Oakland Tribune activity sponsors and organizes anti-Bush protests

Starting in February, 2006, the Oakland Tribune appears to have made the decision to stop reporting the news, and instead … to be a part of it, or even create it. On February 13th the Tribune ran an editorial giving instructions to readers on how to participate in an anti-Bush protest. This protest was apparently officially organized, sponsored, publicized, and physically conducted by the Editorial Board of the Oakland Tribune.

Here is the announcement as it appeared on one website:

Mail or bring your copies of '1984' to the Oakland Tribune -- they will send them to Congress!! 23 Dec 2005 "We think it's time for Congress to heed the warning of George Orwell. To that end, we're asking for your help: Mail us or drop off your tattered copies of '1984.' When we get 537 of them, we'll send them to every member of the House of Representatives and Senate and to President [sic] Bush and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney. Feel free to inscribe the book with a note, reminding these fine people that we Americans take the threat to our liberties seriously... Bring or mail your books to the Oakland Tribune, 401 13th St., Oakland CA 94612. Doors are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m."

And here is the link to the actual editorial which appeared on the pages of the Oakland Tribune on 02/13/06:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/oped/ci_3337465

I just received a call back from Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune - Politics & Criminal Justice.

Mr. Richman completely admitted that the newspaper editorial board organized, publicized, and activity participated in this protest of the sitting President of the United States. This is unbelievable!

He did inform me that this protest is already completed and started over a year ago, but the most interesting information he gave me was that there were employees of the newspaper actually sitting in an office, stuffing these books into envelopes, addressing them to members of Congress, and then mailing them. This is absurd!

I asked Mr. Richman if the Oakland Tribune had given up their newspaper status and now become a political action committee.

I've been told that I will also be getting a call from the Editor soon, as they seem to be concerned with where this might lead, and if this does happen I will post updates as they come in.

Here’s an ironic moment. While speaking with Mr. Richman, he asked me what blogs or outlets might be writing about this story and I informed him that I believe it might hit all the main blogs as well as Fox News. When I mentioned FoxNews, he laughed. Now, a public newspaper organizing an anti-Bush protest doesn’t get any more biased than that, so I find this reaction the ultimate hypocrisy, but amazingly it’s the normal response we see from any of the most biased of liberal news sources. After something like this, just how does the Oakland Tribune complain about any news organization being biased?

Please spread this story as far as possible. Email it to friends, blog it, and definitely contact the Oakland Tribune, as well as Fox News. There's no way this should be kept secret, even if it's already completed.

Contact the Oakland Tribune here:

Pete Wevurski - Editor
(510) 208-6301
pwevurski@angnewspapers.com

Josh Richman - Politics & Criminal Justice
(510) 208-6428
jrichman@angnewspapers.com