Telegraph of Nashua

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The Telegraph
The July 27, 2005 front page of The Telegraph
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner	Independent Publications
Editor	Nick Pappas
Founded	1869 (as the Nashua Daily Telegraph
Headquarters	17 Executive Drive Hudson, NH 03051 United States

Website: nashuatelegraph.com

The Telegraph of Nashua is a daily newspaper in Nashua, New Hampshire. It was founded as the Nashua Daily Telegraph in 1869, although a weekly version dates back to 1832. As of 2005 it is the second-largest newspaper in the state, with a circulation of about 27,000 daily, and 34,000 on Sunday.

After being family owned for a century, the Telegraph was bought in the 1980s by Independent Publications of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, which owns several, smaller daily and weekly newspapers around the U.S. as well as some other businesses.

In 2005, the paper's owner also bought the Cabinet Press, publisher of weekly newspapers based in nearby Milford, New Hampshire.

[edit] 1980 presidential primary debate

The paper received national attention during the 1980 New Hampshire presidential primary, when it hosted a Republican debate paid for by former California Governor Ronald Reagan. During a discussion over which candidates should be allowed to participate, Telegraph editor Jon Breen, acting as moderator, told the soundman to turn off Reagan's microphone. Reagan's response, "I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green!," was wildly applauded by the audience and even his fellow Republican primary opponents. [1]

The phrase entered the political lexicon and, some say, helped launch his successful run for the presidency. He went on to win the state's vital primary in a landslide. The fact that Reagan got the editor's name wrong is often forgotten.

Reagan later recounted the incident as a "brief and seemingly small event, one lasting only a few seconds," that he said he thought, "helped take me to the White House." He continues:

"When the Nashua Telegraph offered to sponsor a debate between the two of us on the Saturday evening preceding the election, we both accepted. Understandably, this brought howls from the other candidates. In protest, one of them, Senator Bob Dole, complained to the Federal Elections Commission that by financing a debate between only two of the seven candidates, the newspaper was making an illegal campaign contribution to the Bush and Reagan campaigns. The commission agreed with him, so my campaign offered to pay the full cost of the debate - a few thousand dollars - and they accepted. I thought it had been unfair to exclude the other candidates from the debate."

After arriving at the debate, he found two chairs - one for him and frontrunner George H.W. Bush, and himself. The other candidates were confused, as was the audience.

"I decided I should explain to the crowd what the delay was all about and started to speak. As I did, an editor of the Nashua newspaper shouted to the sound man, "Turn Mr. Reagan's microphone off." Well, I didn't like that - we were paying the freight for the debate and he was acting as if his newspaper was still sponsoring it. I turned to him, with the microphone still on, and said the first thing that came to my mind: "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Breen." (SIC) Well, for some reason my words hit the audience, whose emotions were already worked up, like a sledgehammer. The crowd roared and just went wild. I may have won the debate, the primary - and the nomination - right there." [2]