Kaleidoscope (newspaper)

Kaleidoscope was an underground newspaper, founded by John Kois, which was published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1967-1971. From its first issue, "Kaleidoscope" was subject to censorship attempts, including arrest of vendors in some suburbs and a drive to put their printer out of business; one case went to the U.S. Supreme Court (after the newspaper had folded), which ruled in Kois v. Wisconsin that the newspaper's publication of two photos and a poem entitled “Sex Poem” (although the “obscene” photos were a tiny part of an article about censorship) did not constitute obscenity. Kaleidoscope was an affiliate of the Liberation News Service (LNS) and Underground Press Syndicate (UPS). It finally succumbed after four years to a combination of financial pressures, internal factionalism and burn-out.

At different times, "Kaleidoscope" also issued editions in Madison, Omaha, Chicago and the Fox River Valley, in which local and hard news in one part were combined with a second section edited in Milwaukee, containing less parochial material derived or reprinted from national and syndicated sources. This latter "Part II" was also sold to other underground newspapers to be used as a supplement to their local content. Advertising revenue from this source was diminished when the FBI successfully pressured advertisers such as Columbia Records to quit running advertisements in "Part II" since advertising in underground newspapers was "giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States" (language clearly drawn from the constitutional definition of treason). [Milwaukee "Sentinel" 3-16-1981]

John Kois later ended up working for Al Goldstein's Screw magazine. [Milwaukee "Sentinel" 3-16-1981]

References

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/mikelzet/TEXTS/KscopeStory.html] "The Oral Freedom League, Double Cheeseburgers and Fairy Marijuana:"Kaleidoscope" Revisited"
* [http://www.zamazur.50megs.com/use_of_obscenity_laws_to_silence.htm] "The Use of Obscenity Laws to Silence Political Dissent: John Kois and the Milwaukee "Kaleidoscope"