Rognstad unfairly trashes region, Idaho

Is North Idaho a center for the “American or Christian version” of the Taliban?

A Dutch TV film crew in October 2022 filmed a piece on North Idaho, especially Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, featuring among others, Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad. The show probably will ensure that Dutch tourists will not flock here.

The producer chose Mayor Rognstad as a major spokesman for the show. Perhaps they believed that a small-town mayor was an important, knowledgeable, government leader. Maybe Shelby thought it was a Californian TV crew, because he and the show do a great job disparaging Idaho in general and North Idaho in particular.

Rognstad states that neither the local sheriff nor the prosecutor will enforce Idaho laws. A rather broad accusation.

Listen to him explain that North Idaho is a center for the “American or Christian version of the Taliban.” Who knew there was an American version of the Taliban? Perhaps to him anyone to the left of the political center, who owns a gun and is Christian is an extremist and perhaps a member of the American Taliban.

Watch this presentation and try to decide why he would give such an interview. Did he ever imagine that it might be seen by Americans?

Just watch the video online and then laugh and cry while you watch him trash Idaho, especially North Idaho.

KEN SANGER

Sandpoint