ear. 

“You preach violent rhetoric on a daily basis, violence will follow you around like a lost puppy,” the column began. “You advocate the use of force whenever necessary, force becomes your mistress. You sell aggression and vengeance as a means to an end, aggressive vengeance can backfire and be the means to your very own end.”

But, for the first time in a quarter century, Carnes says he was told the Ogden-owned newspaper would not print what he sent in, arguing it was inappropriate given that the shooting had just happened barely 48 hours before. Since then, Carnes hasn’t published another column. 

“Sadly, I think I’m done,” he said over email this week. 

The longtime columnist mentioned that when his 95-year-old mother-in-law asked him how he felt about it, he said, “I love not having to do it … but I hate not doing it.”

Vail Daily editor Nate Peterson said he made the decision not to run the column — one he’s had to make numerous times over the years as an editor. 

“Every single opinion column that comes into my inbox is judged on its own merits,” he said. “That’s what editing a community newspaper is all about.”

The Hutchins’ newsletter underscores for me, as editor of RealVail.com, that media play a critical role in continuing to uphold the basic tenets of our secular democracy as white Christian nationalism seeks to roll back the institutions passed on to us by our founders and enshrined in our constitution. Trump and his associated Project 2025 pose a direct and dire threat to our democracy.

In a recent Voter Voices survey conducted by the Colorado Media Project and nearly three dozen Colorado media outlets, including this one, Colorado voters said they are most concerned about democracy and good government.

The threats of political violence Carnes addressed in his last, unpublished column underscore the need to openly discuss and deal with how easy access to assault weapons and increasingly violent political rhetoric can have catastrophic consequences in our country.

I do appreciate efforts like this project endorsed by the Vail Daily, and the bipartisanship of politicians like Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, whose “Disagree Better” campaign I covered this past July in Salt Lake City.

But Cox blew all that good will by joining Trump for a partisan campaign photo shoot at Arlington National Cemetery – later apologizing for his role – when he should absolutely be distancing himself from the GOP’s convicted felon candidate who incited a violent coups attempt on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rather than silencing that discussion and ending political endorsements in the face of today’s increasingly threatening environment, I would hope our local paper would take those issues on more directly in order to elevate the conversation and avoid normalizing such behavior.

Editor’s note: The O. Zone is a recurring opinion column by RealVail.com publisher David O. Williams.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.