Editor, most news staff of Carpenter Media’s Alaska newspapers resign due to censoring of story

Article about a Charlie Kirk vigil referring to controversies involving him was altered after a GOP Alaska lawmaker complained to company management

Issues of the Juneau Empire from earlier this year. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

Editor’s note: The staff of the Juneau Independent resigned earlier this year from the Juneau Empire due to disputes with Carpenter Media Group’s management. The essential facts of this story are being reported due to its importance to the local community.

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

This story has been updated to note the employees involved have been cut off from their work accounts.

The editor and most of the reporters at the Homer News, Peninsula Clarion, and the Juneau Empire announced their resignations Monday after corporate management deleted content from a story about Charlie Kirk in response to a complaint from a Republican state lawmaker.

The employees were cut off from access to their work emails, social media accounts and the newspapers’ content management system on Monday night by Carpenter Media Group, according to Jake Dye, one of the reporters. The newspapers are printed and mailed from Washington state by Sound Publishing, which Carpenter purchased last year, and that operation has employees able to continue publishing online and print material for the three publications.

The resignations, intended to be effective Oct. 13, were announced in a letter by Erin Thompson (regional editor for the three newspapers), and reporters Chloe Pleznec, Jeff Helminiak and Dye.

Dye, in an interview Monday evening, said the Homer News still has one reporter on staff and the Empire has a reporter working remotely from Washington state.

Dye said there is no plan among the departing staff to launch a separate news publication.

On Monday evening, the Juneau Independent submitted questions about the resignations and the future of the newspapers to Mary Kemmis, senior vice president of the Canadian and Alaska Division of Carpenter Media Group. Kemmis did not respond before the initial publication of this story by the Independent. 

The story by Pleznac about a vigil honoring Kirk, who was killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at a college event, was originally published by the Homer News on Sept. 23. It referred to him as "a far-right political activist and Christian-Nationalist icon," with a link to a New York Times story about his "often racist and controversial views."

That prompted a letter of complaint to Carpenter Media management from Alaska Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, who stated the story reflected the newspaper’s “long-standing pattern of left-wing slant.” Vance also demanded a review of Pleznac’s work and urged "immediate corrective action.” Otherwise, she stated, "the consequence will be financial as well as reputational.”

The story was removed from the websites of the Homer News and Peninsula Clarion and then reposted without the controversial content about Kirk and without Pleznac’s byline. Vance shared a social media message of thanks in response. The Juneau Empire did not publish the story. 

In their resignation letter, the four employees said they had “no problem with Rep. Vance expressing her opinion of our coverage."

“What we do have a problem with is Carpenter Media management changing a story at the behest of an elected official," the letter states. "We believe this destroys the credibility the public has placed in us as reporters and editors. This willingness to acquiesce to a public official's editorial demands and have conversations with her about the direction of our coverage is a betrayal not just of the journalists who work for Carpenter Media, but of the company's integrity as a purveyor of news."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.