I read your article on Tom Metzger. I know it must be tough for a small town newspaper, deciding to write about such a man like Mr. Metzger. It is a double-edged sword. If you don't write about him, you're labeled a pro faction. If you do write about it, you're labeled the same.
I would advise to take your chances on "not" printing the story, hometown boy or not.
Mr. Metzger makes his living off the Internet. He needs advertisement in order to sell his product of "hate." The cable show he was on is just as guilty as the other forms of the media. They help themselves when they help the hate organizations advertise their message.
Your paper not only advertised the cable show, you also advertised Mr. Metzger's Web site. There are organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have Web sites. These Web sites specifically have information on how to handle hate groups.
I should know. I was once, many years ago, the grand dragon of the Klan in Indiana. I had a product. I needed to get advertisement for that product. Free advertisement, I always liked. Newspapers and TV and cable shows are the best. And it's "free."
Like Mr. Metzger, I have a message as well. It's educating towns and people on how to combat hate groups. I even wrote a book about it. I have done more than 600 radio interviews. Many TV, newspaper interviews. I even did a documentary on the learning channel, "Secret Societies."
I don't push for advertisement of any kind. My past track record of being outspoken against all the hate groups speaks for itself.
I personally saw to it that the leader of the American Knights of the KKK received justice for the gunpoint hostage situation back in the fall of 1999. He held, at gun point, two TV news reporters from Louisville, Ky. He got sued by the same law firm that Mr. Metzger did, the Southern Poverty Law Center. The local prosecutor at the time, Monty Brown, who is now a judge, was gonna just sweep the ordeal under the rug. I, however, stepped in and, because of pressure from the civil action, the Klan leader ended up going to prison.
Mr. Metzger is from your fair city. It would be sad if 100 years from now, that possibly the only thing remembered from this time period would be the organization and the leader of a hate group was from your city.
I am from Waterloo, Ind. I have my computer set up to receive anything in the news on hate groups. This is how I read the article on Mr. Metzger.
