Posted on 10/13/2004 2:17:31 PM PDT by Ramonan
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. 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 NThe 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 in November Iconoclast publisher W. Leon Smith, who co-wrote the editorial with two other writers, is unapologetic.
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.
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.
If any other hometown paper with a ciruclation of ~400 had endorsed Bush, it would have been a non-story to the Leftist media.
A dozen more readers cancel and he is at zero.
Why isn't the MSM reporting this!!!!
tee heee heee heeee heheeeeee
Free speech comes with responsibility! Just ask the Dixie...er...uh...What were their names? :-)
Geez, when will the media wake up? This paper isn't the real thing. Per their own website, they only have 200-something subscribers. The highschool paper prints more copies than that.
There's a biz op for someone with more sense than Smith. Only a Democrat could miss out on the potential to make a killing being the hometown paper of the president. He must be the original sour puss.
There was a little story like this in the SAN DIEGO UNION this morning. Research found this story in the San Antonio paper. SO, it took 13 days to get from there to the San Diego Paper.
this will show up in the MSM about the same time they bring up kerry's hometown paper endorsing Bush
You go under, you go under! Tough!
the 'MSM' has reported on it. it's a few weeks old now, and very small news.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6124397/
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6356211
The MSM will report it...but only if they can take a shot at Bush and the GOP for "chillingly and angrily stepping on the rights of journalists through economic means".
You know that's exactly how they'll frame it.
Smith expects there will be more, and he's preparing for the worst.
"It will probably put us under," he said
= = = = =
And the downside is....?
It is reported that "they also were busy fielding phone call after phone call from curious journalists, emotional readers, and angry advertisers."
Wonder if there was just one, curious and furious journalist.
Someone told him it would increase his circulation?
Too late smart.
I bet he was closing his doors anyway and just decided to go out kicking.
Question: Did the MSM point that out when they played up the story of the hometown newspaper snub? Did the MSM highlight The Lowell Sun's endorsement of Bush with equal weight? Will they note the circulation difference between the two papers?
The solution is to a) buy the newspaper and change its editorial policy or b) start up your own newspaper and go into business against it :-).
Smith isn't the brightest bulb on the tree, huh? Failed pol and now a failed publisher.
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