Links To Two Editorials In The Casper Star-Tribune

 SEVERAL WEEKS AGO, I flew to Denver from Nashville, then drove to Laramie to attend author Stephen Jimenez's book presentation to the town of Laramie on The Book of Matt which elaborates on his 13-year investigation into the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student  outside Laramie, Wyoming.  I had written a book review on The Book of Matt late last fall for PJMedia.

Anyway,  it was a sensational presentation which was also very well received by townspeople, though the University of Wyoming, now the bastion of political correctness and suppression of open discussions like this, washed its hands of the event (though a few students and college  professors did attend.)

The next day, the Casper Star-Tribune published a scathing, dismissive editorial---Ditch the Matthew Shepard Revisionist History--- essentially advising readers that the book was not worth anyone's time or effort.

When I got back to Boulder, I talked to Steve who was back in Denver doing a radio interview and on his way to Manhattan,. We decided I would contact the CST and let them know I would like to write a rebuttal of its extremely harsh editorial and wanted to know my options as a journalist.  Was  in transit back to Tennessee and couldn't start to work on the piece immediately. The Op/Ed editor there told me I might get a 750-word limit op/ed and that was the max I could hope for, if even that.  Casper is the hometown the Shepard family and the place where opposing opinions to the conventional Shepard hate-crime myth of the past 14 years are still scoffed at today. It's also where the hate crime myth got started through Jason Marsden, a reporter at the CST at the time of the murder, and now head of the Matthew Shepard Foundation in Denver.

Anyway,  last weekend, much to CST's credit,  my piece came out on the CST Op/Ed page.

I believe it's important for First Amendment enterprises such as the Casper Star-Tribune (and also the University of Wyoming, another politically-correct hard nut-to-crack) to have open discussions like this so people can make up their own minds.  The Mainstream Media (MSM) has gone way too far down the road of politicizing news stories and letting extreme and radical groups hijack narratives such as this---incorrectly. So I commend the CST for doing its First Amendment duty and only hope some good will come from all this. Thanks go to Jeremy Fugleberg head of Op/Ed who held his nose and published my piece.

One other thing:  I'm sure you must know there are deeper reasons for going to all the trouble to defend this book.  I'm not going to elaborate on it here, now.  But if you do read Jimenez's The Book of Matt,  which I highly recommend, you will understand.

Also,  when the radical  gay lobby attacks Jimenez, a gay journalist himself, with such nonsense as he's only trying to make a quick buck---after 13 years of investigation??!!---on Shepard's murder,  all I can do is shake my head in disbelief.  Judy Shepard also wrote a book and established a foundation which has made millions and paid her large salaries for years, in addition to juicy speaking fees. There's no telling what The Laramie Project has raked in over the years.  Such glaring hypocrisy from the extreme left is ridiculous in my opinion and needs to be stood up to and debunked.  JImenez has dared to tell the truth and now is taking the heat for it.  That's what real journalism is and what it does. And that's why we have the First Amendment.