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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 2d

The pearls! The Saint Charlie candle!

Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 2d

Some of the best reporting on l’affair Vance has been by @matt.akmemo.com . Holly Todd’s cartoon here is wonderful.

mailchi.mp/thealaskacur...

Freedom of speech for me, not for thee

Far-right Homer Rep. Sarah Vance got her way after complaining about the Homer News’ coverage of her Charlie Kirk rally

mailchi.mp

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 5d

@nytimes.com reports on the resignation of four Alaska journalists.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...

Journalists at 3 Newspapers Quit Over Edits to a Charlie Kirk Story

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 5d

Oh no! I’ve been scolded by Rep. Delores Umbridge.

alaskawatchman.com/2025/10/02/r...

REP. VANCE: Why I criticized Homer News for ‘vile and slanderous’ statements about Charlie Kirk

The following post was published on Alaska Rep. Sarah Vance’s Facebook page on Oct. 2. It responds to criticism she has received for calling out the Homer News for the way it characterized the late Ch...

alaskawatchman.com

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 5d

“You are not required to work” = “We shut off your email and access to the company server.”

Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 7d

Corporate has to corporate. Maybe this means you’re officially fired and can get unemployment.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 8d

I don’t know.

Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

I think the Clarion will fold. It has little advertising. There’s strong community and business support for the Homer News, but I think that will collapse.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

I don’t know her.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

Here in Homer, Alaska, yet another media corporation has bent the knee because a conservative Republican Representative, Sarah Vance, did not like how the Homer News covered a vigil for Charlie Kirk.
But Alaska reporters still have integrity. #indivisible

www.juneauindependent.com/post/editor-...

Editor, most news staff of Carpenter Media’s Alaska newspapers resign due to censoring of story

Article about a Charlie Kirk vigil referring to controversies involving him was altered after a GOP Alaska lawmaker complained to company management

www.juneauindependent.com

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

This is a devastating blow to community journalism. I’m proud of Chloe, Erin, Jake, and Jeff. They are journalism heroes.
Shame on Carpenter, Sound Publishing, and Black Press for bending the knee to a petty tyrant. As the Finns would say, “Perkele, Rep, Vance.”

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks for the link.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

I was paraphrasing Alan Moore in “V for Vendetta.”

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

More on l’affaire Vance in which reporter Eric Stone interviews me. My quote:
“I don't think newspapers should be intimidated by their government. I think the government should be intimidated by the newspapers.”

alaskapublic.org/programs/ala...

Alaska News Nightly: Friday, September 26, 2025

Juneau residents will soon decide whether to change the city's sales tax.

alaskapublic.org

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

Matt Buxton nails it.

Matt Buxton @matt.akmemo.com · 12d

Leave it to Homer GOP Rep. Sarah Vance to try to cancel a local paper for describing a man who once said Black women like Justice Jackson do not have "the brain processing power to be taken seriously” as holding “racist and controversial views."

My latest from the Memo:

#akleg

Cancel culture, it turns out, is conservative

All aboard the conservative cancel culture train!

www.akmemo.com

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

This is not just spot on, it’s laser beam burning a hole in steel spot on.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

Is #kimmeled now a phrase?

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 12d

The Rep. Vance press-bullying story has been picked up by Matt Buxton of the Alaska Current.

thealaskacurrent.com/2025/09/25/a...

Alaska GOP Rep. Vance threatens boycott of Homer News over Charlie Kirk coverage - The Alaska Current

Extreme-right Republican Rep. Sarah Vance this week joined the fervent movement of conservatives using their official platforms and conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death to try to silence the pre...

thealaskacurrent.com

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 13d

Someone in the parent corporation of the Homer News removed the original web story and later replaced it with an edited, toned down version. The original reporter’s byline was replaced with “staff report.”
But print endures.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 13d

And this:
“If the paper continues to treat community events as opportunities for partisan spin, the consequence will be financial as well as reputational.”

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 13d

Vance wrote:
“Because of this ongoing bias, I am fully aware of a growing movement to boycott Homer News advertising. Local businesses are openly discussing pulling their dollars, and many readers are ready to walk away altogether.“

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 13d

Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, didn’t like the Homer (Alaska) News coverage of the vigil she organized for Charlie Kirk. On her official letterhead she threatened a boycott.
Intimidating a free press because you don’t like what they write? I wonder who she learned that from?

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 25d

I can’t decide if the Kirk murder is a Reichstag fire or the death of Horst Wessel.

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · 25d

Every year artist Mavis Muller coordinates the creation of a beautiful basket on a beach in Homer, Alaska—and then it’s transformed into heat and light.

People gather around the 2025 Homer Burning Basket, Open, in Homer, Alaska.

The 2025 Homer Burning Basket, Open, burns in Homer, Alaska.

I made a little offering for the 2025 Homer Burning Basket, Open, in Homer, Alaska.

I made an offering for the 2025 Homer Burning Basket, Open, in Homer, Alaska. When opened, it reads “hope.”

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Michael Armstrong @maarmstrong.bsky.social · Sep 6

I checked the court filing. There are 500,000 works in the lawsuit so the number of authors affected would be less.

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