PHOENIX — Another candidate has declared for governor, using the same tactics as two others already in the race: a press release and no media interviews.
Kari Lake
But the latest entry has at least some name ID: Kari Lake, former news anchor for Fox-10 Phoenix, who quit the station after 22 years with a video saying she did not like the way journalism has changed since she had been in the business.
She repeated the theme on her newly posted website, saying she has seen a “disturbing shift in journalism.’’
Efforts to reach Lake through social media and emails were not successful.
Lake’s website does not specify her party affiliation, though it is presumed she wants to be the Republican nominee. She would join two other higher-than-normal profile contenders for the nod: State Treasurer Kimberly Yee and Karrin Taylor Robson, a member of the state Board of Regents.
In the 2½-minute video about her resignation, Lake said she did not agree with some of the stories she was being asked to read on the air.
“I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful, or only told part of the story,’’ she said.
“I began to fear that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession,’’ Lake continued. “It’s been a serious struggle for me and I no longer want to do this job anymore.’’
Lake made her religious beliefs a theme in both the resignation video as well as on her new website, which outlines the duties of Christians in their beliefs.
She apparently intends to seek the office with private funds, with visitors to her website asked to donate.
Lake got her name in the news more than a year ago after she shared on Twitter a video where two California doctors promoted lifting that state’s shelter-in-place order, saying that COVID-19 is similar to the flu and that isolation actually may weaken the immune system.
She also sent out a Twitter post in January saying the “First Amendment is under attack’’ after Twitter and Facebook first suspended Donald Trump’s accounts after the platforms concluded that his misinformation and lies inspired the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In fact the First Amendment applies only to actions of governments and not to the actions of private corporations.
