(The Letter was sent to the Alberni Valley News on October 8 2025)
Dear Editor,
I am deeply concerned that the new American owner of this newspaper, Carpenter Media, has crossed a bright red line in journalism ethics that calls into question the independence and integrity of every newspaper they now own.
As reported in the The Tyee on October 6th, “Reporters and editors at the [Alaska-based] Homer News and Peninsula Clarion announced their resignations Sept 29., citing a decision by the papers’ corporate owners to bow to political pressure to amend an article about a vigil for the slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk.”
This is an unconscionable and outrageous break of the public trust in the freedom and independence of the press.
It is all well and good for owners and publishers to hire editors and writers with a particular point of view. However, this action by Carpenter Media is absolutely beyond the pale. It goes against fundamental principles of democracy. A free press must question and be independent of any government regardless whether elected politicians like or dislike what is published.
If this is how Carpenter Media is going to run its newspapers then I am sure publishers, editors, and reporters at the Alberni Valley News and other Canadian papers are thinking long and hard about their own professional integrity and the expectations Canadians have.
We readers, as citizens of our democracy, should be thinking about this as well.
It is time for Canadian governments to strengthen Canadian ownership rules for the Canadian press so we as citizens can be confident our news sources follow our own Constitutional expectations and do not get caught up in some other country’s downward spiral toward authoritarianism.