As readers of Arizona's Politics and Arizona's Law might expect, I was quick to sign on to the statement issued by former Arizona journalists "IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY, THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE FOURTH ESTATE". The effort and news conference yesterday were led by Rhonda Bannard, Steve Krafft and Marlene Galan.* It was an eloquent and non-partisan plea for people to vote in this incredibly-important election. (The statement and some of the video are below.)
The critical nature of our plea for TRUTH was made even more crystal clear today, when Ben Petersen, the apparent "RNC Arizona Communications Director", tweeted out a completely false tweet purporting to quote Senator Mark Kelly saying that his Democratic colleague (Katie Hobbs) should "just run a better campaign." Kelly made that statement *explicitly* about their Republican opponents, Blake Masters (Senate) and Kari Lake (Governor).
With the veracity of the tweet already being challenged, Kari Lake decided to run with the obvious falsehood. "Wow. @SenMarkKelly just threw @katiehobbs completely under the bus."
Again, Lake knew or should have known that the key part of the quote was actually about HER and not her opponent.
Lake has proven the importance of those editors and colleagues. And those of us who are no longer in the profession but are concerned about the health of our First Amendment and our democracy.
That is why we are speaking out.
*Thanks to friends Nancy Puffer and Sal Caputo, both there in the accompanying picture.
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