For nearly 30 years, top-rated news anchor Kari Lake has been a fixture in the Phoenix-area news business, but on Monday, she released a video explaining to viewers why she hasn’t been on the air since January, and why she won’t be returning to her anchor chair.

In a word, Lake declared in a video posted to Rumble, “Journalism is dead.” And for that reason, she went on to explain, “I no longer want to do this job.”

A message for my Arizona friends and our loyal Fox10 viewers. https://t.co/5Aq1p3uggx

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) March 2, 2021

“This time away from work has given me a chance to reflect on my work,” Lake said, explaining that she has been part of the number-one-ranked news team for much of her 22 years in the business. As she continued, it became clear that in Lake’s mind, she wasn’t leaving journalism; journalism had left her.

“Sadly, journalism has changed a lot since I first stepped into a newsroom, and I’ll be honest, I don’t like the direction it’s going.

“The media needs more balance in coverage and a wider range of viewpoints represented in every newsroom at every level and at each position.”

Lake said that over the last few years, she no longer “felt proud to be a member of the media.” She also suggested she’s far from the Lone Ranger in her analysis of the sad state of “journalism” in America, today.

“I’m sure there are other journalists out there who feel the same way. I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful, or only told part of the story. And I began to feel that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession.”

“It’s been a serious struggle for me and I no longer want to do this job anymore,” Lake said. “So I decided the time was right to do something else and I’m leaving Fox 10. Walking away from a good job probably will sound crazy to a lot of people, but I feel sure this is the right thing to do.”

The veteran news anchor made it clear that she was leaving solely of her own volition. “I have not been fired, demoted, reprimanded, etc. I remain a 20+ year employee at Fox in good standing.”

Lake told Arizona Daily Independent that the COVID pandemic was her breaking point.

“It really got difficult for me when Covid hit. I felt the stories I was reading were not fully truthful. The cancel mob’s insistence that certain Covid-related stories not be told or even whispered, while others were told over-and-over made me feel as if I was not giving a balanced view of the situation to viewers.”

“I became a journalist to be helpful, not harmful,” she explained, “but some of the stories I was reading [were] likely contributing to the fear and division and I couldn’t do that anymore,” adding: “I prayed a lot for guidance, asking God to lead me in the right direction.”

While Lake didn’t discuss her political affiliation, a little digging made it clear why she feels the way she does. In July 2019, she was caught in a live Facebook rant about a local newspaper after it revealed that she had joined Parler — which is now back online, by the way. “F**k them, they’re 20-year-old dopes,” she said.

In early January, Lake tweeted support for President Trump.

The purge of the President and many others on Twitter, FB and other social media accounts is disturbing. First Amendment is under attack.

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 9, 2021

And when conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh passed away in mid-February, Lake tweeted: “Rest in peace, Rush.”

Rest in peace, Rush. https://t.co/h83mOBPZ1g

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) February 17, 2021

In response to Lake’s resignation, Moonbattery, which describes itself as “a stake through the heart of the lunatic left, asked: “Is it still possible for a principled person with no interest in serving as a leftist apparatchik to work in the liberal establishment media?”

Sadly, in Kari Lake’s mind, the answer is no. For her, at least.

That reality on a larger scale is both sad and troubling. Sad in the sense that a top-rated journalist came to the conclusion that there is no longer a place for conservatives in what she once considered “a proud profession.”

Troubling, in the same respect, but also in asking, where are we headed? Where is “journalism” — that is, what now disgustingly passes for it — headed? That “absolute power absolutely corrupts” thing. I suspect there are darker days ahead. Heady thoughts, indeed.

Incidentally, after learning of the popular veteran anchor’s decision to resign and why she made it, Fredo Cuomo, Don Lemon, Joy Reid, Anderson Cooper, Brian Stelter, Jim Acosta, Ana Navarro, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, Brooke Baldwin, Alisyn Camerota, Andrea Mitchell, Katy Tur, Brian Williams, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Stephanie Ruhle, Chuck Todd, Nicolle Wallace, George Stephanopoulos, Chris Hayes, Nora O’Donnell, and Chris Wallace said in a joint statement that, given the upstanding journalists they are, they had no idea what Kari Lake was talking about. [sarc]

Not that every one of them, and then some, wouldn’t agree with that statement, mind you.

And Kari Lake, congratulations not only for the professionalism you continually displayed in a career you no longer recognized but even more so for your courage — some of us call it “guts” — in leaving it behind, and the way you did so. The Phoenix media has lost a star.