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On 25 April 2018, the front page story of Virginia’s Westmoreland News described the disturbing occurrence of KKK recruitment flyers in front home homes in Colonial Beach, VA: The random distribution of recruitment flyers placed in plastic bags (usually including some grains of white rice as a symbol of white supremacy) is currently, and has been for decades, the central way the violent hate group has recruited members. In a move that has generated significant online controversy, the Westmoreland News reproduced a full, un-redacted version of that ad in their story, leading some to brand it has free advertising for the KKK. As reported by Newsweek and local CBS affiliate WTVR, many readers of the paper were outraged: Local law enforcement — who provided the newspaper with a copy of the ad — also objected to its uncensored inclusion in the paper, which included phone numbers and contact info for how to join the group: While the ad was reproduced in full, The Westmoreland News did post a disclaimer on the story with this text: Decisions on how to report the occurrence of KKK flyers in the media have not been made consistently in the past. When the Gaston Gazette reported on the appearance of KKK flyers in their region in early 2017, the newspaper redacted the group’s contact information. Richmond, Virginia’s Daily Journal and Ohio’s Sandusky Register both ran partial photograph of flyers found in their respective regions, and those images did not include any recruitment contact info. In October 2016, however, the Huffington Post used a photograph of a KKK flyer found in British Columbia that included the contact info. In each of those cases, it should be noted, the flyer was reproduced as an obvious photograph of a paper document. The front page image used by the Westmoreland Times, however, could be confused for a paid advertisement. Because that was not the case here, however, we rank the claim that the newspaper ran an ad for the KKK as a mixture.
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