Edward Gaylord

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Edward Lewis Gaylord (May 28, 1919–April 27, 2003) was a billionaire businessman and media mogul who built an empire that included The Oklahoman newspaper/ Oklahoma Publishing Co., Gaylord Hotels, the [Nashville Network]] TV Channel (later renamed "SpikeTV" after being sold off); the Grand Ole Opry, and the Country Music Television Channel (CMT)as well as now defunct and bankrupt airline "Western Pacific"

Gaylord was the leader of the family which inherited the major Oklahoma City metro newspaper, Daily Oklahoman and other family assets worth $50 million in 1974. Gaylord graduated from Stanford University with a degree in business and continued his studies at Harvard Business School, but World War II interrupted his education.

Gaylord increased the family fortune to $2 billion by the time he died in 2003. He also purchased the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, when it was in dire financial straits and kept it operating. He created The Nashville Network TV Channel, as well as Country Music Television, or CMT, which is similar to MTV, and owned "Hee-Haw" a long running country and western variety show.

The Daily Oklahoman, renamed The Oklahoman, still remains in the family, although the editorial tone of the paper now is more accurately described as mostly economic conservative, not unlike "The Wall Street Journal". Gaylord's daughter, publisher Christy Gaylord Everest, now manages the property. Everest, assisted by her sister, Louise Gaylord Bennett, have updated the look of the paper, and have presented opposing viewpoints of issues of public concern.

During the management by Edward Gaylord, the newspaper has been regularly accused of having a strident and inflammatory "Human Events" style of ultra conservativeRepublican /conservative bias in both its news coverage and particularly on its editorial pages. The January/February 1999 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review contained an article, titled "The Worst Newspaper in America," which made a lengthy and well documented case for that designation.

The Gaylord family of Oklahoma City helped found the world-famous National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and has given the University of Oklahoma contributions totalling over $50 million in the last three decades, and founded the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Edward Gaylord and his family were actively involved in the formation of the now-defunct and bankrupt Western Pacific Airlines. Recently, the home field of the University of Oklahoma Sooners football team was renamed Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium due to their contributions.

Although Edward Gaylord routinely ran front page editorials against any political candidates which Gaylord accused of support "big government spending,"; However, businessman Gaylord was not above using his newspaper for personal financial or political gain at the public expense.

The most recent example was the paper's editorial support for the city to use public funds to promote "welfare for the rich" to help finance the building of a new Bass Pro Shop in Oklahoma City, where Gaylord Entertainment was a large (24%) shareholder of Bass Pro private stock.

Another example of a double standard was one in which Gaylord, who had written strident editorials opposing "Affirmative Action" and "Racial Quotas", successfully lobbied the US Congress to pass tax incentives in which Gaylord Media could receive tax breaks to sell broadcast stations to corporations which had a small percentage of ownership by what Gaylord had stridently described in editorials as "So-Called Minorities".