IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Organizers of the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa are cutting ties with the newspaper, citing backlash over its handling of the Carson King story.
The four staff members who work full-time running RAGBRAI resigned on Tuesday. The group immediately launched a competing event, called Iowa’s Ride, which will be held next July during the same week that the Register’s ride had been scheduled.
Andy Yost, the chief marketing officer for Gannett, the Register’s parent company, said the ride — known as RAGBRAI — would continue. The weeklong event draws thousands of cyclists from around the country and had been founded by Register employees in the 1970s.
A spokeswoman for Gannett, the Register’s parent company, didn’t immediately respond to inquiries.
The ride’s longtime director, T.J. Juskiewicz, said in a statement that organizers were upset with the Register and Gannett’s handling of criticism following a story involving King.
King became a social media sensation when he held up a sign outside the Iowa-Iowa State football game asking for money to buy more Busch Light beer. When he started receiving donations, he decided to give the money to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. The fundraiser became wildly popular and ultimately raised $3 million.
The newspaper faced criticism for discovering and asking King about racially insensitive tweets he sent when he was a teenager. Anheuser Busch cut ties with King even before the Register reported on the tweets, and King held a news conference to apologize. Readers were angry that the Register felt it was relevant to dig up the tweets. They reacted with fury toward Iowa’s largest newspaper, especially after the reporter was found to have sent his own offensive tweets years ago. The reporter, Aaron Calvin, was fired, even as Register editor Carol Hunter largely defended its reporting methods.
The backlash created a public relations problem for RAGBRAI, which faced some calls for a boycott. The ride publicly praised King and pledged $50,000 to the children’s hospital last month.
Juskiewicz said in a statement that he was directed in recent weeks by Gannett leaders to stay quiet or stick to talking points when addressing criticism about the King story.
Yost said Gannett is considering its legal options.