Posted on 09/30/2004 10:32:35 AM PDT by kingattax
CRAWFORD — Photos of President Bush hugging diners and mugging for the camera adorn the walls of the Crawford Coffee Station, a popular cafe in this small Central Texas town Bush calls home.
Just a few miles from the Bush ranch, the spot is a popular place for locals to gather in the morning for coffee, breakfast and a glance at the day's news. * (Jerry Lara / Express-News)
Pro-Bush signs hang at the Crawford Coffee Station, which is no longer carrying the Lone Star Iconoclast because of its criticism of the president. *
W. Leon Smith, publisher of the Lone Star Iconoclast, co-wrote the editorial that blasts George Bush's presidential record and urges voters to elect Democrat John Kerry. He stands by his decision.
But the rack that once held the Lone Star Iconoclast — Crawford's weekly newspaper — now is empty, thanks to a blistering indictment in Tuesday's paper of Bush's presidential record and a call to elect Democrat John Kerry in November.
For a town drenched in Bush, the editorial is practically political heresy.
"Not only is he the president of the United States, he's my neighbor, he's my customer," Coffee Station owner Nick Spanos said. "We're not carrying that paper after today."
The firestorm began Tuesday morning, when readers opened up the newspaper to Page 2 and found an entire half-page criticizing the president for a variety of failings, and calling for the election of Kerry.
By the afternoon, news of the editorial was burning up Internet blogs and e-mail boxes all over the country.
Iconoclast publisher W. Leon Smith, who co-wrote the editorial with two other writers, is unapologetic.
"We're just trying to point out the direction the country's going in, and it's not good," he said.
Smith is majority owner of the Iconoclast, the Record of nearby Clifton and the Bosque Globe. He's also the mayor of Clifton and a Democrat who was defeated twice in campaigns for the Texas House of Representatives.
Now, Smith has become an iconoclast in his own right, challenging the widely declared belief that Crawford and its environs are "Bush Country."
The Iconoclast was founded in 2000, after the November election, but before Bush was declared the winner in a highly controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision.
During that murky month, the newspaper endorsed Bush, Smith said.
The newspaper also backed Bush's call for normalcy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and supported the resolution to go to war with Iraq — proof, he said, the paper is not out to get the president.
But this editorial has caused waves at the offices of the Clifton Record, where all three papers are produced.
Wednesday, staffers were busy putting together the Record, which hits stands today.
They also were busy fielding phone call after phone call from curious journalists, emotional readers, and angry advertisers.
"Some of them do use colorful language," marketing director Melanie Milbradt said with a grin.
As of Wednesday morning, more than a dozen readers had canceled their subscription and six advertisers had pulled their spots from the paper.
Smith expects there will be more, and he's preparing for the worst.
"It will probably put us under," he said.
Smith's desk at the Record offices is piled with paper, and his cubicle is filled with Mickey Mouse paraphernalia — two clocks, posters and even his computer screensaver.
He pulled up his computer e-mail inbox, filled with messages of varying intensity.
Smith said about 75 percent of them applaud the editorial, but the remaining fourth border on vitriol.
"It really appears to be me that we no longer live in an open society," he said. "When you get to the point where you can't express an opinion, then you're in trouble."
Smith said too many voters suffer from an emotional attachment to a person, particularly when that person happens to be president of the United States, and he lives a few miles down Prairie Chapel Road.
"We're not electing a king or an emperor, we're hiring somebody," he said, matter-of-factly. "Do they work every day like everyone else and get the job done or not?"
The Clifton Record has not yet endorsed a candidate, but Smith said the paper's editorial writers will get together soon. The choice likely will anger more readers.
In Crawford, where the Iconoclast doesn't even have an office, the slap at the town's most famous resident — and tourist attraction — is being taken personally.
"Good Lord, of all the places that George Bush could have chosen to live, he chose Crawford. This is kind of like a stab," said Larry Nelson, manager of Crawford Country Style, a store that sells "Western White House" souvenirs.
Wednesday, St. Louis residents Jerry and Barbara Tuma were passing through Crawford on a cross-country trip.
They said they also were upset by the editorial.
"If you don't have something nice to say about your neighbors, say nothing," Jerry Tuma said. "Let the big papers with 15 people analyzing this stuff write about it."
rrodriguez@express-news.net
You took the words right out of my mouth! It's just like these musicians like Moby and Elton John complaining about censorship! How then did I come to know about their whining then? Because it was censored? There is a difference between censorship and plain old popular-rejection.
They should do something useful. Cancel their subscriptions. Put them out of business.
What a jackass. He's free to express his opinion, and others are free to express their opinions that he's an idiot....
"It really appears to be me that we no longer live in an open society," he said. "When you get to the point where you can't express an opinion, then you're in trouble."
These guys NEVER get it do they? Sure you're free to say whatever you want. And your customers are free to do whatever they want. And, as a result, you're free to ride your little paper right into the ground. Isn't America great?
This guy is just some aging hippy who ran an underground paper when he was in school. If it goes under, it'll cost him everything he has......about $125.00.
What they want is the right to force us to suppport their crap, and pay their paychecks, even if they print outright lies and anti american propaganda... they feel that 'freedom of speech' should mean that they have a RIGHT to being paid for attacking the USA, by the citizens of the same USA.
Anything that makes them accountable to their advertisers, readers, a general sense of truth and balance, or face repercussions of an economic nature for doing the 'wrong' thing, journalistically speaking, is 'outright censorship' to their way of thinking.
they not only want to attack and protest, they expect US to pay their way... stfu.
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