Taking on liberal newspapers
By Hans Zeiger
web posted August 2, 2004
Across the heartlands and hinterlands of conservative America,
many doubters and desponders wake up every morning to
retrieve their newspaper, a product of the downtown Left. And
so it shall remain, they say. But for America's growing army of
young conservatives, there are no boundaries to the battle for the
future. Even the newspapers of America must stand to reckon
with a new generation of conservatives.
Two students at Seattle Pacific University named Matthew
McCleary and Benjamin Williams are launching a publication
called the Seattle Sentinel at www.seattlesentinel.com . The sophomores have a long-term
goal no less than turning the Seattle Sentinel into "the dominant
paper in Seattle."
Pessimists who doubt about America's future, who insist that the
liberal bias of the media is permanent and impenetrable, think a
goal like the Sentinel's impossible. But McCleary and Williams
and their new staff of writers and editors are energized. They're
devoted. They'll make it happen within fifty years, they say.
"We want a conservative newspaper in Seattle," says Williams.
"We have an interest in Seattle because it is our town. We are
sick of the Times and Post-Intelligencer controlling the Seattle
print media. People who do not investigate the news only get one
side of the story, the liberal side. We need to provide people in
Seattle with an alternative to our biased newspapers."
Across the country, more and more young conservatives are
taking on similar projects, on their campuses, in their
communities, on the internet. The conservative youth opinion site
www.yconservatives.com ,
was established after September 11, 2001 when Gresham Kay
was inspired by the voice of Rush Limbaugh to "get out there
and do something." Even 11-year old Emil Levitin, a public
school student from Massachusetts, is in the action with
www.republicanvoices.org .
Youth-oriented conservative print publications abound also.
College freshman Alex Bozmoski recently started a new
nationwide journal called The Right Idea, "dedicated to
propagating a message of freedom, justice, and social values
throughout our communities and our nation," to provide a
"conservative print alternative to what the liberal establishment
has made so readily available."
Hundreds of mainstream college campus newspapers must now
compete with an array of successful conservative publications,
many of which have been founded in the last few years as the
number of informed and active conservative students has
increased.
One of the most widely read campus newspapers is UC
Berkeley's California Patriot at www.calpatriot.org . "In an area dominated politically and
intellectually by radical, outspoken, leftist organizations," declares
the Patriot's Mission Statement, "it is our moral obligation to
balance class liberal saturation with conservative viewpoints that
will no longer be maligned and stifled."
Established, famed publications like Ann Coulter's Cornell
Review and Dinesh D'Souza's Dartmouth Review thrive with
admirable budgets, talent, and readership. Nearly every major
college and university in the nation now has an active,
controversial, Right-minded publication.
And these campus publications are not without a support
network. Since the Collegiate Network of the Intercollegiate
Studies Institute was founded 25 years ago, it has been
instrumental in providing financial and technical resources to
hundreds of conservative newspapers and magazines on leading
college and university campuses, especially in recent years.
Today, the Collegiate Network supports 80 top conservative
campus publications with an annual combined total distribution of
2 million.
"Don't let the left dominate your campus for another year!"
proclaims the website of the Leadership Institute Campus
Leadership Program, which also plays a role in developing
conservative campus publications by training editors, writers, and
fundraisers and providing startup cash.
With the Collegiate Network, Leadership Institute, and other
organizations like Young America's Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly's
Eagle Forum Collegians, and David Horowitz's Students for
Academic Freedom, conservative students are able to build and
maintain impressive conservative publications on their campuses.
Some young conservatives are revolutionizing the campus media.
Others are making waves on the internet. For Matthew
McCleary and Benjamin Williams of the Seattle Sentinel, the
battleground is nothing less than Seattle. Seattle can become a
more conservative city, says McCleary, "but it will take a cultural
revolution. It will start with the youth. Our parents got us into the
mess of liberalism. We need to rebel against it, and stand up for
conservative Christian values."
When McCleary speaks of rebellion, he means rebellion against
rebellion. He means restoring those old American values rejected
by a couple of previous youth generations of recent decades.
But there is something new and exciting about the rising
generation, of which I am a part. A powerful number of young
people born during the Reagan era are optimists, idealists, and
dreamers in a radically conservative way. Rebellion against
rebellion is just that, radically conservative.
These conservative young Americans see a bright future on the
horizon. True, we're spoiled; we've never known hardship like
most people in the world have known it throughout history. True,
many young Americans are more lost and more decadent than
their parents were. But the greatest truth about America, says
Williams, is that "We live in the greatest nation on God's green
earth where the American dream is still prevalent."
McCleary agrees. "There is still a core of conservative
Americans. As long as there are people like us doing everything
in our power to preserve America's liberty and Judeo-Christian
foundation, the future will always be bright. It's a matter of
perspective."
Hans Zeiger, www.hanszeiger.com , is president of the Scout Honor
Coalition and a student at Hillsdale College. Vote for Hans to
speak at the Republican National Convention at
www.gopconvention.com/essaycontest
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com