Thursday, July 18, 2019

Burton and the Texan team are clearly doing something right


"saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
Luke 4:34

It's now been a few months since Konni Burton launched the Texan.  Obviously, we're glad she's doing this and we're glad The Texan exists.  More voices, not fewer, and all that.

If readers will allow us a confession, however, the truth is that we haven't been paying close attention.

Until yesterday:
IN 2015, ON THE OPENING DAY of the 84th Texas Legislature, newly elected Republican Konni Burton, a former Tea Party leader, stepped onto the Senate floor wearing a pair of black cowboy boots with the words “Stand for Life” inscribed on them. The sartorial choice signaled that Burton would be the polar opposite of her predecessor Wendy Davis, the Texas Democrat who made national headlines for her 13-hour filibuster against an abortion bill, which she delivered wearing pink running shoes.

Last November, as a blue wave swept Texas, Burton lost her seat—in an area previously considered to be among the country’s most conservative—to a Democrat. She has since turned her attentions to journalism, which she feels does not respect the beliefs of hardcore conservatives. She has started a new digital media outlet called The Texan—which, she says, without recognizing any contradiction, is both right-wing and unbiased.

....

The outlet will always use “pro-life” instead of “anti-abortion,” White says. (The site Texas Right to Life praised the launch of The Texan.) They also use the term “illegal alien,” which is no longer in wide usage because it is seen as both pejorative and inaccurate, because Burton rejects the word “migrant.” Headlines speak of “religious liberty.”

The Texan focuses on state-level politics, and currently publishes about a dozen stories a week. Reporters there have recently framed a House bill to protect Dreamers as “granting citizenship to illegal aliens.” (The story cites NumbersUSA, a known anti-immigrant group which the Southern Poverty Law Center identified as nativist.) There’s also an exclusive on the website with state representative Ron Wright, who made national headlines after a video by an abortion rights group showed him saying women should be punished for having an abortion.

The full piece is snarky and derisive. That's to be expected. What's noteworthy, however, is that it's being written at all.

[Note: If you're looking for a good laugh, contrast what the Columbia Journalism Review said about the Texas with what they said about the Texas Tribune when it launched.]

Somebody's scared.

So, yeah, good deal on Konni Burton and the staff of the Texan!!!

Bottom Line: Sometime the reaction to something tells you more than the original thing it self.  Clearly, this is one of those times.  Kudos.

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