Forty-nine-year-old Lee Keltner was fatally shot following a “Patriot Muster” protest last Saturday afternoon in downtown Denver, blocks from the Colorado Capitol near the Denver Art Museum. The shooter was an unlicensed security guard with documented far-left ties who was hired by Denver NBC News affiliate KUSA 9News. The story even garnered President Trump’s attention, with multiple retweets on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, a Democrat, announced she will file second-degree murder charges against Dolloff. While first-degree murder charges in Colorado require evidence of planning and intent to kill, second-degree murder charges imply that “the person knowingly causes the death of a person.” Dolloff could face up to 48 years in prison.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time a rally ended in violence at Denver’s Civic Center Park. On July 19, chaos descended upon the annual Colorado pro-police rally. The event had hardly begun when a swarm of Antifa, Black Lives Matter extremists, and members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation assaulted and terminated the gathering.
At the July rally, the Antifa brigade initiated fights using everything from skateboards to collapsible batons, causing serious injuries, gushing head wounds, and wrecked equipment. Denver Police, short-leashed by central orders, did virtually nothing. They made only one arrest. If not for one intrepid lieutenant breaking ranks, saying, “If we leave, they’re gonna get killed,” the officers would have retreated.
Local talk radio was on top of the events. Most of my station’s hosts participated, including me, and many of our listeners were there. We offered firsthand accounts of what we saw and experienced, revealing to our audience how brazen, violent, and irrational the extremists have become. If you ask listeners how safe the city is today, they will probably suggest that, while it’s not as bad as Portland and Seattle, “Denver [is] in Decay.”
Yet if you ask prominent Denver news anchor Kyle Clark about Denver’s danger level, you would get a very different answer. Clark is the star anchor on 9News, and he has strong opinions about talk radio.
Introducing Denver’s Don Lemon
On Sept. 26, an everyday Coloradan named Kim replied to Clark on Twitter. “Never going downtown again and I have lived here my entire life,” she wrote. “My children are 5th generation natives and they refuse Togo [sic] downtown also.”
To Colorado’s most well-known local TV newsman, this was a ripe opportunity to mock conservative talk radio and make a random Twitter user his prop, so Clark retweeted Kim’s tweet with a condescending comment. “Shame to think there are people cowering in the suburbs, cleaning their guns, peeking through the blinds wondering if every person of color outside is Antifa,” Clark tweeted. “If you’re afraid to come into Denver because of talk radio fear-mongering, you’re missing out on a lot.”
Shame to think there are people cowering in the suburbs, cleaning their guns, peeking through the blinds wondering if every person of color outside is Antifa. If you’re afraid to come into Denver because of talk radio fear-mongering, you’re missing out on a lot. https://t.co/wEJJ7dFBSO
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) September 27, 2020
Ah, yes, this is what talk radio listeners are like: self-quarantining racists huddled in their homes and cleaning their guns as they fearfully glance out their windows, blinds closed, waiting to catch a black or brown Antifa member walking down the street. Even more, these mindless sheep are being led astray by talk radio fearmongers!
In the aftermath of Saturday’s Patriot Muster tragedy, Clark’s tweet didn’t age well. Similar to the July rally, Denver Communists, Colorado Socialist Revolution, and others held a nearby “BLM-Antifa Soup Drive” with the stated intent “to oppose and confront a fascist militia gathering.” As people left the opposing events, which were better-separated by police than in July, Keltner was shot dead by a man who was at the rally on behalf of Clark’s station, 9News. The apparently far-left man was supposedly providing security for the station’s on-location staff.
I don’t blame any media outlet these days for wanting security by their side in a city like Denver. In fact, it makes sense that a local news station might want to have protection at a downtown protest or rally. Whether it’s Denver, Seattle, Portland, or Chicago, citizens and businesses are no longer safe in their own cities.
While 9News apparently agreed, Clark seemingly didn’t. The great irony is that the man the news station contracted to keep them safe took a life in downtown Denver. Shockingly, 9News is now reporting that “Dolloff is not the only unlicensed or not properly credentialed security guard to accompany 9NEWS crews as they covered protests and riots during the past five months.”
National Media Elitism Infects Local News
On my Denver radio show last November, Clark complained about viewers lumping him into their criticism of national TV news outlets. “I have absolutely no interest in defending the work of CNN, or MSNBC, or Fox News, or anybody else,” Clark said. “But I would love to talk to anybody who has concerns about our work.”
I have some concerns: Clark has turned into CNN. He’s become Denver’s Don Lemon.
In September, days before Clark’s tweet mocking listeners of local conservative media, CNN primetime stars Lemon and Chris Cuomo assembled in their on-air echo chamber and similarly mocked concerns about America’s decaying cities.
“[I]t’s scary,” Lemon said, sarcastically. “There are all these protesters out there. There is all this rioting and looting.” He then went after conservative media: “If you listen to conservative media, you would think that, you know, entire cities are just, you know, embroiled in fights and fires and whatever.”
The September exchange between Lemon and Cuomo reveals exactly the same mentality as Clark’s September tweet, proving that national media hubris and detachment have descended upon local news. It’s the same mindset that led outlets such as CNN and MSNBC to insist the George Floyd and Jacob Blake “protests” were “mostly peaceful” even as rioters burned buildings behind them.
Instead of honestly reporting the facts and acknowledging legitimate concerns, the media elite inject their trite experiences as proof that conservative media and talk radio are merely “fearmongering.” Talk radio gets the facts straight on our cities. Our listeners are savvy, engaged, and knowledgeable about what’s happening. On the other hand, the Lemons at CNN and 9News keep, well, selling lemons to their audiences.
The detached media elite think everything is fine because they say the right things. As well-known, leftist TV personalities, it is unlikely that either Lemon or Clark would suffer violence — as evidenced by Lemon’s anecdote about his peaceful dining experience. If they want personal security downtown, their networks will provide. According to them, they are right to hire security, but you are overreacting thanks to conservative talk radio.
Everyday Americans and conservatives, however, might be met with violence at a rally or a street-side restaurant. They rightfully fear ending up on the wrong end of an Antifa gun.
Whether a local Clark or a national Lemon, corporate media must stop denying the truth. Their myopic and distorted view has been unveiled atop its elite and ivory tower. As reality eviscerates their self-serving narratives and exposes their platforms for the disservice to viewers that they really are, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Their audiences would be better served by “fearmongering” talk radio hosts.
