Lee Dismisses New Publisher in One Day After Conservative Tweet

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Lee Enterprises has reversed its decision to hire a Gatehouse Media sales executive as its regional publisher for western Montana.

Lee vice president of consumer sales and marketing Nathan Bekke said Wednesday that Paul McArthur won't be joining Lee "due to recent developments," but did not elaborate.

Bekke's statement comes a day after the Iowa-based media company announced that McArthur would oversee operations for four Montana newspapers.

The Missoulian reports that after Tuesday's announcement of the hire, social media users dug up and criticized McArthur's past tweets and Twitter "likes."

They included a "liked" tweet quoting Dinesh D'Souza that "the press isn't so much the enemy of the people, more that it's the enemy of the truth."

McArthur was a senior vice president at GateHouse Media. He had been scheduled to begin his new position next week.