For more than 30 years, columnists like Jack Zaleski, Joan Brickner, and Jim Shaw gave voice to the full range of perspectives that make up our community. Last week, Forum Communications fired all three — while retaining columnists to the political right. At the same time, the paper announced it will cut its opinion page from daily to just twice a week. We're calling on Forum Communications president Bill Marcil Jr. to reverse these decisions.

The paper's official explanation is that these were "business decisions based on data and feedback." But the pattern tells a different story. The columnists let go were the ones willing to challenge power, cover national issues that affect our region, and represent readers who don't always see themselves reflected in a historically Republican-leaning editorial board. Removing them doesn't create balance — it eliminates it.

This isn't just a Fargo story. Across the country, media owners are quietly shrinking the spaces where dissenting voices can speak. Opinion pages are being cut. Columnists are being told to avoid national topics. Endorsements are being killed by ownership before they reach print. Each decision, taken alone, sounds like a business call. Together, they represent something more troubling: a press that is becoming less willing to hold power accountable.

Local journalism matters precisely because it reflects us — our debates, our disagreements, our shared life. A newspaper that silences half of that conversation isn't serving its community. It's narrowing it.

Readers who've subscribed for decades deserve better. We're asking Bill Marcil Jr. and Forum Communications to reinstate Zaleski, Brickner, and Shaw, restore the daily opinion page, and recommit to the editorial independence that made The Forum worth reading in the first place.

Sign this petition to tell Forum Communications: our community's voices are not a budget line item.