Actions have consequences......dude

[dude1394]

This is the editor who told Texans to vote for Kerry. Now he's being run out of Bush's home town
By Julian Coman
(Filed: 07/11/2004)

As democrats resign themselves to four more years with George W Bush in the White House, one beleaguered newspaper is discovering the dire consequences of taking on the President in his own backyard.


The Lone Star Iconoclast, in Crawford, Texas, where Mr Bush has a ranch, usually confines its coverage to high school American football games and local court cases. But a week ago, in an editorial misjudgment of staggering proportions, the newspaper - circulation 920 - decided to endorse John Kerry in the race for the White House.

Readers, wrote the paper's editor, Leon Smith, "should not rate the candidate by his home town or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country". President Bush, he continued, "has let us down" on Iraq and the economy.

His words did little to sway the electorate, with the President holding Texas with consummate ease. But the Iconoclast's readers, many of whom profit from the regular visits of tourists, journalists and the occasional world leader to Crawford, are furious.

The newspaper has been flooded with angry letters, readers are boycotting it and shops refusing to stock it.

As a result, Mr Smith is considering pulling out of town. "The hate mail hasn't stopped," he told The Telegraph.

"There have been about 2,000 letters in all, from Crawford and the rest of our circulation area. We knew some people wouldn't like it, but the vehemence of the reaction has been extraordinary. People just glare at me in the street."

The Kerry endorsement was, to put it mildly, a bold move for a paper dependent on local advertising income. Road signs around Crawford proclaim the area to be "Bush Country". Shops sell Bush badges, Bush mugs and Bush T-shirts. About 80 per cent of Crawford's 700 residents are declared Bush supporters. Almost all, it seems, have penned an angry letter to The Lone Star Iconoclast.

"In the Old West they hung people for being traitors," wrote one reader. "I sincerely hope that ALL Texans will ban your newspaper."

The owner of a local hair salon was equally forthright. "Thank you Mr Smith, and thanks too to your twin brother Michael Moore. Your demonstration of profound ignorance helped energise a nation to get off its butt to vote against you and the Communists.

"I now plan to inform anyone advertising in your paper that I will be shopping from now on in Waco or Cleburne."

Another ex-reader advised Mr Smith to leave town: "I guess your candidate lost. Why don't you move to Boston?"
While local readership of the Iconoclast has halved, its now-famous editorial has attracted new subscribers from as far afield as Barcelona, Toronto, Dublin and, remarkably, Doncaster.

On their home turf, however, Mr Smith's reporters have been harassed and threatened near the Crawford Coffee Station, where President Bush occasionally pops in for fried onion rings.

Advertising revenue has collapsed and in an attempt to punish the paper, coaches of the high school football team, the Crawford Pirates, are refusing to allow reporters to cover their matches.

Battered and bruised, Mr Smith admitted: "If we can't sell the paper and we cannot get advertising, it's a pretty serious situation.

"It's very nice to get interest from abroad. But we get our money from advertising, and Texas advertisers are not interested in readers from Doncaster or Barcelona. The shops won't distribute the paper. I don't even dare to go into the Coffee Station".

Despite his plummeting circulation and the ostracism of his reporters, Mr Smith has no regrets. "We did that editorial based on principle," he said. "Four of us sat down and figured out what we wanted to write on the election. One colleague said he supported Bush and opted out of writing it. The rest of us were very happy with what we came up with."

The challenge, he said, was to win back alienated readers but there seems little chance of his adopting a less confrontational editorial line.

In fact, the Iconoclast is working on an election conspiracy theory, involving possible tampering with electronic voting machines in Florida and Ohio, for this week's issue. "There were no paper trails those states," said Mr Smith.

This argument is unlikely to impress "RJ" of Crawford, who wrote the following to Mr Smith: "Leon - Just a note to express my disappointment. You are a disgrace to Crawford, and yourself."

[dude1394]

Hope you are listening and paying attention Dan Rather and CBS....your time is next.

[Drbio]

I love it. You hear about this locally, but there is a very well organized effort to eject these losers from Bush Country. I hope a pro-Bush or at least Por-Common Sense paper moves in quickly. I'd subscribe on pronciple just to reduce the Iconoclast to a shambles.