Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — Central PA’s media giant, PennLive.com / Patriot-News, refuses to acknowledge Columbus Day and promotes a “Banned Book” club as part of its ongoing “DEI priorities” – referenced in an all-employee email sent Monday, Oct. 14th, and privately obtained by Harrisburg100 Wednesday.
In the email, PA Media Group employees are invited to recognize “Indigenous Peoples” Day, by joining the last “banned book” discussion of the year. The email was sent by Dan Christ, the Director of Customer Research at Advance Local Media, PA Media Group’s parent company.
“Because the themes Alexie (author) explores in the book connect with each of Advance Local’s 2024 DEI priorities, we’ll use our own guideposts as the underpinning for talking through the main character’s story,” Christ wrote in the Columbus-Day email.
The controversial book at the center of next month’s company-wide discussion is: “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which contains inexplicit sexual nudity, inflammatory racial commentary, and profanity, seen here.
Last October, local state representatives and child & religious advocates joined together to highlight obscenity in so-called “banned books” – like “Push,” “Flamer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” – at a state capitol press conference. Many of these titles have been banned at schools across the nation for its pornographic content, but some can still be found here in central PA school libraries (and public libraries). The full press conference can be viewed here. Harrisburg100 covered that press conference here.
The mainstream news media has conveniently excluded the most disturbing content from its coverage when addressing “banned book” controversies dividing communities. But, some critics believe this push for pornographic material in schools, and into the minds of youth, is part of a wider pedophilia agenda.
To date, Harrisburg100’s source did not share what other books were discussed at Pennlive’s book discussion group meetings. Harrisburg100 welcomes a statement from Advance Local’s DEI leader, and a full sharing of other books highlighted in its DEI book discussions.
Pennlive holds its DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) values, in spite of a growing number of US companies abandoning the trend, like: Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowes and Molson Coors, after their sales suffered. The rising DEI-reversals also follow a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, outlawing affirmative action in college admission. And, the DEI-backpedaling spurred multiple Congressional Democrats to appeal to Fortune 1000 companies to retain the programs, on Tuesday.
Pennlive’s DEI-embrace also comes at a time when public trust in mainstream media is at a record-low – 32%, according to a Gallup poll. (In the 1970’s, trust reached as high as 72%.)
That same distrust is seen here; as comments on Pennlive’s social media accounts have been critical of its left-leaning, biased reporting – that is for those comments that survive the their censorship on Facebook; but Pennlive’s “X” account (formerly Twitter) doesn’t have that same censoring power and the critical comments outnumber the affirming ones. Likewise, its Opinion Page, is widely distrusted for its page editor’s frequent rejection of strong, pro-conservative letters, opting instead for hateful, anti-conservative letters, even if sent in from out-of-state authors.
Harrisburg100 