Denver Post Writer Fired For Blasting The AP Stylebook As ‘Activism’ Pushing Progressivism
One conservative columnist wrote that the AP stylebook was ensuring that progressive values are pushed forward and journalists are ignorant of tipping the scales in the culture war.
John Caldera is the president of Libertarian Independence Institute, and until recently wrote for the Denver Post. After he penned a piece condemning the AP Style Guide denying the gender binary — that there are only two sexes indicated by either XX or XY chromosomes — he was let go.
Caldera’s article was larger than that, though. His assertion that the updated AP Stylebook, which is supposed to be a handbook to keep reporting consistent, but instead “codifies reporters’ progressively loaded language” and therefore determines which ideas are the acceptable ones.
He says that the press doesn’t seem to understand how the average American perceives them because they cannot see how “monolithically progressive” the mainstream media is, nor do they recognize that they are actively pushing a progressive agenda simply by following the AP Stylebook. He cites the example of the immigration debate where the AP says that calling those who cross the border without proper documentation “illegal aliens” is no longer acceptable. The word “illegal” should be used to describe an action, not a person, it says, so instead use the word “undocumented.” This clearly picks a winner in the immigration debate.
Caldera tells readers that the “first rule in winning any political battle is winning the language used to define the issue” and when it comes to that, the media “plays judge and jury.”
It is fascinating how the built-up frustration to the main-stream media carried Trump to victory. It’s more fascinating that the media has shown absolutely no introspection into their role in the phenomenon. They really think most Americans see them as they see themselves — brave warriors of truth, not torchbearers for progressive ideology.
One only has to listen to NPR reporters and their pee-your-pants excitement at covering Trump’s impeachment to conclude they still have no idea so much of America considers them the enemy.
Source: Denver Post
Caldera was pushing back against the updated AP Styleguide’s new insistence that gender is not a binary. It reads, “Not all people fall under one of two categories for sex and gender” and accepts the pronoun “they” as singular or a gender-neutral pronoun. He says that it’s commendable that the Associated Press (and reporters at large) want to be compassionate to transgender individuals, but AP reporters “first have a duty to the truth” and denying the gender binary as indicated by the XX or XY chromosomes is simply activism.
He also wrote about the rampant political correctness surrounding “Race-related coverage.” Caldera explains that although most definitions in the Stylebook take a phrase or short sentence to explain, the explanation of racial coverage “takes more than four pages to bob-and-weave through political correctness. No wonder the country can’t have a coherent conversation about race. We’re not allowed to use words.”
He concludes his article with a scathing final thought, “The AP is the conduit for propaganda. If they don’t own up to it and try to change it, they may help re-elect the president they loathe.”
“My column is not a soft voiced, sticky sweet NPR-styled piece which employs the language now mandated by the victim-centric, identity politics driven media,” he said in a Facebook post.“What seemed to be the last straw for my column was my insistence that there are only two sexes and my frustration that to be inclusive of the transgendered (even that word isn’t allowed) we must lose our right to free speech.”
Caldara criticized an Associated Press directive saying that sex and gender are not binary. “There are only two sexes, identified by an XX or XY chromosome. That is the very definition of binary. The AP ruling it isn’t so doesn’t change science. It’s a premeditative attempt to change culture and policy. It’s activism,” he wrote on Jan. 3. In a column two weeks later, Caldara also railed against a 2019 Colorado law that required elementary school children to be instructed in transgender ideology.
“Some parents weren’t thrilled a couple of years back when during school their little ones in Boulder Valley School District were treated to videos staring [sic] a transgender teddy bear teaching the kids how to misuse pronouns or when Colorado’s ‘Trans Community Choir’ sang to kids about a transgender raven,” Caldara wrote. “What are the protections for a parent who feels transgender singing groups and teddy bears with gender dysphoria might be ‘stigmatizing’ for their kid?”
Source: Washington Free Beacon
In an interview with Westword, Caldera said, “Megan told me I was the page’s most-read columnist. But there’s now a permanently and perpetually offended class, and in order to speak, you need to use their terminology. There’s a whole lot of you-can’t-say-that-ism going on right now.”
Caldera was fired for being honest and sharing his opinion and daring to say the things that aren’t said. That used to be the role of the media.
By giving him his pink slip, the Denver Post just proved that he’s right.
