Insurgent West Virginia publisher becomes target of established newspaper's investigation

A few months ago, a fight began between two newspapers in Lincoln County, West Virginia, when a start-up called the Lincoln Standard challenged the established newspaper, the Lincoln Journal. We posted an item when Dan Butcher, the publisher of the Standard, alleged that the Journal was charging too much for print public legal notices. Now, Butcher says the Journal is investigating him and his landscaping company — and going too far.

In a recent issue, Butcher penned a column called "Journal investigation crosses the line," in which he details his discovery of the competitor's probe. "These events were uncovered as they involved tapping into personal credit records, inquiries to the business credit agency Dunn and Bradstreet, and a Lincoln Journal employee posing with an alias in an attempt to obtain personal financial information," Butcher writes. "Documentation that reveals the involvement of The Lincoln Journal, including [owner] Lyle Stowers spearheading this effort, is partially contained within this story."

Butcher goes on to describe how his business, Custom Surroundings, received calls from someone asking personal questions about him. According to Butcher, the call came "from a promotional company that either employs Lincoln Journal reporter Ron Gregory, or of which he is a part owner." Butcher said he and his wife also received e-mails saying a credit check had been run on them. Also, an official business credit-reporting agency called to say someone from company called The Lincoln Journal had asked for financial information about Custom Surroundings. On top of that, Butcher found an e-mail sent from a former employee to the Journal "that indicated he had information on Dan Butcher about hiring illegal immigrants, smuggling illegal immigrants into the country, and a host of other offensives."

From there, the Journal contacted the former employee and had him answer a lengthy questionnaire about the business and the Butchers. The three-page questionnaire is Exhibit D presented by Butcher on the Standard's Web site; the list goes to Exhibit F, which is a letter from the former employee retracting his answers to that questionnaire. The paper trail presented by Butcher also includes an e-mail from Sowers to his Journal employees that says, "I want to personally thank everyone for hanging in and working so hard battling the Standard..."

Even though it was published Oct. 26, the column remains the top story on the front page of the Standard's Web site. (Read more)