Republican Candidate asks for help in ensuring a more fair election
Article - 4 minute read
Republican Candidate for Douglas County District 1 Dr. Justin Spiehs released a video yesterday on his YouTube channel asking his viewers to reach out to his local newspaper, Lawrence Journal-World.
Lawrence Journal-World is one of two news sources specific to Lawrence, the other being The Lawrence Times ran by Mackenzie Clark who said in a tweet back in May of this year, “I just hope this community knows that at @LawrenceKSTimes, we don’t leave out half the facts just because it’s convenient for us.”
Although The Lawrence Times has been called out for knowingly leaving out facts because it was convenient for them in the past, this tweet is important. Clark used to work for Lawrence Journal-World and her tweet is directed at Lawrence Journal-World.
Austin Hornbostel from Lawrence Journal-World reached out to Dr. Spiehs with a candidate questionnaire, which they are doing for all the Douglas County Commissioner Candidates for the upcoming November 8 election.
On top of the typical candidate questions, Hornbostel also asked Dr. Spiehs seemingly biased questions regarding his personal life including:
What's your current employment situation?
How did your employment at Washburn end?
Are you party to any ongoing criminal or civil cases that the LJW hasn't reported on?
With the understanding that you're currently on probation, what would you say to voters with uncertainties about whether you're in a stable enough place to serve in office effectively?
Dr. Spiehs asked for the questions and answers to be ran verbatim, but was told this would not be the case.
In an email response, Hornbostel defended the reasoning for this, saying, “Because the story will include all three candidates' responses, there just won't be the space to print even one candidate's responses completely unedited, let alone three.”
Dr. Spiehs responded to Hornbostel’s email, laying out four reasons he is against how the paper is choosing to go about portraying the stories.
“First, because you are taking the Liberty to pick and choose what the candidates say then you will do everything you can to paint me in any light you want which we all know will be the shittiest light possible, as you’ve done with everything you’ve reported on when it comes to me. You will do this to swing the election the way you want it which is for the democrats to win. I mean just look at the bullshit additional questions you asked me. Clearly your attempt to make me look bad and turn potential voters against me.
“Second, why do you get to be the filter for what the community reads about the candidates they will be voting on? Just print the entire Q&A so the public can be as informed as possible without you spinning it. What are you afraid of? No one wants LJWorlds take on it, they want to hear from the candidates not you Austin or you Chad. They just want the news plain and simple without either of your views. If it’s too long, then run it as parts of a series over a few days. This election is too important of an issue for you not to take the time and dedicate the space to cover it properly and accurately. Turning this simple candidate Q&A into a “story” is propaganda.
“Third, why did you even bother to ask questions in the format you did if you weren’t going to print the answers? How can you make a “story” out of the answers instead of just letting the answers be the article? There’s no need for a story, just let the candidates words speak for themselves.
“Lastly, in the past, candidate responses have been printed in the paper in their entirety and have been extremely interesting to read and incredibly helpful for getting to know the candidates. Why the change for this election? Worried I’m going to win?”
Being a Republican, Dr. Spiehs is concerned that the left-leaning newspaper will make him look bad and sway the election if they do this, referring to the newspaper as a “communist newspaper” in his video.
The publication regarding the candidate questionnaires will come out October 16. To those who would like to help Dr. Spiehs ensure a more fair election, you can reach out to the editor of Lawrence Journal-World Chad Lawhorn at the following:
email: clawhorn@ljworld.com
phone: (785)832-6362