Here’s a modest proposal I’ve been suggesting to American newspapers for four years. It’s an easy story assignment I guarantee will produce readership no one has seen since the last 3-for-1 tire sale. The Alpena News would be the first to take me up on it. Surprise me. Demand every elected official representing Northeast Michigan voters, from drain commissioner to U.S. senator, answer this question: “Did Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election clearly, fairly, and without question?” Insist on a yes or no answer. Be fair and inform respondents what will happen if they refuse to say “yes” or “no.”

Open up your Page One lede and as many inside pages of your weekend $2.50 edition as it takes to give readers their money’s worth. Display names, photos, answers, and non-answers from every official. Give special prominence to those who are not capable of offering a straight answer that is known to every American citizen except the president of the United States.

Donald Trump has said every day for almost five years that the 2020 election was “rigged.” It was not. The tiny cluster of willfully uninformed citizens who believe otherwise are an aluminum siding salesman’s dream.

Publish it. Send tear sheets to the Pulitzer Committee. Label them “Public Service.”

This assignment is not a matter of editorial courage or doing the right thing. It is doing the obvious thing. It is reporting The Emperor’s New Clothes.

In these surreal times, a community newspaper communicating this painfully obvious fact with a large headline will win at least a statewide prize. I do guarantee it.

Tom Ferguson

Alpena