Archives
11:55:00 PM EST
Me and the Waco Tribune Herald
WACO TRIBUNE HERALD - GOING SOUTH
In 2004, the Waco Tribune Herald exhibited unusual courage when it endorsed John Kerry for President. President George W Bush's Crawford ranch lies within McLennan County, and McLennan County has gone Republican in most recent statewide elections. If competence, intelligence, and compassion were the only variables (excluding ideology), all discerning voters should have selected Kerry. But the mostly Republican business community, which provides vital advertising income to the Waco Tribune Herald (the sole daily newspaper in Waco) was outraged by the Tribune Herald's stand.
In 2005, Waco Tribune Herald Publisher Dan Savage resigned, and he was replaced by Michael Vivio, the Waco Tribune Herald Advertising Director. The Waco Tribune Herald soon inaugurated a series on the potential Bush Presidential Library that could be located on the Baylor campus. All pretense of objectivity was removed - the stories repeatedly gushed about how wonderful it would be for all concerned if George W Bush chose Waco as the site for his presidential library - indeed, the unspoken, unstated, yet crystal clear implication was that any Wacoan who opposed the Bush presidential library was practically mentally imbalanced or a Bush hating ideological leftist. The Tribune Herald even printed fifty individual "Reasons to Locate the Bush Library in Waco" advertisements.
Under Vivio's leadership, the Tribune Herald soon embarked on a campaign to let "the readers" choose Waco Tribune Herald syndicated columnists - a list was circulated, and most of the syndicated columnists were outspoken conservatives. Local liberals worried that the previous practice of presenting approximately equal numbers of "liberal" and "conservative" columns would be abandoned.
The Waco Tribune Herald then displayed strategically displayed billboards on Waco roadways that are presumably utilized by Republican voters. The billboards have pictures of three conservative columnists - Walter Williams (an ultraconservative Republican and African-American), Ann Coulter (the "Wicked Witch of the West" of the Right), and Charles Krauthammer - with the slogan "Your Voices". There are no Waco billboards with pictures of liberal columnists.
A few days ago, the Waco Tribune Herald outdid itself. It placed another of its clever ads in thefront section of the paper, with the slogan "Your Voices". The ad contained two words of text in a blank square - "Liberal Wacko". What was the point of this ad? Was it to show that liberals can be insulted? Was it to show that political liberals are illegitimate? Was it to show that rightwing commentators and readers can feel comfortable denouncing all things "liberal" with seething emotion? Would the paper have dared to print the ad if the words "Conservative idiot" were used? I think not.
When the sun sets on October, I will do a comprehensive survey of "number of liberal columns vs number of conservative columns published in the Waco Tribune Herald during October 2005". Then I will tabulate "liberal columns vs conservative columns published ini the Waco Tribune Herald for October 2004". I expect two discoveries - (1) fewer columns are being printed, and (2) there is a greater proportion of conservative columns to liberal columns in October 2005, compared to October 2004.
And yet, some local conservatives still denounce the Waco Tribune Herald as a "liberal rag". These conservatives and the local Republican business community should be joyful. They still have their President, and the Waco Tribune Herald is slowly metamorphosizing into a George W Bush house organ.
Written by usapolres Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
11/3/05 9:15 PM