Lone Star Iconoclast

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The Lone Star Iconoclast was founded in 2000 in Crawford, Texas, as a community newspaper that also emphasized politics in its coverage. Crawford is the adopted hometown of President George W. Bush.

The newspaper is published by Smith Media, Inc. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, W. Leon Smith, and its senior editors Don. M. Fisher and Nathan Diebenow, in 2004 penned an editorial endorsing John Kerry for President. In 2000, prior to the creation of The Iconoclast, another of Smith’s newspapers, The Clifton Record, had endorsed Bush as perhaps becoming “a uniter, not a divider” in Washington.

The result of the 2004 editorial was a boycott of the newspaper in Crawford and other areas of Central Texas, including cancellation of most of its subscriptions and virtually all of its advertisements. Retribution in the form of threats and promises of financial ruin followed, with thousands of phone calls, letters, e-mails, and personal visits to the newspaper.

But as people from throughout the country became aware of what happened and the editorial began to be republished in newspapers throughout the world and on Internet sites, new subscriptions came in, as did several support advertisements, which have helped the newspaper survive.

The editorial “John Kerry Will Restore American Dignity” was eventually read by millions worldwide, becoming one of the most-read single editorials ever, and catapulted The Iconoclast to worldwide attention and resulted in scores of international media interviews of its publisher. The editorial uncovered the “hidden agenda” of the Bush Administration and took to task the federal debt, attempts to privatize Social Security, the Administration’s staunch opposition to stem cell research, the President’s failed handling of the aftermath of 9/11, and the lies that led to the war in Iraq.

Shortly after publication of the editorial, due largely to a favorable response from coast to coast, the newspaper was transformed into an independent national publication, with emphasis on politics and stories that other members of the mainstream media often tend to ignore, such as the dangers of depleted uranium radiation and certain attacks upon First Amendment rights.

In August 2005, the Iconoclast provided extensive coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s journey to Crawford to ask the President “for what noble cause” her son Casey died in Iraq. This coverage resulted in the Iconoclast staff writing a book, “The Vigil — 26 Days In Crawford, Texas” which was designed to detail how a peaceful series of protests can be held and to document an event that gave life to this century’s first major anti-war movement.

Usually featured each week in The Iconoclast is a cover story (an interview). The contents include national, state, and local news stories, plus a wide variety of opinion columns by writers from throughout the country, plus a staff-written editorial on a current topic.

The online edition newspaper may be accessed at its website, www.lonestaricon.com. The print edition is published monthly and is available through subscriptions.