A former Colorado newspaper editor named Quentin P. Young, a proud driver of a 2007 Toyota Yaris, left the Boulder Camera a few years ago. He has been unable to land a prestigious job, so he now writes for the “Colorado Newsline,” which is sort of like an online alternative newspaper.
To say that the Colorado Newsline leans towards the deep blue end of the political spectrum is an understatement. The fact that they are effectively a very regional, small-time online “alternative” news outlet. You know, the kind you used to be able to pick up for free on your way out of the grocery store? The kind that makes your anti-gun, liberal-leaning local newspaper seem stodgy and conservative by comparison? Yes, same thing, only online only.
Hence the nearly 20-year-old Yaris with a boo-boo or two.
The no-name alternative online news outlet has achieved notoriety with Mr. Quentin’s editorial titled: Stop tolerating gun extremists. Shame them.
Diversity of thought, baby! Embrace it!
Or not. Here’s a couple of pull quotes:
Acceptance must cease of these murder-mongers in the media, government, public gatherings and the home next door. No longer can their fanaticism be indulged or their rigidity accommodated. Society must stigmatize them, and they must be rendered culturally odious. Only when gun absolutists become social pariahs can the nation start to establish comprehensive reform, allowing community members to attend schools, shop at grocery stores and visit nightclubs without fear of being torn to shreds in a blast of bullets…
[Society] should humiliate without restraint those costume-wearing soldier wannabes who show up with their shooters at rallies…
Castigation must befall anyone who obstructs gun violence prevention.
Nothing like fomenting violence against freedom-loving patriotic Americans, right?
Here’s my old buddy Lee Williams on this Young guy and his call to name and shame gun rights supporters who don’t agree with Mr. Yaris’ political ideology.
Young: Name, Shame, and Blame Gun Rights Supporters Until the Second Amendment is Repealed
By Lee Williams
In a recent editorial, the left-leaning news website Colorado Newsline called on its readers to publicly confront gun owners, because “only when gun absolutists become social pariahs can the nation start to establish comprehensive reform, allowing community members to attend schools, shop at grocery stores and visit nightclubs without fear of being torn to shreds in a blast of bullets.”
The editorial, which was titled “Stop tolerating gun extremists. Shame them,” was written by the website’s editor, Quentin Young.
“Castigation must befall anyone who obstructs gun violence prevention,” Mr. Young wrote. “Lawmakers should continue to enact measures to protect constituents from the daily massacres their communities suffer. But members of those communities can participate in the greater reform project by shaming gun proponents wherever they show themselves.”
As if this wasn’t dangerous enough, Young took it a step further, writing that society “should humiliate without restraint those costume-wearing soldier wannabes who show up with their shooters at rallies.”
To be clear, this is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible editorial. It should never have been published. Mr. Young’s shame, humiliation and castigation could easily be read as an incitement to violence, and we have all seen the savagery the left uses when they confront those with whom they disagree. All that’s needed for a full-blown riot is for someone to point his readers in the wrong direction and light the fuse, and Mr. Young certainly did just that with his rash and incautious column.
Colorado Newsline should immediately retract the editorial and issue a public apology.
The majority of Mr. Young’s thesaurus-driven work is nothing more than the usual anti-gun talking points, which are so overblown his piece is left nearly unreadable.
“Reform is thwarted by cowardice, corruption and craziness,” he wrote. “As young children are slaughtered in their classrooms, conservative officials desecrate their memory by suggesting their deaths are the price of freedom. As mass shootings become a daily occurence (sic), gun-rights zealots double down on the bloodthirsty fantasy that more guns is (sic) the answer.”
Young reserves his harshest words for Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a pro-gun Republican and one of his favorite targets.
“The Second Amendment won’t be repealed anytime soon, but Americans can at least begin a cultural shift and re-imagine (sic) what the law means,” Mr. Young wrote. “Society should no longer tolerate the kind of depraved fanaticism that allows someone like Rep. Lauren Boeberrt (sic) to tweet a Christmas greeting with her young sons brandishing weapons of war.”
Colorado Newsline claims to be a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent source of online news,” but like its editor, it leans strongly to the left. It is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which also leans far to the left. According to Influence Watch: “A past job posting by States Newsroom referred to the organization as a ‘progressive political journalism startup.’”
States Newsroom organizes stories from its affiliates into four categories: “rising trends, attacks on LGBTQ equality, reproductive rights and gun violence.” All of States Newsroom’s senior leadership came from leftwing media organizations. However, Colorado Newsline claims it maintains editorial independence from States Newsroom, and that all editorial decisions are made locally. That claim is certainly suspect.
Seasoned journalists know the power a call-to-action can have in an editorial, which is why they’re used so sparingly. But make no mistake, what Mr. Young wrote is not a call to action. He incited violence. There is no doubt that when someone is harmed because of his work he will seek shelter behind the First Amendment, even though his column is the journalistic equivalent of yelling Fire! in a crowded theater and therefore not constitutionally protected speech.
I sincerely hope Mr. Young will delete this dangerous editorial and apologize to his readers before someone is harmed. It’s the right thing to do. It also wouldn’t hurt to ditch the thesaurus co-author and invest in a good spell checker.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
This type of woke rhetoric might play in deep blue urban hellscapes, where soy-infused betas egg on Pantifa sissies while hiding behind them, but where I come from, people tend to be a little more polite.
Stay in your lane, princess. You really don’t want what you think you are advocating for. Mind your manners, and your own business, ‘journalist’.
What is he complaining about.? My local United Methodist Church made me a pariah for wanting to talk about guns in the church. I was told “Facts do not matter.” and “You and your concerns are not important to this church.” For those who do not know, the UMC is a big supporter of gun control. They have lost members every year for 50 years, and think “men” are the problem. they have been very good at making gun owners into pariahs.