Posted on 08/04/2004 3:12:01 AM PDT by Liberty Wins
Across the heartlands and hinterlands of conservative America, many doubters and desponders wake up every morning to retrieve their newspaper, a product of the downtown Left. And so it shall remain, they say. But for America's growing army of young conservatives, there are no boundaries to the battle for the future. Even the newspapers of America must stand to reckon with a new generation of conservatives.
Two students at Seattle Pacific University named Matthew McCleary and Benjamin Williams are launching a publication called the Seattle Sentinel at www.seattlesentinel.com . The sophomores have a long-term goal no less than turning the Seattle Sentinel into "the dominant paper in Seattle."
Pessimists who doubt about America's future, who insist that the liberal bias of the media is permanent and impenetrable, think a goal like the Sentinel's impossible. But McCleary and Williams and their new staff of writers and editors are energized. They're devoted. They'll make it happen within fifty years, they say.
"We want a conservative newspaper in Seattle," says Williams. "We have an interest in Seattle because it is our town. We are sick of the Times and Post-Intelligencer controlling the Seattle print media. People who do not investigate the news only get one side of the story, the liberal side. We need to provide people in Seattle with an alternative to our biased newspapers."
Across the country, more and more young conservatives are taking on similar projects, on their campuses, in their communities, on the internet. The conservative youth opinion site www.yconservatives.com, was established after September 11, 2001 when Gresham Kay was inspired by the voice of Rush Limbaugh to "get out there and do something." Even 11-year old Emil Levitin, a public school student from Massachusetts, is in the action with www.republicanvoices.org .
Youth-oriented conservative print publications abound also. College freshman Alex Bozmoski recently started a new nationwide journal called The Right Idea, "dedicated to propagating a message of freedom, justice, and social values throughout our communities and our nation," to provide a "conservative print alternative to what the liberal establishment has made so readily available."
Hundreds of mainstream college campus newspapers must now compete with an array of successful conservative publications, many of which have been founded in the last few years as the number of informed and active conservative students has increased.
One of the most widely read campus newspapers is UC Berkeley's California Patriot at www.calpatriot.org . "In an area dominated politically and intellectually by radical, outspoken, leftist organizations," declares the Patriot's Mission Statement, "it is our moral obligation to balance class liberal saturation with conservative viewpoints that will no longer be maligned and stifled."
Established, famed publications like Ann Coulter's Cornell Review and Dinesh D'Souza's Dartmouth Review thrive with admirable budgets, talent, and readership. Nearly every major college and university in the nation now has an active, controversial, Right-minded publication.
And these campus publications are not without a support network. Since the Collegiate Network of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute was founded 25 years ago, it has been instrumental in providing financial and technical resources to hundreds of conservative newspapers and magazines on leading college and university campuses, especially in recent years. Today, the Collegiate Network supports 80 top conservative campus publications with an annual combined total distribution of 2 million.
"Don't let the left dominate your campus for another year!" proclaims the website of the Leadership Institute Campus Leadership Program, which also plays a role in developing conservative campus publications by training editors, writers, and fundraisers and providing startup cash.
With the Collegiate Network, Leadership Institute, and other organizations like Young America's Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum Collegians, and David Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom, conservative students are able to build and maintain impressive conservative publications on their campuses.
Some young conservatives are revolutionizing the campus media. Others are making waves on the internet. For Matthew McCleary and Benjamin Williams of the Seattle Sentinel, the battleground is nothing less than Seattle. Seattle can become a more conservative city, says McCleary, "but it will take a cultural revolution. It will start with the youth. Our parents got us into the mess of liberalism. We need to rebel against it, and stand up for conservative Christian values."
When McCleary speaks of rebellion, he means rebellion against rebellion. He means restoring those old American values rejected by a couple of previous youth generations of recent decades.
But there is something new and exciting about the rising generation, of which I am a part. A powerful number of young people born during the Reagan era are optimists, idealists, and dreamers in a radically conservative way. Rebellion against rebellion is just that, radically conservative.
These conservative young Americans see a bright future on the horizon. True, we're spoiled; we've never known hardship like most people in the world have known it throughout history. True, many young Americans are more lost and more decadent than their parents were. But the greatest truth about America, says Williams, is that "We live in the greatest nation on God's green earth where the American dream is still prevalent."
McCleary agrees. "There is still a core of conservative Americans. As long as there are people like us doing everything in our power to preserve America's liberty and Judeo-Christian foundation, the future will always be bright. It's a matter of perspective."
Hans Zeiger is president of the Scout Honor Coalition and a student at Hillsdale College. Vote for Hans to speak at the Republican National Convention at www.gopconvention.com/essaycontest
"conservative Christian values"
Isn't that a hate crime in Seattle??
Young people will seize the future and the destiny of the world.
The Left will be left behind in the garbage dump of history--where it belongs.
