The way the Orange Guy in the White House is waging war against major newspapers reminds me of T. Boone Pickens and his fight with the Amarillo newspaper that criticized him back in 1986, He told his 400 employees at the company Christmas party to cancel their subscriptions. Does the Orange Guy in the White House think that millions will stop watching CNN, cancel their subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post and that they will stop reporting about what he is doing to this nation?
Here's what happened with T. Boone and the Amarillo Globe News , according to an article in The Chicago Tribune by Paul Weingarten, November 26, 1987:
"The defiant rallying cry for the evening referred not to any politician or local football team, but to what seems a most unlikely subject for such an impassioned assemblage: the Amarillo Globe-News, the town`s monopoly daily newspaper, circulation 71,000.
``The Globe News,`` declared Paul Engler, president of a group calling itself the Panhandle Citizens for a Better Amarillo Newspaper is ``nationally known for its shabby journalism and its reputation has shed a bad light on our Panhandle communities.``
It was the opening volley in a well-orchestrated and heavily financed campaign to boycott the newspaper and force its sale because of perceived
``negative and slanted`` news coverage.
The spark that galvanized the group of business and civic leaders in Amarillo-most prominent among them the oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens-apparently was an eight-part series that explored racism against Hispanics in the neighboring town of Hereford.
``It was devastating to the community,`` says Hereford Mayor Wes Fisher, who fears bad publicity will discourage newcomers to this heavily Hispanic town of 16,000.
Fisher turned to Pickens, who had led an earlier crusade against the Globe-News after the paper disclosed cost overruns last year at West Texas State University, where Pickens is chairman of the Board of Regents.
The battle reflects deep frustrations in the Panhandle region, which has been among the hardest hit in Texas` economic slump. Downtown Amarillo is riddled with boarded-up businesses, and bankruptcies and bank failures continue to soar as prices for agricultural commodities, natural gas and oil remain low.
``The paper should be a positive force towards bringing new economic development into the Panhandle,`` asserts Mark Davis, a local carpet merchant. Outside the Panhandle, the confrontation is stirring debate over such issues as freedom of the press, and the influence of powerful business interests in this community of 182,000.
``This sounds like the old lynch-mob attitude,`` says Phil Record, former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and associate executive editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. ``If you`re unhappy with the messenger, let`s hang him.``
``Bottom line, it`s a 1st Amendment issue,`` says Garet von Netzer, executive editor of the Amarillo Globe-News papers. ``Does a paper have the right to serve the public`s right to know . . . whether it`s negative or positive stories?``"``It`s a lousy newspaper,`` retorts Pickens, recently proclaimed by a state magazine as the second most powerful man in Texas. (Dallas billionaire H. Ross Perot was first.)
The Panhandle Citizens last week launched its unprecedented campaign, issuing a press packet stuffed with ``I Canceled`` bumper stickers, buttons, and a videotape featuring local news programs.
In an open letter, the Citizens urged 120 advertisers to ``cut back`` by 25 percent on their advertising and asked Amarillo residents to cancel their subscriptions.
The campaign is already claiming victory on one front. Last week, Globe-News General Manager Jerry Huff was reassigned to coordinate coverage of the 1988 presidential campaign for the 19 newspapers in the Morris
Communications chain, based in Augusta, Ga.
``The timing was terrible,`` Von Netzer admits, but he said plans for the new post had been in the works for ``at least six months.``
The paper also has lost about 500 subscriptions and several pages of advertising since the boycott began, said Carl Cannon, group newspaper manager for Morris Communications.
``It`s sure a pretty skinny paper this morning,`` chuckled Bill Gilliland, a local car dealer and member of the Panhandle Citizens. ``You`d have a hard time starting a fire with it.``
Those who attended the rally voiced complaints about a wide range of the newspaper`s coverage, including politics, sports, the arts and social services.
The key word in their complaints was ``negative,`` which often translated into ``investigative.``
``I don`t like the word investigative,`` says Gilliland, ``because I think we need some of that in our society, but it would probably go better in the Washington Post or the Chicago Tribune, not in a small town like Amarillo.``
``Have you ever heard of the Amarillo paper listed among those honored for investigative reporting?`` asks Von Netzer, noting that the paper has only one half-time ``or less`` investigative reporter.
The paper responded to the criticism this week by announcing it will appoint an ombudsman to field reader complaints, and enlist a liaison group of community residents and business leaders to meet regularly with editors to air grievances.
``We try to be as upbeat as possible,`` says Von Netzer, ``but it`s a terribly frustrating time for people, and we have got to tell people what is going on. You don`t make progress in America by supressing news. Once you start, where does that end?``
Same story different day.
