The Mendota Beacon was a free, privately funded biweekly (and later, weekly) published newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin between 2005 and 2006 or 2007. It ran its first issue on February 12, 2005, Republican president Abraham Lincoln's birthday. It is politically conservative and was formed in 2004 as a conservative alternative to The Badger Herald, The Daily Cardinal, and The Madison Observer that are distributed throughout the UW–Madison campus and downtown area. The newspaper's motto, printed at the top of every issue, was "Shining the Light on What's Right." The name came from the fact that the campus is on the shore of Lake Mendota.

Funding

The paper received its start-up capital from the Leadership Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia that teaches "political technology. The Institute's mission is to "identify, train, recruit and place conservatives in politics, government, and media".

Editorial point of view

Many of the op-eds run in the Beacon addressed the issue of being conservative in Madison, a city that has a history of being a liberal hotbed.

The editorial writers also address issues of national and international concern.

• The March 10, 2005 issue expressed an opinion that people such as John Kerry are frustrating because they take the "nonexistent 'middle ground'" on abortion. By this they mean that Kerry, et al. claim to be personally against abortion yet does not want to impose his beliefs on others. They call this an "abortion hypocrisy.
• Another op-ed in the Beacon's first issue defends America's unilateralist policies by saying "There is now a faction in American politics that is willing to disregard our national sovereignty and take orders from an international organization. (the UN)".

Staff

Founders: Tim Shea, Robert Thelen III, Bradley Vogel, Jordan Smith, Steven Schwerbel and Darryn Beckstrom.

In early 2006, Vogel and Schwerbel left the Beacon to join the Herald as an at-large member of the Editorial Board and a columnist, respectively.

Thelen was featured in a notable feature article in Madison's independent weekly newspaper, Isthmus. The article was a point/counterpoint article about the Iraq war. Thelen's portion of the debate explained his support for the war and for the Bush administration.

In November 2005, competing progressive paper, The Madison Observer, accused the Beacon of cybersquatting madisonobserver.com and .net and redirecting web users to the Mendota Beacon's web page or a vandalized version of the Madison Observer page instead of www.madisonobserver.org. At the time, the ideologically opposite papers both claimed bi-weekly circulation of 5000.

References