It is a reflection of the great fear by the Arizona Republic that Kari Lake could be elected U.S. Senator from Arizona that their azcentral.com website published an astonishing 15 hit pieces on her in the two day period of October 9-10.
Such desperation on the part of the Arizona Republic could have been inspired by Lake's debate performance against her opponent, Congressman Ruben Gallego, on Wednesday. He had already dodged one debate against Lake which was barely mentioned at azcentral and after the favorable reviews of Lake during their one and only debate, it is easy to understand his reluctance to debate her.
A look at the azcentral page featuring Kari Lake hit pieces makes one think that the Arizona Republic's obession with her has gone from the merely political into the clinical. So perhaps it is right to put on a psychiatrist's cap in analyzing their Kari Lake stories starting the October 9 hit pieces such as this one by Ronald J. Hansen who previously brushed past Gallego's earlier debate no-show, "Senate rivals Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego clash on border security and abortion in debate."
Note the contrasting descriptions of the candidates which sounds like it was written by the Gallego campaign to describe him:
Lake has consistently sought to nationalize the race and make it a referendum on the agenda of former President Donald Trump against that of Vice President Kamala Harris.
From the outset, Gallego invoked his life story to explain his run for the Senate: He grew up poor in Chicago, graduated from Harvard University and served his country as a Marine fighting in the Iraq War. He promised to continue fighting for Arizona in the Senate.
You can tell from the title of this opinion piece by the Republic's media critic, Bill Goodykuntz, that the debate did not go well for Gallego, "Opinion: The Kari Lake-Ruben Gallego debate was awful TV that taught us nothing."
The only debate between the Arizona candidates for U.S. Senate quickly turned into the Kari Lake Show on Wednesday, Oct. 9, and the moderators seemed powerless to stop it.
Lake, the Republican candidate, and Ruben Gallego, the Democratic candidate, met for the first and only time. It was frustrating TV, maddening in terms of what it could have been and what it was.
Though given the way Lake treats these kinds of things, I’m not sure what else we could have expected....
If you’re looking for a meme-able moment, it was when Lake looked at the camera and said, “I’ve never lied to the people of Arizona.”
The Richard Nixon “I am not a crook” vibes were off the charts.
Perusing the Lake hit pieces from the following day, you didn't even have to read the column by Laurie Roberts to know she despises Kari Lake since the title alone tells you that in advance, "Opinion: Kari Lake showed Arizona why she's just not all that likeable."
You also get the idea of antipathy towards Lake from just the title in another story, "Kari Lake 'practicing her filibuster' in Senate debate with Ruben Gallego, past rival says."
Finally this Phil Boas column dripping with venom as is obvious in the title, "Opinion: Ruben Gallego didn't even have to say it: Kari Lake is crazy."
With all the talk about the importance of "diversity" in newsrooms it is strange that there seems to be no diversity of opinion about Kari Lake at the Arizona Republic. They all hate her intensely as is obvious by the crescendo of slam stories directed at Kari Lake.
