On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy talked in the studio with all-star panelist Crom Carmichael about the current New York Times article written about The Tennessee Star and its sister papers across the nation.
During the segment, Leahy quoted experts from the article and was convinced that the New York Times is threatened by The Tennessee Star and its sister papers because of it’s increased following and indirect internet linkage from the Republican party and Trump campaign via social media. Carmichael agreed adding, “They dislike you for more than one thing. I think it’s interesting and you’re going to see more and more of this as the campaign goes along.”
Leahy: I’m here with Crom Carmichael. Our original all-star panelist. And during the break Crom I sent you a story you found very amusing.
Carmichael: Michael. You are to be congratulated. (Leahy chuckles) You and all of your staff at The Tennessee Star. (Leahy laughs) You should be congratulated. You have made The New York Times.
Leahy: Yeah, they don’t like us.
Carmichael: They don’t like you. (Leahy chuckles) I’m wondering whether or not this is a dog whisper being sent to Facebook and the other social media sites to try to cancel you.
Leahy: Yeah. It’s all part of it. The mainstream media, they’ll write negative stories about us. They won’t ask us to respond. They won’t look at our website but they’ll repeat false stories. And in this particular one, they called us fake news.
We’ve got by the way like six reporters in Tennessee doing local stories. We do polls that are very accurate. Our company The Minnesota Sun, we’ve got a reporter in Minnesota. We’ve got three reporters for The Ohio Star in Ohio.
We’ve got two reporters in Michigan, The Michigan Star. So here’s what they say about us. “A similar pattern [of fake news] cropped up in Tennessee where a website called The Tennessee Star began publishing political news in 2017 without disclosing funding or staff.”
That’s a false statement. That’s not true. We disclosed our staff and our point of view from the very very beginning.
Carmicheal: Wow.
Leahy: I told the New York Times this and they’ve not made a correction yet. But we’re going to have more conversations with them.
Carmichael: I just find it so amusing because the New York Times is complaining and claiming that you’re doing exactly what they do every day. (Leahy chuckles) I mean when you read this, its just gravy here. It says readers and viewers had no way of knowing The Tennessee Star was actually a conservative site run by commentators and activists.
Well does the New York Times on its front page everyday disclaim that they make stuff up because they hate Trump? I don’t think they have a disclaimer.
Leahy: Disclaimer: We hate Donald Trump.
Carmicheal: We hate Donald Trump, therefore, many of our articles are biased. I don’t think they do that. This group has since started companion sites, oh no, oh no, called The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. So now they’re concerned that you’re actually going to be persuasive in Ohio and Minnesota and The New York Times and the liberal establishment can simply not stand that.
Leahy: They don’t like it.
Carmichael: This is just hysterical on one hand and scary as it can be on another. And by the way, they’ve said this over and over again with the current situation with Trump. What frustrates him more than anything is that when Nixon was President the national media was controlled by about six people.
ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times. Washington Post and maybe the LA Times. That whatever they decided was the news was the news. And now there’s so many other places and competition that you can get news from other people. You can get another point of view. And they are very frustrated that they don’t control the narrative. And here they are attacking you.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Little ole me.
Carmichael: Little ole you. You and your staff need to be congratulated because you must be doing something right. Because anytime the New York Times complains about somebody, then whoever that is, needs to be lifted up and congratulated.
Leahy: Well and yes, so much we say from the very beginning since we started this in February of 2017. We’ve identified our staff members. We’ve identified our point of view which is conservative. It’s fact-based. They don’t dispute any of our facts. They do say however that we have an impact.
They said, “These three sites, The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun now attracts substantial engagement on Facebook. Crowd Tangle data shows they are frequently linked on public pages with millions of followers and have generated more than 100,000 interactions.” Well, what’s wrong with that?
Carmichael: Once again, that’s what makes them upset. It’s that you are putting out information that is contrary to the world view that they want to put out.
Leahy: Here’s what they don’t like. This is what they wrote about us in the New York Times. “In August and September, President Trump’s official Facebook page linked three times to The Minnesota Sun which has published commentaries by leaders of the states’ Republican party and CEO of the Trump reelection campaign.” That’s what they don’t like.
Carmichael: Well, OK.
Leahy: That’s bad.
Carmichael: Well, that’s one thing they don’t like. That’s only one thing.
Leahy: Oh yeah. There’s a lot more.
Carmichael: You need to be congratulated. They dislike you for more than one thing. I think it’s interesting and you’re going to see more and more of this as the campaign goes along.
This is what’s happening with the, let me switch gears for a second, the impeachment process. The Democrats cannot control the narrative.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Carmichael: Once the facts are out the Democrats look very, very foolish and very, very petty.
Listen to the full third hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
