Mainstream Montana journalists are growing harder and harder to distinguish from the rapid response communications teams of the Montana Democratic Party and the Democratic Party nationally.

Self-described “journalists” Ashley Nerbovig and Skylar Rispens are the official #HatchetGirls of the Montana establishment media. Why is it that these alleged reporters cannot seem to quote conservatives without decontextualizing and chopping up their words?

I have already written about Missoulian education reporter Skylar Rispens’ hatchet work on Montana State Senator Theresa Manzella’s words back in November. Sen. Manzella made a speech in defense of a Clinton-area pastor who was reported to the Missoula Organization of Realtors for declining to participate in distributing sexual orientation-related inserts into children’s lunches as part of a partnership with the Missoula Food Bank. In a piece for the Missoulian, Rispens claimed that Manzella condoned violence against “the LGBTQ community.” Manzella said no such thing and, in fact, during the same speech that Rispens took her excerpt from, Manzella said that people should be approached in love as her faith taught her.

“As we consider these complicated issues and the people currently participating in the alternative LGBTQ lifestyles, we must never forget their individual intrinsic worth to Christ and that He loves them just as much as He loves you or me,” Manzella said. “And we must never forget that He laid His life down for everyone of them just like He laid down His life for me and you.”

“We must be practiced and prepared to speak truth in love,” Manzella stated.

In a clumsily-formed paragraph, Rispens suggested that Manzella said “violence” is a normal consequence of LGBTQ people’s choices.

As a result of Rispens writing, Manzella received threatening communications from misinformed activists riled up by the ensuing media-fabricated firestorm. One LGBTQ “ally” left a voicemail on Manzella’s phone calling her a hypocrite and “baby killer” despite Manzella’s opposition to abortion. Another voicemail warned Manzella that her address was posted online and that “people would find that information” and “do awful shit to you.”

Rispens’ hatchet work was so bad that Jim Strauss, publisher of the Missoulian, was forced to issue an editorial defending the hatchet job saying “we stand by our reporting” and there was no “credence” to the “out of context” claim. No one except media-pilled liberals bought Strauss’s defense of Rispens’ hatchet work.

The topic of abortion has now taken center stage as awareness about “LGBTQ” ideology being pushed onto children grows in the background. With the recent Supreme Court ruling affirming the individual state legislatures constitutional authority to determine abortion law in their state, the Montana media #HatchetGirls were ready for the Democrats pivot.

The latest hatchet job comes from another University of Montana School of Journalism graduate, Ashley Nerbovig. Nerbovig’s hatchet work concerns an email sent by Montana State Representative Brad Tschida to other caucus members where he paraphrases a podcast that noted the unique capability of a woman’s womb and its specific utility for harboring and nurturing new human life. Tschida echoed the podcasters comments at the close of the email saying, “That single factor has stuck with me since I heard that commentary. The womb is the only organ in a woman’s body that serves no specific purpose to her life and well-being. It truly is a sanctuary.”

Nerbovig, like Rispens, also stripped away the context from Tschida’s email in the lede for her story. Not until half way through the article do we see Tschida’s actual words followed by an interview with Tschida’s Democrat opponent in the District 49 State Senate race who further mangled Tschida’s words saying that, “he’s telling women their bodies don’t count.”

It is not a controversial statement to say that a woman’s womb is a “sanctuary” meant for procreation unless you are a media-pilled liberal who likes to use every manner of ascriptive identity as a shield for anti-human politics.

While a man, Mr. Will Thomas, is lauded for literally dominating women’s spaces and gets absurdly closer to being named NCAA “Woman of the Year,” Mr. Tschida is lambasted for defending pre-born life and stating basic scientific knowledge about the function of a woman’s reproductive system.

To Manzella’s and Tschida’s credit, neither of the conservatives backed down or apologized to appease the media-inspired mob.

“I’m not going to apologize for saying that,” Tschida said. “I think that’s exactly what it’s there for. It welcomes in a new life and that’s what it’s there to do, to nurture and sustain that life.”

Nerbovig is also under an illusion that she is immune from a mountain of science that says humans have internal biases and experiences that form and shape everything they do. In a Telegram channel titled “Montana Christian Conservatives” that Nerbovig joined to apparently monitor Christian conservatives who are speaking out of turn, group moderators were made aware of her presence and of her journalistic perspective noting her previous writing that advocates for gun control and child vaccines.

When moderators of the channel were made aware, Nerbovig “lol’ed” and claimed, “[I] don’t have a perspective” and that she “just take[s] the assignments as given.” Again, for a journalist to claim they have no perspective is counter to all available research and science concerning human behavior and psychology.

I will also submit Seaborn Larson, yet another UM School of Journalism graduate, to this list of Montana media #HatchetGirls as an honorary gender non-conforming member. Though not a born female, Larson has his own record of mangling and misrepresenting conservatives in the state and therefore deserves space at the chopping block. An example of Larson’s hatchet work can be seen in the aftermath of the incident at the US Capitol after January 6th, 2021. Larson attempted to tie Montana conservatives to violence at the capitol that day referring to the event as the “capitol siege” and claiming Montana conservatives “echoed” the violence.

Larson has on speed dial the race hustlers at the deceptively named “Montana Human Rights Network” which is always available to Montana media flunkies to provide a quote labeling Montana conservatives as racist homophobes. The main ideological production of the MHRN is nonsense decontextualized statistics or blurbs claiming X percentage of Montana conservatives and Christians are ready to place everyone who disagrees with them into concentration camps.

The job of Montana media’s #HatchetGirls is clear. They are not here to report the news, but to support regime propaganda and political priorities of the Democratic Party. They are not able to report, in good faith or honestly, the words of conservative Montanan’s that counter the Democratic Party’s priorities.