Shocker: Fargo Forum Columnist Contributes To Democrats

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 26, 2012
12:06pm

I just had to shake my head today when I spied this headline in the Fargo Forum over a column written by Sunday columnist Jane Ahlin:

I wouldn’t bother to read it. Ahlin is an uninteresting writer to begin with, and this is all subject matter you’ve heard before. Republican hate women because they believe in the scientific reality of life beginning at conception. Also, according to Ahlin, Republicans believe that rape is “female trickery” because women “love to get abortions.”

I’ve never met a Republican in my life who feels that way, but Ahlin not being a very creative thinker, must be allowed her straw men.

Being pro-life doesn’t make one anti-woman, and neither Paul Ryan nor Rick Berg agree with the outrageous comments made by Missouri congressman Todd Akin. But Ahlin, a good Democrat foot soldier, is spreading that talking point for her party.

And I’m not just casting unfounded aspersions at Ahlin when I say she’s a good Democrat. She’s on record with the North Dakota Secretary of State has having given monetary support to a Democrat this cycle (she gave $250 to Public Service Commission candidate Brad Crabtree).

And here you thought it was good journalistic ethics to refrain from making political contributions so that objectivity could be maintained.

But whatever. I’m happy Ahlin is open about her partisanship, and since I believe in free speech, she can certainly write whatever she wants. But here’s something else to ponder: While the Forum gives plenty of column space to writers with liberal perspectives, why are there no local conservative voices serving as columnists?

That’s actually true of all the newspapers in the state. Not a one employs, as a regular columnist, a consistently conservative voice. Which is strange in a state as dominated by Republicans as this one is.

Just a coincidence, I’m sure, and totally not a manifestation of the hostility held toward conservative thinking by the management of these publications. There’s plenty of room for crackpots like Ahlin, but no space for someone who might think differently.

Update: A reader emails to point out that Ahlin also contributed $300 to Planned Parenthood’s political action committee in 2010.