Reporters and editors at the Homer News and (Kenai) Peninsula Clarion announced their resignations on Sept. 28, citing a decision by the papers’ corporate owners to apparently bow to political pressure to amend an article about a vigil for the slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
The resignations, which include two editors and two reporters based in Homer and Kenai, were scheduled to take effect in two weeks, but managers at Carpenter Media Group fired all four immediately.
Carpenter, an international chain, owns the News, Clarion and the Juneau Empire, as well as the Yukon News and hundreds of other newspapers in the Lower 48 and Canada.
The resignations follow a similar mass resignation at the Juneau Empire earlier this summer.
When combined, both actions leave Carpenter Media Group with a single in-state Alaska reporter among its three newspapers.
Mary Kemmis, senior vice president of Carpenter’s publications in Alaska and Canada, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Sept. 29.
Jake Dye, a former reporter for the Peninsula Clarion and one of the people who resigned last week, said by phone that Carpenter’s handling of the story was “problematic in a lot of ways.”
Charlie Kirk, a far-right commentator, free-speech activist and Christian nationalist who was an ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed on Sept. 10 at an appearance in Utah. One person has been arrested and charged with his killing and is awaiting trial.
Since his killing, conservatives, including many Republicans, have held rallies to memorialize Kirk.
After a vigil in Homer, the weekly newspaper published an article describing Kirk as a “far-right political activist and Christian-Nationalist icon,” and went on to describe his “often racist and controversial views” before going on to detail the vigil.
Soon after the article was published, Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance published a letter on official state legislative letterhead that criticized the characterization of Kirk and the Homer News coverage and said in part, “If the paper continues to treat community events as opportunities for partisan spin, the consequence will be financial as well as reputational.”
After the letter, which was reprinted on her legislative Facebook page, Carpenter officials rewrote the article without consulting editors or reporters at the Homer News, according to the staff who resigned.
Afterward, Vance thanked the newspaper’s owners for the change.
Vance did not answer a phone call and text message on Sept. 29 asking about the incident.
In their resignation letter, Carpenter’s Alaska reporters and editors said they don’t have an issue with Vance’s perspective but “what we do have a problem with is Carpenter Media management changing a story at the behest of an elected official. We believe this destroys the credibility the public has placed in us as reporters and editors.”
The worry, the resigning staff said, is that having once caved to political pressure, Carpenter Media will invite further attempts to steer news coverage by political officials and people who are part of the story.
“We cannot do our jobs knowing that pressure from an elected official can mean our stories are edited without prior consultation with us,” the resignation letter says.
Vance’s letter to Carpenter Media comes amid nationwide pressure by Republican and conservative officials to clamp down on language deemed critical of Kirk. Some states have launched investigations of university officials and other public employees for comments made on social media.
In Juneau, the entire reporting staff of the Juneau Empire — including seasonal interns — resigned within a month of each othe amid complaints about low pay, benefits and a lack of institutional support from Carpenter Media Group, which bought the Alaska newspapers in 2024 from another out-of-state owner.
The former editor of the Juneau Empire has since gone on to start an online newspaper to operate as a nonprofit.
The Alaska Beacon is an independent, donor-funded news organization. Alaskabeacon.com.
