College Park mayor threatens retribution if newspaper publishes unflattering story

If you write something that I don’t like, and you make me mad, we will quit using y’all as our city organ’

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“There is no side to the story and the story shouldn’t be printed in the first place... And that’s where I’m going to stand. Because when you print things in newspapers, you’re not going to have it right, you’re going to have parts of the conversations, and you’re going to print something to glorify somebody else. And that’s the typical thing. The paper should not be writing stuff like that. And if you write something that I don’t like, and you make me mad, we will quit using y’all as our city organ. We will find somebody else to use. We’ve come close to doing that before. And y’all glorify that group up there, and I’m telling you there are going to be consequences.”
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— College Park Mayor Jack P. Longino tells the South Metro Neighbor’s Ross Williams that the city will find a different news outlet to carry its public notices if the newspaper publishes an article about a dispute over an arts festival. Festival organizers allege that Longino and other city officials prevented them from holding the annual event because of “political backlash.” The mayor says he would have voted to support the event if organizers would have moved the location and date.   

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