D-G Ad Fudges on History (Outtakes Opinion)

Before a documentary about Wal-Mart Stores Inc. aired Nov. 16 on PBS’s Frontline, an advertisement for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said the paper has been “reporting state, national and international news for 177 years.”

In the ad, the D-G was apparently claiming the history of the Arkansas Gazette simply because Walter Hussman purchased the Gazette’s name, assets and subscription list after the Gazette closed in 1991.

But the numbers still don’t add up. The Gazette was founded in 1819 (early enough to report on the death of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821). The Arkansas Democrat was founded in 1878, according to the D-G.

As everyone associated with that 12-year newspaper war knows, it was not a merger between the two statewide dailies. Closing a newspaper, then paying $68 million for its assets doesn’t automatically get you 185 years of history as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River.