Opinion: Blake Fontenay: Buts on the road to censorship – The Daily Camera

By Blake Fontenay

Bari Weiss, an opinion editor and writer at the New York Times, created a disturbance within the journalism world a few days ago when she tendered her resignation.

Weiss wasnt forced out because she had fabricated source material, libeled someone or committed some other unforgivable transgression. Instead, in her resignation letter, she said that she was quitting because she felt bullied and harassed by some of her Times colleagues for giving voice to moderate and conservative viewpoints within the newspapers predominantly liberal opinion pages.

I have to say that this story resonated with me on a deeply personal level. Not that Ive experienced that type of animosity from my colleagues here at the Daily Camera.

Most of them are still working from home as part of the newspapers efforts to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Those I have met during my first few weeks on the job have been far too polite to tell me if they think Im running this newspapers opinion pages into the ground.

However, some readers are a different story. On an almost-daily basis, I hear from readers who have complaints about particular letters, editorials, cartoons or guest columns that have appeared on these pages.

Thats nothing new. I have worked at a lot of different newspapers over the course of my career and fielding complaints from readers goes with the territory.

I think healthy interaction between journalists and readers is one of the things that makes newspapers superior to other forms of news media. I mean really, when was the last time you called someone at a local TV or radio station to provide feedback on something you saw or heard there?

That said, Im seeing a pattern emerging that I find troubling, both as a journalist and an American. A great number of the complaints Ive received to date have come from people who believe certain pieces of commentary shouldnt have been published because the ideas expressed dont align with their own personal beliefs.

If you truly believe in the First Amendment and the freedom of expression, as I do, this line of thinking provides a path down a very dark road.

I go back to that famous quote we learned in elementary school, attributed to the French writer Voltaire but probably actually written by one of his biographers, which said: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Thats the ideal on which our First Amendment was based.

I wonder, in our politically polarized society, how many people today could truthfully speak those words. If youre a supporter of President Donald Trump, would you really fight to the death to defend the free speech rights of one of the presidents critics?

Oh, but that argument cuts both ways. If you hate Trump and all that he stands for, are you still willing to fight to the death, or even a little bit to protect the views of the Make America Great Again crowd?

In my years as an opinion page editor and writer, I have yet to meet anyone willing to confess a desire to censor opposing points of view. Oh, no. Its never that.

The conversations usually start this way: Im all for hearing different opinions, but and what follows the but is a rationalization for why a particular piece of commentary was somehow beyond the pale and shouldnt have been published.

I agree that there are certain types of content that have no place in a general circulation newspaper. But the standard for excluding something has to be higher than this has the potential to offend someone. A lot higher.

If that were the standard, then there arent enough people writing about puppies and rainbows to fill our opinion pages each week.

Look, Im well aware that Boulder is predominantly a left-leaning community. The citys Wikipedia page even makes a light-hearted reference to the Peoples Republic of Boulder.

And thats absolutely fine with me. I wouldnt have agreed to take this job if I wasnt OK with that.

However, judging by some of the comments made to and about me on social media (where I think the term keyboard courage applies), some people apparently think my employment here at the Daily Camera is part of an evil plot to secretly transform Boulder into another Colorado Springs.

Right. And while Im working on that project, Ill also be trying to level off the Flatirons with a sandbox shovel.

For the record, I dont agree with every piece of content that appears on our opinion pages. You can be reasonably sure Im in agreement with the positions taken in our staff-written editorials, although even those represent not just my views, but the consensus of the editorial board.

The rest of the pages are an open forum where I strongly believe a variety of different viewpoints deserve a fair hearing. A former editor of mine used to refer to opinion pages as a garden of ideas. While I disagreed with him on nearly everything else, I think his views on that point were exactly right.

I think thats the right approach to take anywhere, but especially in a town like Boulder, with so many smart and well-educated people. This is, after all, a college town where a premium is placed on learning. And how can people truly learn without being exposed to ideas that fall outside of their personal belief systems?

I did my research on Boulder before I started work here. I know this is a place where tolerance and inclusion are highly valued. But tolerance and inclusion apply not only to peoples skin color or sexual orientation, but also to their ways of thinking.

I dont want to be in a position where Im asked to curate content to keep readers from being unduly influenced by potentially objectionable material. I have more faith in the critical thinking abilities of Boulderites than that. And I hope you have the same faith in your neighbors and yourselves.

Blake Fontenay is the opinion editor for the Daily Camera.

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Opinion: Blake Fontenay: Buts on the road to censorship - The Daily Camera