Dear Mike,
I've been in journalism for 32 years -- and that doesn't even include my work as a stringer for the Storm Lake Register and Pilot Tribune in the early 1970s.
I was associate editor of The Texas Observer from 1991 through July 1995. We started The Progressive Populist in the fall of 1995 and published the first issue in November 1995.
• Progressive Populist Newspaper Publishes Premier Issue
[here]
• PP wiki
[here]
• New York Times: Biden Lands an Iowa Paper Endorsement
[here]
The
New American
Dream Interview
JIM CULLEN, 54, lives in Manchaca, Texas, near Austin.
He is the editor of The Progressive Populist.
"The Progressive Populist is the creation of Jim Cullen in cahoots with his two brothers, John and Art.
"Jim Cullen has been in journalism for more than 30 years, working at weekly and daily newspapers in Iowa, Louisiana and Texas. At the Beaumont, Texas, Enterprise, he was the political writer and columnist six years before becoming the Hearst Newspapers capitol bureau reporter in Austin from 1989 to 1991.
"He was associate editor of The Texas Observer in Austin from 1991 to 1995, when he started The Progressive Populist. He and his wife, Becky Garcia, live in Manchaca, Texas, just outside Austin.
"John Cullen has worked as a photographer, reporter and editor at newspapers in Iowa and Washington state. He was named Iowa's Press Photographer of the Year.
"John founded The Storm Lake Times, a twice weekly county seat newspaper in his Iowa hometown.
"John is publisher of the Times and The Progressive Populist. He and his wife, Mary, have two children and live in Storm Lake.
"Art Cullen has worked at daily and weekly newspapers in Iowa for thirty years as a reporter and editor. He twice won the Champion-Tuck Award for Economic Reporting, based at Dartmouth College, for reporting on the Farm Crisis in Iowa.
"Art is editor of The Storm Lake Times and is managing editor of The Progressive Populist.
"The Cullens are the sons of the late Pat and Eileen Cullen of Storm Lake. Pat Cullen was foolish enough to run as a Democrat for the Iowa Legislature on the Kennedy ticket [in 1960]. He had a KKK cross burned in his "honor." He lost.
"The Progressive Populist labels itself as 'A Journal from America's Heartland.'
"It deals with political and economic topics of interest to "workers, small businesses, and family farmers and ranchers"; according to its about page, the journal "reports on issues of interest to the middle class of America."
More about Jim Cullen:
____________
The New American Dream Trivia Question:
To win something be the last person to correctly answer the following.
Jim Cullen would rather be ....
a. Sports editor for Rolling Stone magazine
b. A fly on the wall of the Wall Street Journal
c. Kicking Alex Jones' butt in radical raquetball, once and for all
d. Jim, the other Coen brother
e. Czar in charge of making damn sure people say Guadaloop Street NOT Guadalupay Street!
f. The Austin Big Lebowski
....
....
...
The correct answer:
" I'd rather be editor of the 100,000-circulation Progressive Populist. Then life would be sweet. Otherwise, I probably aspire to be the Austin Big Lebowski.
____________
There is a strong populist tradition
in the Midwest,
dating back to the 1880s,
defending the interests of farmers,
workers and small businesses
with an agenda that provided
much of the basis for the
progressive movement of
the early 1900s
and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
There is a strong populist tradition
in the Midwest,
dating back to the 1880s,
defending the interests of farmers,
workers and small businesses
with an agenda that provided
much of the basis for the
progressive movement of
the early 1900s
and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
NAD: Jim, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.
Jim, John, Art.
Did you all go to high school in Storm Lake? At the same time?
JIM CULLEN:
We all went to Storm Lake St. Mary's High School.
John was four years ahead of me, but he was graduated the year I was graduated from St. Mary's junior high.
Art was four years behind me, and he was a freshman when I was a senior in high school together.
But the whole school was small enough that, practically speaking, we all went to school together.
Do you still work together on all the various projects?
I don't do much work on the Times, although I have pitched in occasionally. I have a small financial interest in The Times.
Do you ever wish you were in Storm Lake?
Not during the wintertime.
NAD: How is it working out with The Progressive Populist?
JIM CULLEN:
After thirteen years of publication we are relatively stable, in the unsettled publishing world.
It took about seven years to break even — about five years longer than I reckoned in our business plan. We have maintained our paid circulation of approximately 10,000 through aggressive promotion.
NAD: Are you doing all you ever wanted to?
JIM CULLEN:
It isn't exactly what I thought I would be doing in 30-plus years when I got out of the University of Dallas in 1976, but it's a good gig.
NAD: How do you make it work, a hard copy, print, national publication. That's a lot.
JIM CULLEN:
It helps to have The Times handle the production, printing, mailing and circulation services.
I think there is still a role for a newspapers and newsmagazines in an Internet world.
We provide a twice-monthly collection of features and columns by plutocrat pluckers such as Jim Hightower and Amy Goodman to keep our readers current with trends in politics, economics and cultural affairs, and a website to provide other resources.
As more daily newspapers as well as newsweeklies are pulling back their coverage and trending toward corporate centrism, we think a progressive populist press is necessary now more than ever.
NAD: Why the name? What does it mean to you?
JIM CULLEN:
There is a strong populist tradition in the Midwest, dating back to the 1880s, defending the interests of farmers, workers and small businesses with an agenda that provided much of the basis for the progressive movement of the early 1900s and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the term "populism" acquired right-wing connotations as it was identified with nativists and segregationists such as George Wallace and David Duke.
