Inquiring Minds
This post started out as an update on the magical mystery terror tour of Rick Santorum that I covered in a previous essay, It's I-am-a-Fascist Week. However, as I started to write about it, I realized that it deserved it's own post.
As for the initial update on Santorum's pre-Halloween fearmongering: For more on the big man on campus' terror tour, see Muslims, Santorum debate radical threat and On the 3rd day of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week...
However, what was the most interesting bit of news about Santorum's visit to his former home state is the fact that was noted as an aside in the Inquirer's coverage of the event, Santorum presses his case against Islamic extremism, that Santorum is going to spread his hatefest in the editorial pages of the Inky on a biweekly basis. See also, Santorum, Curry to write columns for Inquirer. Of course, this is hardly a shock -- they've in in talks for some time. See Ricky@Inky?.
I wonder if Inky owner/publisher Brian Tierney is channeling that other great rightwing media mogul, Richard Mellon Scaife, in trying to follow his vision of a publishing empire -- by creating a vast right wing conspiracy like Mellon Scaife. For a glimpse at Tierney, see Inquire No More. It hardly needs to be said that Philly is heavily democratic, but even the Philly 'burbs are trending Democrat these days and most of the remaining Republicans are hardly of the extremist ilk of Santorum. Considering the "popularity" of Santorum in this area (and his overwhelming loss in his last Senate race is further proof of that), it doesn't make sense to alienate so many of your readers at a time that you are trying to increase readership. And Santorum most certainly will -- it's his persona.
Maybe I'm just missing the bigger picture here. Perhaps Tierney wants to turn the Inquirer into the Philly version of Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune Review -- maybe Tierney and his cohorts view themselves as wealthy enough to be able to squander millions by supporting ultra-conservative causes with a money losing paper, which is really just a "hobby." Scaife certainly made a career out of his hobby. This can be the Philly version: The Right inquiring minds pursuing "the news" -- the Right News.
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