PRESS: Don't encourage extremism

Two weeks ago, the Kootenai County Republicans held their annual Lincoln Day fundraiser. The keynote speaker was Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a far-right group whose events regularly attract white nationalists and other extremists.

The article “Turning Point USA founder speaks at Lincoln Day” promoted inflammatory and deeply biased views without providing any context, substantiating information or opposing viewpoints. On March 1, Turning Point USA threw a party that was attended by racist conspiracy theorists and leaders of the Proud Boys, a violent racist group. Turning Point USA staff, including Kirk, have a well-documented history of tweeting racist remarks and Turning Point USA campus chapters have trafficked in offensive racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim memes.

The claims made by Kirk repeated by the article, including “Universities are teaching hatred for America to our youth. The greatest threat to our country is college and universities right now,” are meant to sow fear and division and undermine our public institutions.

It is inappropriate and disappointing for a news outlet like the Coeur d’Alene Press to provide such an uncritical platform for groups like Turning Point USA to espouse their hateful and incendiary views. The Press has a responsibility to put context around articles like this, otherwise they are just providing another platform for spreading extremist fear-mongering views.

BROCK SCHROEDER

Coeur d’Alene