Commentary

As a political commentator, I often use this space to criticize politicians, Democrat and Republican, but as a journalist I frequently find it appropriate to also pick on those who don’t do justice to the profession.

This past week, two leftist columnists with the Arizona Republic, who have often been on the receiving end of my criticism – Laurie Roberts and Elvia Diaz – have called it quits, and I won’t have them to kick around anymore, to borrow a phrase from former President Nixon.

To reminisce, it was on November 7, 1962, when Nixon famously declared, “As I leave you, I want you to know, just think how much you’re going to be missing.  You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

For the benefit of my local readers who do not read the Republic and those elsewhere, Roberts and Diaz were typical of the liberal persuasion and will not be missed by the few conservatives who still subscribe to the paper.

In my May 22, 2022, edition titled, The Peter Principle Lives, I criticized Republic executive director Greg Burton for promoting Diaz to director of opinions and board chair.

For years I frequently referred to Diaz as a naïve, lightweight journalist, who ”is an embarrassment to the Fourth Estate, a gift that keeps on giving.”

On October 15, 2018, I posted a commentary on a Diaz editorial in which she cited that “incivility has its place in these divisive, partisan times of ours,” as she sided with Hillary Clinton, and her reasoning that Democrats needed to wage war on Trump’s Republican Party “that’s ripping the nation to pieces.”

While Diaz devoted much of her writing to coverage of immigration, the border wall and the practice of identity politics, Roberts, on the other hand, leaned toward disparaging local politicians, like Rep. Andy Biggs and Kari Lake.

You could say ‘Lake lived rent free in Roberts’ head,’ so much that in her farewell column, Roberts lamented, “I wish I’d written one more Kari Lake column.”  While she added, “Just kidding.” If so, why say it?

Roberts closed with this line in her farewell column: “There was a time when people had this radical idea that being informed by facts and being exposed to varying points of view made for better citizens.”  It’s as if she wanted to be remembered that way.

In Diaz’s final column, she wrote that democracy “requires credible and reliable information,” while noting that “we’ve seen how lies can poison public trust,” referring to the chaos “we’re living in now,” obviously a slap at President Trump.

Diaz claims the fight for democracy is in “the stories we tell and the truths we defend.  Every column, every report, every voice lifted against injustice adds to the delicate balance and necessary work of keeping democracy alive.”

That sounds good, but trust in the media to report the news fairly and accurately has sunk to its lowest point in more than five decades.

When Nixon told Henry Kissinger, “The press is the enemy,” he was referring to newspapers.  “While stressing that reporters should be free to write what they want, he said newspapers could learn from TV and radio coverage:

“I think that it’s time that our great newspapers have at least the same objectivity, the same fullness of coverage, that television has. And I can only say thank God for television and radio for keeping the newspapers a little more honest.”

If Nixon was live today, with the reporting of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNOW and NPR, he would be in a state of disbelief.

And finally … While Roberts wrote, “Whether you loved or loathed me, thanks for taking the time to read what I had to say,” Diaz simply wrote, “I’ve angered countless readers. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

While I hope Diaz and Roberts find comfort in the next chapters of their lives, I for one will not miss their columns in the Republic.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.