On Election Day Eve 2008, the Flint Journal – along with several other Booth newspapers in Michigan – was delivered to citizens inside a plastic bag adorn with an anti-Obama message paid for by the National Rifle Association.
Perhaps it was the violent spasm bound to happen when a newspaper in financial free fall finds itself in a shotgun wedding with a fundamentalist lobby, itself becoming aware of its own irrelevance. Maybe this is what happens whenever two dinosaurs cling to each other in an effort to calm crescendoing death throws with archaic remedies: cold hard cash and cold hard hate. Or perhaps this is more proof that the average American is far more media savvy than those in the business of media monetization can ever hope to be. Call it 'measurable market data' indicating that fear-based politics' tawdry love-affair with advertising sales reps will be cancelled, once and for all, this fall.
Click to watch the local ABC/Disney affiliate's coverage of the Flint Journal/NRA's mediated manifestation of greed and ignorance.