Matthew Gagnon went too far in recent column

To the Editor;

I don’t expect to agree with Matthew Gagnon’s columns often, if ever, but I do value the multiple perspectives presented in the Bangor Daily News/Piscataquis Observer opinion pages. Yet, I believe Gagnon crossed a line in his “2021 Conifer Awards” piece.

His description of the Jan. 6 insurrection (Most Obnoxious Political Football Award section) is irresponsible and unjournalistic. Calling the insurrectionists “an aimless, uncontrolled mob of internet-fueled kooks” either indicates that Gagnon is consciously lying, or that he is not paying attention to the developing and persuasive body of irrefutable evidence implicating former President Donald Trump, some of Trump’s closest staff and advisors and insurrectionists currently working in the US Congress. 

Either way, Gagnon’s words don’t qualify as journalism or valid political commentary. How about finding a conservative writer who relies on facts, and who can resist the urge to enable conspiracy theorists?

Craig Kesselheim

Southwest Harbor