Ongoing Discrimination for Nearly Two Decades in Shawano, Wisconsin, USA

Once again the Shawano Leader shows its true color, flaming discrimination. In a Sunday, October 19, 2008, article entitled “Kwik Trip Completes Purchase of Shell Site”, the Leader gives a glowing report of Kwik Trip’s recent acquisition of Shawano Shell says accolades of the benefits it is going to bring to the City of Shawano. But, the Shawano Leader has never treated SIST that way. Throughout the years, the Shawano Leader has printed scores of articles about SIST property acquisitions. Every new acquisition story contains information about all the prior purchases SIST has made in the last several years. The Leader has to publish who sold the property to SIST or its affiliates, who financed the property, what the purchase price was, and how many other properties have been purchased throughout the years. Did the Shawano Leader delve into the same kind of details over the Kwik Trip purchase? No!

No mention was ever made of what the purchase price was, who financed the deal, what the buyout to Shell was, or how many employees lost their jobs with the purchase. Did the Shawano Leader think to contact local government officials to investigate if the loss of that many jobs in Shawano required a longer notice period? Did the Leader think to interview some of the employees who most recently lost their jobs and see how they feel about it? Most importantly, the Shawano Leader never addressed what is going to be done with vacant building when Kwik Trip moves out of its old site. What about environmental clean-up of the site? If SIST had acquired the site, you can be sure those questions would have been asked and that another derogatory, insulting tirade against SIST would have been on the front page of the paper in blatant discrimination.

The Shawano Leader has never once done a positive article about a property acquisition by SIST. Who is responsible for keeping the gas prices down in Shawano and breaking the gas price monopoly? An SIST business, Midwest Oil. Has the Leader thought to congratulate or extend their thanks on behalf of the community? Has the Shawano Leader ever thought to do an article expressing their appreciation on behalf of the community for the millions of dollars brought into the community this past season by USA International Raceway? Why not? The answer is simple and self evident. It is called discrimination. Just because the president of SIST is a man from India, the Leader has to do everything in its power to drive SIST out of town with its bad publicity and defamatory, slanderous articles.

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