Newton Independent
The parent company of the Newton newspaper is suing an Illinois blogger over alleged defamatory comments he posted about the largest of the chain's newspapers.
Shaw Newspapers, owners of papers in the western suburbs of Chicago and Newton, Creston and Osceola in Iowa, filed a civil suit against a McHenry County, Ill., political blogger who claimed the newspaper received a multi-million dollar loan from the county government at submarket rates to prevent the Northwest Herald, the largest of the chain's papers, from moving outside the area. Shaw also is challenging a comment in the June 3 post that the move was made "to put the paper in the back pocket of the Republican Party."
You can read the original blog post here and the story in the Northwest Herald, where the paper calls the assertions "reckless and completely fabricated" and is asking for $50,000 damages in each of three counts, here.
Shaw Newspapers came to the attention of political bloggers during the end of the last presidential election when each of its newspapers published an identical editorial backing John McCain's candidacy for president. What caught the attention of writers wasn't the endorsement itself so much, but the fact that it was written and attributed to the chief executive officer of the corporation, Tom Shaw. Read what one online writer had to say about that situation here.
Shaw Newspapers knows a little about defamatory lawsuits. A few years back, an Illinois judge and former Chicago Bears football player won a $7 million judgment against Shaw and the Kane County Chronicle, another of its suburban Chicago newspapers, over a column that ran in the paper. The judgment was subsequently reduced to $4 million. You can read about that issue here.
