When a Republican senator decides he hates free speech

By SUZANNE DOWNING

There is something strangely ironic about a Republican state senator invoking Donald Trump while arguing that Alaskans should stop reading conservative media and instead get their information only from government official sources.

But that is exactly what Sen. Rob Yundt of Wasilla did Sunday.

In a Facebook post titled “Trump Called It ‘Fake News.’ Alaska Is Living It,” Yundt launched a broadside against what he derisively called Alaska’s “bloggers,” accusing them of spreading “crap sandwiches,” chasing clicks, and misleading the public.

He did not name any outlets, but his target was obvious: the growing ecosystem of conservative and independent writers who do not take their orders from the political class, whether it is Democrats or Republicans. The Alaska Story, The Alaska Landmine, and The Alaska Watchman are three of the more well-read independent digital news sites right now.

Before these websites, there was Mike Porcaro’s Anchorage Daily Planet and Dan Fagan’s The Alaska Standard, which were pioneers in the independent media space.

Yundt proposed that Alaskans should stop reading independent reporting and instead rely on politicians and government bodies for their news. Just wow.

Here’s what he wrote: People should get their information from:

• Elected officials posting updates

• City councils, school boards, and assemblies

• Government meeting packets and minutes

• Community boards and official livestreams

“Don’t get me wrong, a free press is essential but there is a real difference between journalism & profits driven clickbait,” he wrote, indicating that he believes some news outlets that are nonprofit are better than those that are not.

“No ads to sell. No clicks to chase. Just information,” he concluded in a post on Facebook (that was clearly written by ChatGPT on his behalf.)

In other words, he wants a government-controlled narrative. He wants you to confine your news consumption to politicians telling you what they did, why they did it, and how great it was. He apparently does not want any independent scrutiny. He just wants PR.

In other words, “trust us, we investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong.”

This is especially rich coming from a man who represents one of the most conservative districts in Alaska but has lately been marching in step with Democrats on some of the most consequential policy fights in the state.

Yundt has aligned himself with Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski in pushing for higher oil taxes — a policy that directly threatens Alaska’s investment climate, jobs, and long-term state revenues. He also voted to override the governor’s veto on ballooning education spending, doing so without demanding performance, accountability, or measurable results from school districts.

Those votes raised questions among conservatives. They were written about, analyzed, and scrutinized.

And now, instead of defending those positions in the marketplace of ideas, Yundt is attacking the marketplace itself.That’s what this Facebook post really was.

He didn’t argue that conservative writers got facts wrong. He didn’t refute specific claims. He didn’t provide evidence of “half-truths” or “nonsense.”

He attacked the business model.

“Clickbait,” he sneered. “Profits driven.” “Crap sandwiches.”

The Alaska Story and others write about politics and Yundt doesn’t like it.

The government sources he wants you to get your information from solely, well, they get paid, too. They do not lose funding when they mislead you. They do not go out of business when they fail.

Yundt is upset because people are being informed by people he cannot control. And so he wrapped his argument in Donald Trump’s phrase “fake news,” even though Trump used that phrase to attack entrenched legacy media and government-aligned press, not citizen journalists and independent conservative writers.

Trump never told Americans to get their news from politicians or straight from the government. He told them not to trust institutions that had grown comfortable lying to them.

In Alaska today, the uncomfortable truth for some politicians is that independent media, not only conservative media, is breaking stories, surfacing documents, and challenging the press release narratives.

It’s the Fourth Estate the way it was designed to be when the Founders wrote the Bill of Rights.

Rob Yundt is a fighter. A scrapper. Everyone knows that. But now he has picked a strange opponent: Alaskans who write, investigate, and speak without his permission.

If he thinks silencing critics and steering people back to government-approved information is what conservatism looks like, he may soon discover that the voters of Wasilla strongly disagree.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan who was formerly with the legacy media.