Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
Last week, KOLO, the local ABC affiliate, ran a story about our April Fools Day issue cover—the one featuring U.S. senate candidate Sharron Angle depicted as some kind of B-movie monster. The TV news story apparently inspired some of her supporters more than the actual issue. So, we got a few letters complaining that the cover image was “over the top.” Some of these letters can be found on this very page.
And some of these letter writers seem to have missed that the accompanying story, which described Angle hatching from a cocoon during a black magic ritual, was clearly satirical. It was even marked as such with a disclaimer. I wonder if these people also believed the story about the lake-dwelling creature Tahoe Tessie moving to Pyramid Lake?
Either that, or they think we here in the “liberal media” take our job of demonizing conservative politicians quite literally.
Anyway, Angle put out a statement, which read in part: “I have grandchildren, so I know what it’s like when they start coloring and making things up like they do, although mine wouldn’t draw anything like this. I get that it’s a joke. I have a sense of humor. However, the voters in Nevada do not see it that way. People have been calling me with comments such as, ‘a very bigoted article, very offensive in poor taste,’ or ‘for a paper that supposedly defends women they sure are good at attacking them.’ ”
Further down, the statement continued, “Two Papers in One Bed: There is a long standing intimate relationship between the editorial staff of the Reno Gazette-Journal … and the Reno News & Review. … I just wonder if the executives at the USA Today and News & Review are aware of this cozy relationship between these two editorial staffs.”
Asked for comment about what he describes as Angle’s “libelous and sexually harassing insinuations,” RN&R editor emeritus D. Brian Burghart said, “As someone who consorts with Satan outside her marriage, I’d think Ms. Angle would have better things to do than to point fingers.”