Newspaper reporters and editors wonder why people don’t trust the media. In Alaska, it’s fairly easy to see the reason for the mistrust.

Exhibit A: The former Anchorage Daily News editor Pat Dougherty wants you to join him and “fight the fascists” running for Assembly. He invites you to an event in support of his candidates — the sitting Anchorage Assembly incumbents who brought the city to an economic standstill over the past three years, with their allegiance to former Mayors Ethan Berkowitz and Austin Quinn-Davidson.

The “Fight the Fascists” event is at Cuddy Park in support of incumbent Assembly members Forrest Dunbar, Meg Zaletel, Kameron Perez-Verdia, and John Weddleton, all who will be making an appearance at the Fight the Fascists event.

According to Dougherty, Save Anchorage is a fascist organization and is also an “insurrectionist” group. Save Anchorage is a Facebook page for centrists in Anchorage who object to the city being taken over by leftists on the Assembly and School Board.

In Dougherty’s thinking, opponents of the current Assembly members are fascists to be fought.

A look at Dougherty’s “fascists”

Democrat Forrest Dunbar, representing East Anchorage, is challenged by Stephanie Taylor, an African-American mother and volunteer who came to Alaska as a child, when her father transferred in the military. She is a traditional, conservative, church-going and community-volunteering resident of East Anchorage who has taught many classes in youth leadership. Dougherty would classify this as “fascism” that needs to be fought.

Democrat Meg Zaletel, in midtown-south, is being challenged by Kathy Henslee, a mother and grandmother who works as a real estate agent and tries to not be the first in the room to whip out photos of her grandchildren. “As I have watched the public servants in my beloved city ignore the citizen’s needs and make everyday life more and more difficult with restrictive regulations, out of control spending, and harmful social ideas I felt the need to act,” Henslee says on her campaign site. Her core principles are “Respect very person, Protection for our personal freedom, Humbly serving my neighbors, Upholding the rule of law for every citizen, the same way, every time, and A smaller government that encourages its citizens to pursue life, however, they want to live it, and then purposefully tries to stay out of the way,” she says on her campaign site.

In Pat Dougherty’s mind, this represents “fascism.”

Democrat Kameron Perez-Verdia, who serves on the Assembly for West Anchorage, has a challenger in Liz Vazquez, who served in the Alaska House of Representatives. Vazquez was born in poverty in Puerto Rico, and pulled herself up by her bootstraps, graduated from law school.

Vazquez says, “I am an American of Puerto Rican heritage and an example of the American dream. I started school in Puerto Rico and learned English as a second language. My parents never finished high school and I was the first in my family to graduate from college. After eating a lot of macaroni and cheese, I obtained my law degree and later, my two master’s degrees.”

She is a former assistant attorney general for the State of Alaska, and a former criminal prosecutor, administrative law judge, who served four years on the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission.

In Pat Dougherty’s mind, this represents “fascism.”

“The road hasn’t always been easy, but it has been worth it, and it has taught me to see challenges as opportunities. The great reward has been serving Alaskans,” Vazquez said.

Democrat-associated John Weddleton, the Assemblyman for South Anchorage who is running for reelection, is being challenged by Randy Sulte.

He moved to Anchorage in 2004 with his wife and children. An Eagle Scout, Sulte attended the Colorado School of Mines and Seattle University Albers School of Business, where he earned a MBA. He is an engineer and a pilot. He is also chief operating officer of Kakivik Asset Management and CCI Industrial. Sulte has served for 16 years on the board of Youth Exploring Adventure (Hill Top Ski Area), where the board brought back ski racing, made significant site improvements, and in 2021 opened a new lift served bike park.

In Pat Dougherty’s mind, this represents “fascism.”

Dougherty, who boasts a Pulitzer Prize during his long career at the Anchorage Daily News, is still a now-and-then contributor to the newspaper’s opinion pages and spends his days holed up in his south Anchorage home, retweeting savage messages from the Anchorage Press, the Blue Alaskan blog, Anchorage Action, and Dermot Cole, all extremists propaganda machines of the Left that are out of step with everyday Anchorage residents who voted for a conservative mayor who will fight the hard-leftists on the Assembly.

Dougherty hid his extreme views well when he was the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, but in retirement has let loose his true nature, liberally pouring on the “fascism” label as the next next municipal election approaches.

Dougherty may be doing more to undermine journalism in Alaska than the leftist crowd that currently runs the ADN.

A Gallup poll released in October found that just 36% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of faith in what they see and hear in the news media. Pew Research also released results last summer, showing that conservatives don’t trust the media, while liberals do:

“Nearly eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (78%) say they have “a lot” or “some” trust in the information that comes from national news organizations – 43 percentage points higher than Republicans and Republican leaners (35%) – according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted June 14-27, 2021. This partisan gap is the largest of any time that this question has been asked since 2016. And it grows even wider – to 53 points – between liberal Democrats (83%) and conservative Republicans (30%).”