Recent entries:
“Mild salsa is like non-alcoholic beer. Pointless” (3/17)
“Mild salsa is like decaf coffee. Pointless” (3/17)
“Mild salsa tastes like tomato sauce” (3/17)
“Mild salsa tastes like cold tomato soup” (3/17)
“Mild salsa tastes like tomato paste” (3/17)
More new entries...

Entry from October 11, 2009
Un-American Statesman (Austin American-Statesman nickname)

The Austin American-Statesman is the daily newspaper for the capital city of Austin. The Democratic Statesman dates back to 1871, and today’s newspaper is called “The Statesman” for short. “Statesman” (http://www.statesman.com) is also the newspaper’s website.
   
“Un-American Statesman” is a nickname used by those who feel that the newspaper holds far-left liberal views. Un-American Statesman is cited in print since 1994.
   
There are many other nicknames. When the newspaper makes mistakes, Statesman becomes Mistakesman (a nickname used since at least 1992). Real Estatesman (in print since at least 1992) is a nickname used by people who think that the newspaper favors Austin’s developers.
   
“Spaceman” (or Austin American-Spaceman or Austin Spaceman) replaces “Statesman” when people think the newspaper has some far-out views. The nickname “Spaceman” has been used since at least 1994 and it’s frequently combined with “Un-American” to form the Austin Un-American-Spaceman.
   
   
Wikipedia: Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Statesman places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region.
 
The Statesman endorsed George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and Republican governor Rick Perry along with every other Republican incumbent in 2006. In the 2008 presidential election, however, the paper endorsed Barack Obama. The Statesman also provides coverage of the Libertarian Party and Green Party matters.
 
The Austin American-Statesman competes with the Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly. The paper tends to print Associated Press, New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times international and national news, but has strong Central Texas coverage, especially in political reporting. The Statesman benefits from the culture and writing heritage of Austin. It extensively covers the music scene, especially the annual South by Southwest Music Festival. The newspaper co-sponsors various events around Austin such as the Capital 10K foot race and the Season for Caring charity campaign.
 
The Statesman’s news website is Statesman.com and its entertainment site is Austin360.com. Both sites are known for embracing citizen journalism because they are among the few newspaper Internet sites to host reader blogs.
 
Wikipedia: Un-American
Un-American is a pejorative term of US political discourse which is applied to people or institutions in the United States seen as deviating from US norms.
 
The most famous use is in the title of the House Un-American Activities Committee which was started to combat Nazi and Ku Klux Klan (KKK) activity in the US during World War II and which later investigated the activities of Communists and purported Communists in the US. By 1959, however, former President Harry S. Truman had denounced the House Un-American Activities Committee as the “most un-American thing in the country today.”
 
The use and meaning of the term is by no means uniform in the US. Due in part to these historical associations with political abuses and jingoism, the attitudes of Americans toward the pejorative use of “Un-American” are often critical or suspicious. Moreover, Americans may vary widely in what they believe to be un-American.
     
Google Groups: rec.sport.football-college
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Bradley Dale Glover)
Date: 19 Aug 1994 13:55:22 -0500
Local: Fri, Aug 19 1994 1:55 pm
Subject: Re: Top 10 reasons Oklahoma Sucks!
 
The Austin unAmerican Statesman even had a giant picture of this incident in the Sports section the next day.
   
Google Groups: austin.forsale
Newsgroups: austin.forsale
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (John Hess)
Date: 1996/07/19
Subject: Re: Wanted: 4x or 6x EIDE CDROM
 
Look at the business section of the Austin UnAmerican Spacemen (AKA Austin American Statesman).  There are several listings for the low cost market.
 
Cheesy Quintessence
Comment by shadow — Posted August 26, 2005 at 07:43
A whacko liberal should like the Austin un-American Spaceman newspaper which is read by all good socialists around the People’s Republic of Austin.
   
Free Republic
More nonsense from the Austin (Un-)American Statesman, the most liberal daily newspaper in Texas.
(...)
6 posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 4:31:17 PM by Wallace T.
   
The Corner on National Review Online
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Re: Newspaper Nicknames   [Mark Krikorian]
Oh, my. It seems that a lot of people don’t really like their hometown newspapers. Sure, some of the nicknames are pretty puerile, but a little puerility can be a good thing:
(...)
Austin unAmerican Spaceman
   
Telecaster Guitar Forum - What is your newspaper’s nickname?
LESPAULKID
June 6th, 2008, 02:54 PM
Austin American-Statesman aka Austin UnAmerican-Realestatesman…LPK
     
Yahoo! Answers Blog
February 2, 2009 at 8:58 am
Is this the end of newspapers as we know them?
(...)
COMMENTS
In our case it would be no big loss. The Austin Unamerican Statesman is a Communist inspired rag which can’t reasonably be called a “News” Paper. All it is is one big leftist opinion column.
Comment posted on February 2nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm by Mustanger
   
Jeff Kay’s West Virginia Surf Report
2Tall, on July 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm Said:
We have the Austin Un-American Spaceman.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Sunday, October 11, 2009 • Permalink


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.