I stopped home delivery of the Dallas Morning News years ago and get my news fron Free Republic and the internet. Danged if I'm going to pay for a liberal rag!
bump
I read my Des Moines Red Star online. I refuse to give them any more of my hard-earned money.
I lived in the Dallas area when it was a two-paper town, and would not take the Morning News. I took the Times Herald, which was more conservative, and I regretted seeing the Times Herald disappear. But that was before the Internet, which is my main news source now, other than FoxNews.
Thank you for a wonderful post. It made my morning! I grew up in the 60s and 70s (graduated college in 1975) and, as a result, spent most of my adulthood as a liberal. The Clinton administration, 9/11 and the gay bishop have changed me forever. I am now a staunch conservative. Thank God for the younger conservatives. We should support them as much as we can.
This has piqued my curiosity. Anyone know what is involved in starting a newspaper?
I been posting this for months now. Everyone said that FNC would not work and not has it worked, but is a bigger than both CNN and MSNBC combined.
We need a conservative USA Today type of national paper. What we do is we have all these conservative groups from around the country that are starting up their own papers as reporters and they submit articles daily. What the AP and Reuters reports, the articles are actually edited correctly to present the event in a fair and balanced perspective. Editorials remain conservative.
We are slowly getting there. Like the Marxists we need better organization and a fixed goal and timeframe to do this. A guy like Murdoch I am sure would be an investor.
Once this is in place, You now go after the big boys at the local level. We can win the media war. We muct win it. That is the only way we can change this country, by changing the information.
Hopefully the Trib in Pgh got a nice bump in subscribers after Teresa's "shove it" comment generated some nice publicity for them...
Tell me about it... :)
Hit their advertisers! This is the one thing the liberal press fears the most. If companies are effected just 1% because of where they advertise, they will reconsider how much money they put in the source of advertising.
I think it would help if conservatives learned to use emotional appeals based on basic civil and human rights to argue thier positions.
Promoting tax reform by arguing that ownership of the fruits your hard work, good decisions, and responsible acts, all positive human activities which benefit a civil society, is a basic human right works well for me. Claiming that preparing to make good decisions and having the self-discipline to act responsibility should be rewarded by a civil society, not punished, has been a consistent winning point. Pointing out that information is power and the current tax code gives politicians and lobbyists enormous amounts of information to use for personal vendettas or personal enrichment also works well.
The media doesn't like hearing someone argue that government ownership of every American's skin color is violation of their basic human rights. No one should be able to use someone's skin color as a basis for any legal action against an indidual or business without written authorization. Without ownership of everyone's skin color, the government can't use skin color to diminish the value of any American's achievements.
And no one seems to want to talk about intergenerational taxation. Current law and judicial precedent will require the average child in America to pay over 80% of their lifetime earnings in federal taxes. It's easy to argue for limited, sustainable government when you point out the alternative is a lifetime of slavery for America's children. "Do it for the children" has a whole new meaning.
FYI - Murdoch owns USA Today!
I agree, though, with your overall message. I live in the Bay Area which is probably the most leftist and loony (and beautiful) place in the US, yet just a few years ago an underpowered radio station, KSFO, converted from oldies to conservative talk and has become the number one station here. So I have no doubt that there is a huge pent up demand for a conservative newspaper, and would be a great financial success.
I, like you, have been trying to find a way to get that started - written to some of the conservative on-line publishers proposing the idea with no takers. I don't know anything about publishing a paper and don't have contact with conservative reporters to get one going, but I would gladly invest in such a venture, both for political as well as financial reasons.
I cancelled my subscription to the San Jose Merc years ago for health reasons after I realized that every morning when I stared at the propaganda on the front page my blood pressure would shoot up 20 or 30 points. My days have been much more enjoyable ever since.
Can we talk LOS ANGELES next!
This town is the most lopsided press-propaganda city in the nation.....THERE IS NO COMPETITION! The LA SLIMES is out of control.
KABC talk radio here in LA with Sean, Bill, Al and Larry have replaced my need for the Slimes. So I cancelled them! IT WAS VERY LIBERATING!
My family lives just south of here in Orange County and they have a very weel balanced newspaper The OC Registrer. I believe it is also for sale. My father keeps saying it would be a great move if they would start printing a Los Angeles edition.......The SLIMES would gag!
I think most Americans have no idea how liberal most of America's dailies are. In the midwest virtually every major paper is a liberal-spouting rag. Even the once bastion of conservatism The Chicago Tribune is infested with lib ideology. Just read the op-ed page to get my point. But every other big city rag in the midwest is outright dominated by libs. Heck, even my old hometown paper The La Crosse (Wis) Tribune formerly a conservative paper now all but campaigns for Kerry and lib ideas. I'd gladly pay twice what they charge to get an alternative conservative paper going.
Sign me up.
A couple of years ago Riordan was rumored to be considering starting a newspaper in LA. After being LA mayor for 8 years he definitely recognised the need. Guess it was too much for him.
The LA Slimes is the most biased newspaper in the country IMNSHO.
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