Another Race Angle: There are problems inherent in publishing a weekly newspaper, chief being that there is a constant search for what media folks call the “second-day lead” on major stories. Such is the case with this week’s LEO, which, along with its usual challenges, had a holiday and a change in ownership to contend with. Still, Phillip Bailey’s rehashing of the race story in the Presidential primary (eight days ago) has a new twist — contrasting Kentucky with Oregon, which as a state overwhelms us in cool points. (LEO)

In the story, NAACP leader Raoul Cunningham charges that Gov. Steve Beshear “didn’t want to deal with it”, the “it” being race in the election, and as if to prove Cunningham’s point, Beshear’s office refused to answer LEO’s calls.

Cary’s Tribute: The thing that keeps many of us coming back to this journalism thing is the way events continue to surprise us. I’m totally shocked that the new owners of LEO would allow a glowing tribute to an editor they fired be published by an editor they seem to hope to want to keep. Thin-skinned management at LEO once refused to publish a column of mine critical of the paper’s schlocky first attempt at BOOM! a year ago. Give the new group credit for allowing Stephen George to write of Cary Stemle’s departure:

How Cary wound up on that short, ugly list I’m not sure, but I’d challenge any assertion that it was based on the job he did.

It would have been easy for the folks from SouthComm to prohibit any mention of Stemle, so it shows that perhaps there’s some humanity in the management team there. The string of comments on LEO’s now-quiet blog are all supportive of Stemle and against the new management. There’s been some effort to retain the core of freelancers (I haven’t been fired yet!).

Let’s hope this is a low point for the paper, which has just 40 pages this week, a smaller number than LEO has published in years. Let’s not forget the paper also got rid of Kelly Gream, the source of much of LEO’s positive relationship with the advertising community.

But no one who longs for the glory days of LEO, when John Yarmuth placed the integrity of the LEO name above all else, is optimistic about the paper’s future. Back then, Yarmuth put the good of the publication above the ego of the ownership group and the mood of the paper’s advertisers.