When in 1995 we started telling people about our plans to create The Progressive Populist, many liberals questioned why we would use the term "populist" because of the right-wing freight.
We told them we're trying to reclaim the good name of progressive populism, as exemplified in the work of Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Bob LaFollette, Harold Hughes, Jim Hightower and Paul Wellstone.
In the intervening years I think populism has regained a more positive connotation of looking after the interests of working people, small businesses and family farmers and ranchers.
NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?
We don't ask this to make fun. We ask because we really seek the answers.
— Are UFOs real?
I don't know.
— Did we land on the moon in 1968?
American astronauts are said to have landed on the moon in 1969.
— Did Bush knock down the towers?
— Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
— The Oklahoma City bombing? Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise? Or not.
— Waco. We burned kids, right? You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
— Is Bigfoot real?
— Is there a God?
... What makes you think that?
Best available evidence and lack of persuasive evidence otherwise.
NAD: Is there a next for you? Or is this okay, enough.
JIM CULLEN:
This keeps me busy.
NAD: Do you have hope in Obama?
JIM CULLEN:
Yes
Why?
I think he has progressive inclinations, but he intends to govern from a centrist point of view, which will be frustrating for progressives.
Progressives need to keep pressure on Obama and Democrats in Congress to pursue a progressive populist agenda.
NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it? What are they?
JIM CULLEN:
It's a big coffee cup from SIRSI, which distributes library automation software. (My wife is a librarian.)
NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?
JIM CULLEN:
Needed to get to San Antonio.
NAD: How about by Christmas 2009?
JIM CULLEN:
Get subscriptions at or above 10,000.
NAD: What else would you like to add? What else should I have asked?
JIM CULLEN:
That's a good start. Good luck with your website.
NAD: If you would like, please insert a link here to something you would like linked to, with a brief tag re: where that link goes:
JIM CULLEN:
See The Progressive Populist website at http://www.populist.com
____________
About
THE New American Dream Feature Interviews
If you search the archives below, you will find, in a sort of order [last to first], interviews with:
Bartcop, old-school blogger from Tulsa
Lee Rayburn, radio show host from Madison, Wisconsin
Aimee England, bookseller in Michigan
Al Markowitz, poet for the working woman & man
Timbre Wolf, a Tulsa peace minstrel goes to Hawaii
Steven Stothard, a radical grows in Indiana
Dale Clark, an artist in the desert
Jacqui Devenuau, Green Party organizer in Maine
Don Harkins, co-editor of The Idaho Observer
Stewart Bradley, independent film producer
Rick Smith, Cleveland area radio host
William P. Meyers, independent book publisher, political activist
Ian Woods, Canadian publisher, 9/11 Truth activist
Richard D. Brinkman, Edmonton, Canada 9/11 Truth
Lynn Berg, New York City actor
Alejandro Rojas, of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network
Brian Kasoro, publisher of The Liberator magazine
Brother Raymond, walked from Denver to D.C., for truth
Korey Rowe, one of the producers of Loose Change
Dave Zweifel, editor of The Madison Capital Times
Cathleen Howard, expatriate, from Tucson to Mexico, to pursue her dreams
Sander Hicks, Brooklyn radical entrepreneur, writer, publisher
Joe Bageant, America's blue-collar author
Frida Berrigan, a lifetime of faith, hope and love
Denise Diaz, brewing up a revolution, at The Ritual Cafe in Des Moines
Deanna Taylor, Green Party activist, teacher, in Salt Lake City
Rossie Indira-Vltchek, writer, filmmaker in Jarkarta, Indonesia
Nora Barrows-Friedman, Pacifica reporter in Gaza
Delaney Bruce, Friends of Peltier
Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs
Michael Sprong, South Dakota Catholic Worker
Brian Terrell, Des Moines Catholic Worker
Bob Graf, One of the Milwaukee 14
Loren Coleman, Bigfoot researcher
Monty Borror, Sci-Fi artist from Virginia
David Ray, Great American Poet
Jack Blood, radio show host, in Austin, Texas
Danny Schechter, A Real Reporter
Bob Kincaid, host, Head-On Radio Show
Tony Packes, Animal Farm Radio Host, Keeping An Eye on Big Brother
Richard Flamer, Working With the Poor in Chiapas
David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Truth activist author
Barry Crimmins, U.S. comedian, author, social activist
Bret Hayworth, political reporter for the Sioux City [IA] Journal
Lisa Casey, publisher of website All Hat No Cattle
Joe & Elaine Mayer, activist couple in Rochester, Minnesota
Fr. Darrell Rupiper, U.S. priest revolutionary
Whitney Trettien, MIT student, Green Party activist
Meria Heller, radio show host
Phil Hey, professor, poet
John Crawford, book publisher
Steve Moon, Iowa Bigfoot researcher
Carol Brouillet, California social activist, 9/11 Truth
Russell Brutsche, Santa Cruz artist
Kevin Barrett, professor, radio show host, 9/11 Truth activist
A'Jamal Rashad Byndon, social activist in Omaha
Chris Rooney, Vancouver, Canada Catholic Worker, website publisher
Marc Estrin, political novelist, from the left
Peter Dale Scott, poet, professor, author, activist
Anthony Rayson, anarchist zine publisher, works with prisoners
Alice Cherbonnier, editor of The Baltimore Chronicle, an independent newspaper
