An interesting event occurred on June 3. A columnist and photographer for The New York Times flew in to headquarters in Appleton to interview CEO Art Thompson and get a tour of the buildings. 

Dan Barry, the columnist, said that he had seen an article in a Utah newspaper about a presentation given by Regional Field Director Bliss Tew.  The columnist admitted that this made him curious as he had not heard about JBS for quite some time. He searched for media mentions of JBS and was surprised at the level of coverage. He found that many of our issues were issues being presented in the mainstream. This prompted the interview.

Mr. Barry spent most of the afternoon and into the early evening of that day asking questions of Art’s background, organizational structure of JBS, North American Union, fundraising, conspiracy and the impact of JBS today.

As of this writing, he continues to follow-up with us asking for membership figures (which we do not release) and ways to demonstrate membership growth.

Mr. Barry came back the next morning with the photographer and entered through the back door of the warehouse, even though he had gone through the front door of the other office building the previous day. This seemed a bit odd, but we brushed it off as miscommunication.

Hi questions were also a bit odd. He seemed to bounce around quite a bit and did not ask about our stance on issues outside of those we brought up. Mr. Barry sat down one more time with Art before leaving. He asked a number of the same questions and this time audio taped Art’s responses. He said this was going to be audio for an online slide show the photographer was hoping to assemble.

Of course we don’t know how this is going to turn out.  But it is The New York Times! Veteran members may remember that the paper has rarely been kind to us, with a brief exception back in about 2004. Will they give us fair coverage?  We’re not expecting it, so why allow the interview? Our outreach efforts should include interested members of the media. The outcome lies entirely with the reporter and the editors. We are being honest and open with them and expect the same in return, though articles are usually not devoid of judgment. We should not bar the doors and hide from the media. We will always rise to the occasion and answer the media’s questions. It’s up to the media to treat their coverage fairly and ethically.

To date, 2009 is on track to either meet or break last year’s media coverage. From January 2009 through the beginning of June 2009, there have been at least 361 media mentions with an audience potential of at least 26 million.  This does not include broadcast mentions or interviews.

McManus’ Economic Tour

Nearly 1,500 more people attended one of John McManus’ America’s Economic Meltdown presentations from end of April through beginning of June. He is just winding down the last leg of his tour.  At the time of writing, he has only two appearances left in California. Early numbers indicate that overall attendance figures could top 6,000.

In this latest round of presentations, John reports that he had the most media interviews when he went to the Lubbock, Texas area. “I have never had so many media appearances,” commented John. “Special thanks to Rick Bennett who set these up including one TV station and one newspaper interview.”

Bulletin readers can view a blog showing details on nearly all of John’s appearances:
http://www.jbs.org/component/myblog/Americas-Economic-Metldown-tour.html?blogger=Bill+Hahn