The New York Times published a story yesterday about tiny Ames, Iowa. It wasn’t about Veishea or Catt Hall. It was about the legal battle between the Iowa State Daily Publication Board and the Ames Daily Tribune.

Last spring, the Daily was found to be a “governmental body” and subject to the Iowa Open Records and Open Meetings law. The Tribune sued the Daily for not opening up all the documents the Tribune requested.

The Tribune claimed they wanted access to the Daily’s records because the Daily was unfairly competing in advertising and distribution in Ames.

Although the Daily lost the suit, the judge said the Daily acted in “good faith” with the law, and thus, was not liable to pay the Tribune’s legal fees, which amounted to nearly $135,000. The Tribune has appealed the judge’s decision.

Citing unfair distribution, the Tribune’s editor, Michael Gartner, filed a lawsuit against the university this summer. ISU created a review of the alleged unfair competition, but the Tribune refused the review format, thus, postponing the review.

Again, the Tribune has asked for the Daily to supply records, but the Daily argues that it has changed its status from an arm of a public university.

However, The New York Times didn’t quite get their story right.

Factual errors in the Times’ story included naming the wrong adviser for the Daily, both this year and last year, and giving the wrong monetary amount for student fees. The Times article stated that the Daily receives $100,000 each year from student fees, when in reality we receive $75,000 for subscriptions for students.

But putting these errors aside, let’s get down to the brunt of the article, which is the lawsuit between the Daily and the Ames Daily Tribune.

We think former Daily faculty adviser Thomas Beell summed it up eloquently by calling Gartner and Gary Gerlach, publisher of the Tribune, “corporate thugs.”

These two men, part owners of the Tribune, have suggested that the Iowa State Daily restrict their news coverage and advertising to campus and the Campustown area.

Now let’s think about this for a second.

What population of students live, shop and work off campus?

ISU students make up almost half of the Ames community. Limiting the student ad reps at the Daily to only seek advertising from the campus area is ridiculous.

If the majority of our readers live or shop off campus, then we should be able to run news and advertisements in the student paper about where the students go and spend their money.

Speaking of readership, the “corporate thugs” of the Tribune have reduced the Daily’s circulation. The Daily used to be circulated all over Ames, but now it can only be distributed on campus and the immediate surroundings.

By now many of you may be asking why this is going on.

Why would Gartner, a former editor of The Des Moines Register, former president of NBC News, Pulitzer Prize winner and a lawyer buy and become editor of a small 8,000 circulation, black-and- white newspaper?

It could be because he truly wanted the Ames community to have a quality newspaper. It could be that he is a really big Cyclone fan and wanted to be a part of the action.

But we don’t think so. The true answer is quite simple: he wanted to get mo’ money, mo’ money and mo’ money.

The minute they get a little competition from the campus newspaper they go to the courts with their tails between their legs like some corporate dogs.

In the Times article Gartner states: “I love the kids at the Daily. I teach over there, I give them an enormous amount of my time and I want to see them succeed. I just don’t want them to stab me in my back when I put out my paper and sell my ads.”

Well Mr. Gartner, show us the love, because we haven’t seen it yet.

You decide who’s stabbing who in the back.