"The Lone Star Iconoclast" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Lone Star Iconoclast

When the Lone Star Iconoclast endorsed John Kerry, a number of its readers canceled their subscriptions and some advertisers their space orders. That’s because most of them live in Crawford, Texas, home of the current president.

These cancellations happen frequently when a newspaper goes against the grain. But unless the paper has gone too far overboard, it’s usually only a temporary situation; most readers and advertisers come back.

In a show of support for the Iconoclast, I purchased two quarter-page ads for $364 to run a letter to readers in support of the paper. I said that those who dissented should welcome the dialogue because neither side on any issue has it completely right. We need to listen more and better, and focus on solutions rather than on winning an argument.

The job of the media, after all, is not to rock the people to sleep, it is to hold our leaders’ feet to the fire, until we get the truth. And the Iconoclast had written, "Four items trouble us the most about the Bush administration: his initiatives to disable the Social Security system, the deteriorating state of the American economy, a dangerous shift away from the basic freedoms established by our founding fathers, and his continuous mistakes regarding Iraq."

That’s as concise and to the point as any editorial you’d find in any big city newspaper. Indeed, the Iconoclast stands out as a beacon of what journalists should do. Journalists are not about making friends, they’re supposed to tell the facts, regardless of who is offended by them. Because if journalists don’t tell you where are you going to get them? Not from the politicians.

The people of Crawford are lucky to have such courageous and talented people working for them. What the Iconoclast did was a credit to the profession. It’s unfortunate that more papers, including some of the big ones -- and especially the broadcast media -- don’t hold themselves to the same high standards. If they told the facts as the Iconoclast did, their wouldn’t be a race.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.