In the midst of all the craziness of Crazy-Town in the last couple of weeks, we here at P-Town Underground forgot to recognize a very significant event that means good news for Portsmouth. Heartland Publications, the parent company of the Portsmouth Times and the Community Common newspapers, announced that it emerged from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on May 1, 2010. They state that nearly one-half of their "prior debt is eliminated" and that the "company intends to pursue growth opportunities." We have literally been praying for the financial health of the Portsmouth Times for the sake of our community and we are very glad to hear this excellent news. (Click here for the story.)
In honor of this happy event, we would like to reprint one of our earlier stories (from 12/19/2009). This was the first story of our series: "The 12 Days of Grinchmas." (Yes, we know we never finished all 12. We'll get around to it eventually.) We humbly request that our readers try to find a way to express our appreciation for our hometown newspaper-send them a card, drop off some cookies, or even offer to take a reporter out to lunch.
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On the first day of Grinchmas, the Grinches want to see...
The Portsmouth Times in bankruptcy.
The Portsmouth Daily Times was first published in 1852. For over 150 years, it has been a faithful friend to the citizens of Portsmouth. It has told us about the world, employed our neighbors, and entertained us. It has announced our community's births, marriages, and deaths. Thanks to the Times, we know where the yard sales are, what churches have special services, and what ten items you can get for $10 at
Krogers. The Times has struggled. It's not perfect. It's not what it once was, but what in Portsmouth is? As our city has struggled and tried to adjust to its financial constraints, so has the Portsmouth Times. The cutbacks are noticeable. It's easy to criticize the paper. But it's just as easy to praise it, if we choose. Their coverage of local events and sports is good. It's still a good place for many businesses to advertise. Most of all it is a reliable and important public institution. In an era when all newspapers are struggling and many are failing, Portsmouth is extremely fortunate to have a local paper. It provides jobs and is a small but significant part of our tax base. We believe the paper is vital to morale of our community. It has a circulation of 13,000 and covers much of Ohio and Kentucky. It would be a real blow to Portsmouth's prestige
if the Daily Times ever went away.
BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE C.A.V.E. PEOPLE WANT.
Of all the CAVE People, ex-professor Robert
Forrey is probably the
Grinchiest. All he needs is a shabby Santa suit and a dab of green face powder and he would be a dead ringer. (Actually, he doesn't even need the makeup.) So of course he would love to see the death of the Times. Here are some things that
Forrey (originally for Massachusetts) has said about
our newspaper, on his execrable excuse for a website:
"People who really want progress in Portsmouth should take a pledge not to buy the incredibly shrinking
newspaper." "Everyone should just say no to the Portsmouth Daily Times." "The Prostitute Daily Times." (Oh, professor, you're so clever.)
"The Little Shop of Horrors." "Our anorexic local newspaper." "It pays not to advertise." "I look forward to the day when there are no prostitutes or PDT dispensers on the street corners of Portsmouth."
Forrey's fellow traveler and
alleged tax cheat, Austin
Leedom, on his nasty little website, has his mind in the same gutter. He must be more religious than
Forrey, because he calls the Times the "
Anti-Christ Newspaper." He, like other CAVE People, frequently calls for its boycotting. "Boycott Portsmouth Daily Times - Editor Jason
Lovins urges Democracy to be set aside. Adolph Hitler talked same way in Germany in mid-1930s. Be patriotic, why support
Un-American propaganda? If you are a subscriber, cancel now. Save your money; stop patronizing businesses that advertise with the Daily Times until Jason
Lovins is gone from Daily Times." This is just one example.
Teresa
Mollette, the
embarrassing "bitter half" of a recently defeated city councilman, uses her sorry excuses for websites to constantly criticize the Times for not agreeing with her vaunted opinions. The following plea is typical: "I encourage everyone in the community to voice their
NONsupport of the PDT." On her website she stated that she cancelled her subscription to the Portsmouth Times AND
Scioto Voice and wished she could cancel the delivery of the free newspaper, the Community Common, to her doorstep. She ended her rant by explaining that all you really need to know in Portsmouth can be found at the two websites that she runs. (Check her arrogant statements out for yourself, by
clicking here.) And that's really what these
internet freaks of nature would really love to see. No real news. Only their paranoid delusional
internet propaganda. If you had any doubt, the hatred of the CAVE People for the Portsmouth Times should make it clear that they do not want the best for Portsmouth. They don't call for the paper to be better, or to have more revenue to hire more staff and print more pages. They call for it to fail. The impact of the failure of the Times on our community would be hard to estimate, but at the least it would a crippling spiritual blow to the citizens. It would mean no sharing of our children's sports and academic highlights. No obituaries of our loved ones. No reporting of progress and struggles of our town. No chance for your child to be a paper boy or girl. Dozens of people out of work. The end of the Times, if and when it comes, will be a sad day in Portsmouth. But not for the
internet Grinches. They will celebrate. They will have a collective
internet orgasm. They will probably dance like witches around a boiling cauldron.
Anti-CAVE ACTION!! What can we do to counteract the hateful influences of the CAVE People? Here are a few suggestions: 1. Write a letter of appreciation to the Times, perhaps, to individual reporters, even if you don't always agree with them. Encourage these folks who have a
demanding job and who are, in a real sense, servants of the public. 2. Resist the temptation to be a Grinch. One of the worst faults of human nature it the
tendency to criticize others rather than to encourage. 3. Consider subscribing if you don't already get the paper. If you do, buy an extra copy now and then. It's just 50 cents. Leave it in the break room at work. 4. Advertise. If you have a business, call the Times and see what specials they have. Several churches have done very well with small, inexpensive front page ads. 5. LIE TO THE TIMES! Call them up and tell them they're the greatest newspaper ever. Maybe they will be!
The slanderer-in-chief has struck again. As it so often happens, it seems the intrepid Frank Lewis and the Portsmouth Daily Times has said it best with 
We especially like the "
We doubt that we will get one of Murray's emails, but if we did we would ask what she did with the previous mayor's desk, conference table and chairs. She seems to have had a conference table in the picture below.
Some of our readers have already suggested alternative ways of raising money for her office.
If this doesn't work perhaps she could hold a telethon on Grandview Avenue where she got her political start in Portsmouth.
Let's hope this approach works. As embarrassing as the whole situation is we would hate it if she had to resort to making even more of a spectacle of herself.
Congratulations, Mayor. You have really kept your promise to bring all of your vast experience in government to your position as mayor to do for Portsmouth all the things you did for Lexington.
"Citizens For Change in the Fifth" was responsible for those little plastic signs that sprang up all over
