Taking on liberal newspapers

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

For national news, I could see all the college Republicans, for example, setting up a private, members-only website and pooling their local sources. That is what a wire service does.

You need to emphasize your strengths, which will be local/state/regional. Network among other schools or activists in your area. People will have connections to others and that is how you organize a network. Recruit folks who have contacts overseas: foreign students from the formerly communist countries in the EU, Latin America and Asia, for example. They will have contacts, will be able to read the foreign language press and have insights that are not available to Americans. Start with your city and work outward, using an *each one, reach one* approach to recruiting staff and stringers.

AS for human interest and lifestyle: don't discount it. It will draw in readers and advertisers who are not political. Ex: I did a column on how to do various crafts, emphasizing independence from prepackaged kits. This was at the time when the very 1st crafts fairs were being organized as an alternative marketplace. The paper issued me press credentials and I attended several trade shows to that industry (craft and hobby). I obtained samples of various DIY kits, analyzed them for how much you could purchase the supplies for if you bought them individually (big savings, BTW) or recycled them or used household articles. Then, this was a lame market, devoid of creativity. My most popular column was one on using a paper cup, an old Hot Wheels motor that still worked, a couple of batteries and a marker to make a robotic gizmo that *drew* on its own on big sheets of newsprint or brown paper. Sounds dumb, but it drew in what we now call SAHM and today would appeal to homeschoolers who needed to keep kids 5 or so occupied while teaching older kids, or a way to keep them away from TV (we didn't have video games or even home video players, then). I got the idea by asking readers to write in w/their own homemade toys and games and craft projects. This involved readers. All of this attracted advertisers who sell various items we mentioned.

Frugality is another column idea, as is how to live media-free to as great an extent as possible. Don't ignore music that is pro-American or artists who are not America-haters.

Back then, many hippies dropped out and homeschooled their kids. That was the base of many of today's leftwing activists who are in now their late 30's/early 40s. They grew up in communes and did demonstrations, protests and boycotts all their lives.

Alternative media involves an entire alternative movement. Keeping this aspect in mind will not only grow your paper, it will grow your audience, your advertisers and your movement itself. Maybe you could even just do your *paper* on disk and distribute those or a subscription website. You need to be creative and think outside the box, not just do a conservative version of the same old news. That is covered by mature online media like WND or NRO, for example.

We aimed our product at the young people who comprised the *youth movement*. It was where you learned about demonstrations and protests (like today's ProtestWarriors or various mass activist ventures). Where you do real news is locally: someone who works for a politician or someone who is on the take or a stealth agenda masked as something benign. Not everyone spends hours a day online. A bulleted weekly column of sites of interest or actions of interest, like the September 11,2004 March to Support the WOT, is an example of something that needs publicizing. Interviews w/returned Iraq vets is another story idea. We eventually attracted national media attention, mainly because of the psychedelic graphics, but also because of the information that was not available elsewhere.

Cartoonists are also invaluable.

The guy who edited our paper was a journalism major, at the time. We were lucky to have him. He wasn't a political activist, but he valued truth and freedom from propaganda. Someone like this, who can write and edit and who understands how to cover news live is invaluable. We weren't one of the flashy, notorious papers, but we were actually credible.

This brought back memories! It was fun!

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