Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House Press Secretary-turned Republican nominee for Arkansas governor, is not a stranger to the anti-conservative bias that reigns supreme within mainstream media organizations, big or small.
And while she's no longer sparring with CNN's Jim Acosta from the White House podium, she's still being faced with that bias as she works to reach Arkansans with her message while seeking to become the next governor of her home state, a position once held by her father, Mike Huckabee, from 1996 to 2007.
When Sanders reached out to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — a paper that is distributed statewide in all of Arkansas' 75 counties — in February seeking to write a column on the topic of education for the outlet's opinion page, editors balked.
"Thank you for considering us," reads a reply to Sanders' inquiry tweeted by the candidate on Monday. "But because Mrs. Sanders is a candidate for office, this wouldn't work for our Voices page," David Barham, the paper's editorial page editor, wrote along with instructions to contact another editor for more information on the paper's policies.
The stated editorial position of the Democrat-Gazette then, for a Republican candidate for governor, is to not publish their opinions. While it's strange to avoid publishing contenders' views on the issues of the day to inform voters and help them decide who to support (Townhall has an entire Campaign Voices section dedicated to exactly that), the paper is allowed to make its own editorial decisions.
But, as is common among media outlets, the Democrat-Gazette didn't abide by that same standard when, this week, the paper published an opinion column, on the same topic of education no less, by Sanders' Democrat opponent Chris Jones. Titled "Unexcused absence," Jones' column attacks Sanders and makes a thinly veiled case for why readers should vote for him over his Republican opponent in November.
But the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, in an apparent attempt to take its own name a little too seriously, made Sanders' case about their anti-conservative bias even more clear-cut when the opinion page editor accidentally including Sanders' campaign on an email that was supposed to be internal discussion. Sanders tweeted a screenshot of that message too:
"I dunno. Should I tell her to buy and ad?" Barham's message to a redacted recipient list quips. "This seems very campaign-y. But I don't know if we've done this sort of thing before on Voices," he added.
They said it was too “campaign-y” and wanted me to purchase an ad.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) August 8, 2022
Now @ArkansasOnline has published a “campaign-y” education column by my Democrat opponent attacking me.
Americans know the liberal media has one set of rules for Republicans and another for Democrats…
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Clearly, reservations about publishing opinion columns about education from candidates for elected office only existed when it was a Republican seeking to share their ideas with the Democrat-Gazette's audience.
It's not the first time Sanders has exposed the media for its double-standards that treat conservatives one way and liberals another, better way, and she pledged to continue holding them accountable:
But they can’t - and won’t - silence me or YOU.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) August 8, 2022
That’s why I’ve taken my campaign straight to the people - meeting with thousands of Arkansans in all 75 counties.
I'll never sit back and let the liberal media peddle their bias and double standards and get away with it.
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