Chad Taylor’s latest column congratulating Democrats for “saving democracy” reads like a politically right-wing man who finally snapped after too many Facebook comments calling his paper a “liberal rag.”
If that’s the case, it’s an impressive overcorrection, one swing that managed to hit every political nerve in the county.
If the goal was to appease the voices calling The Chronicle a “liberal rag,” mission accomplished. Taylor’s column played straight into their narrative. And in the process, he gave Democrats a rare moment of clarity: we finally got a good look at the red ink that’s been seeping through the paper’s “neutral” banner for years.
The Chronicle’s publisher has long said his goal is to keep the community connected and the paper nonpartisan. Noble goal. But dropping a partisan mic, in the middle of Lewis County politics, is an odd way to prove balance.
When the person steering the county’s largest newspaper starts using the opinion page like a personal venting booth, he isn’t bringing us all together. He is doing the exact opposite by stoking a partisan fire with a byline.
Lewis County residents understand the partisan divisiveness that grips our nation. What we hope for and depend on from our local paper is steadiness and steadfastness to counter that, the kind of journalism that gives equal space to different opinions and outlasts a single election cycle or a social media dust-up. This is how community and trust are built. Not through reactive revenge columns.
Chad’s commentary accomplished two things: He gave the far right and far right trolls validation to continue their damaging rhetoric and incendiary behavior. He gave Democrats in our county a strong data point, showing exactly what the publisher of the Chronicle thinks of us. And based on his own words, he thinks poorly of us. “Noted.” The mask of neutrality has officially been ripped off.
Chad Taylor has every right to his opinions. What he doesn’t have is the credibility to call them neutral anymore.
Lewis County needs its newspaper to be the grownup in the room, the one that asks good questions and takes criticism on the cheek, not a paper whose publisher prints his own public meltdown masquerading as moral clarity.
If The Chronicle wants to keep its nonpartisan hat, the publisher should consider self-regulating his journalistic impulses.
Matt Evans
Centralia
