Canceled Clancy event becomes example of censorship at US Senate hearing

At a Democrat-led Congressional hearing in late February, children’s author and former TV writer Bess Kalb used a previously unreported incident in Clancy, where she had to cancel a book reading event, to illustrate a point about the broader impacts of the Trump Administration’s crackdown on the First Amendment.

Saying on Feb. 24 it was the first time she was speaking about it publicly, Kalb stated a book reading event at a school in Montana was canceled after parent pushback. The Daily Montanan has since learned the event was scheduled for Clancy School District, and was canceled out of an abundance of caution after Kalb’s publisher learned from the school that parents were upset with some of Kalb’s previous work as a writer for Jimmy Kimmel, best known for his work as a late-night comedian.

Kimmel was nearly yanked off the air after a comment he made about the dialog surrounding death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk riled the Trump Administration, leading to one of the most-watched TV host monologues, ever. The Trump Administration has denied it had anything to do with Kimmel’s suspension, but Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr had earlier said there could be consequences for stations that aired Kimmel.

These, and other examples, were all highlighted during the hearing, which Democrats said were “attacks” on the First Amendment.

“The Trump administration is using the whole of government to silence or intimidate criticism and dissent in ways that go far beyond McCarthyism or the enemy’s list of the Nixon White House,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pennsylvania, said during the hearing.

The Trump Administration has sent the FBI after reporters, put pressure on major universities to change what they teach and many of his followers have sought to see certain books removed from libraries across the country.

During a Congressional spotlight hearing on Feb. 24, led by ranking House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, Kalb detailed the experience she had while on a book tour featuring bestseller “Buffalo Fluffalo” had in Montana.

Kalb attended other events at local schools, including Broadwater Elementary, which posted about the author’s visit last year. The book is about a young buffalo who is tough and rude, but is eventually revealed to be, “a tiny, frightened guy who wants to be loved, his friends support him anyway,” Kalb said during the hearing.

“These kids in the school, who had never had an author visit, and had been reading the book with their teachers and making art projects about a buffalo and preparing very thoughtful questions for me, would have shown up for a scary event where their parents barged in to the library and screamed at the lady in the dress holding up a picture book and doing a buffalo voice,” Kalb said.

Kalb tied the book to what she sees in the Trump Administration.

“I believe that the impulse to censor free speech comes from exactly the fear in the book, the fear of being seen as weak or vulnerable, the desire to project an air of bravado and to silence and push off anyone who might pull the curtain back on that image of imperious, strong man,” Kalb said. “A true leader is only as strong as the joke he can take at his own expense.”

Prior to the event, a librarian at the school emailed her, warning of a potential disruption.

“A group of parents who had previously caused a stir at a school board meeting where they successfully campaigned to ban certain books from the library, decided to ban me,” Kalb told the Congressional committee. “They emailed the school superintendent en masse with jokes I had written in my life as a political comedy writer, and told the superintendent that if I came to read my book about prairie animals and their feelings to the kids, they would show up and make a scene in front of the children until I left.”

Clancy School District superintendent Daryl Mikesell did not respond to emailed questions, including why the event was canceled, what the complaints from the parents were about and the process for filing a records request with the school. Emails to school board leadership and a phone call to the district office also went unreturned.

The kids Kalb was reading to on her book tour were approximately the age of her own children, she added.

Kalb’s visit to Helena-area schools was organized by Montana Book Company, with co-owner Chelsia Rice saying she was “embarrassed” at the “state of the state.” Rice said that during a call with the superintendent, he said parents had found a joke on Twitter from five years ago, and the school had been “inundated” with emails from them.

Rice added that it took “months” of working with the publisher and local schools to get Kalb to Montana in the first place.

“I wanted to be a reputable place for a big, best-selling author with a big publishing house to come here into our community and send one of their best and then have somebody, a small community of people take away this gift from a broader group of students who don’t get these kinds of opportunities,” Rice said.

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