skeeter1: Joe and his family came from Texas to attend both the 1950 and 1953 Yankee Stadium assemblies and saw and bought the "Extra Edition" newspapers. He was in Bethel and was engaged to me at the 1958 Yankee Stadium assembly and can vouch that there weren't negative statements or announcements made about these papers at any of these conventions.
During the 1958 convention, immediately when the morning sessions were over, and likewise the evening sessions, we could hear from outside the stadium the newspaper vendors yelling at Witnesses as they passed by usually repeating their newspaper's headline (stating something "sensational" that was featured at the convention) over and over again. As we walked outside the stadium, the newsboys were everywhere trying to sell papers as well as those who stood in one place next to piles of papers, many still tied with rope.
As I said in my opening post,
"Yet, with the full knowledge that the news coverage was “fake,” Watch Tower speakers capitalized on what the newspaper publishers did by pointing to the “extraordinary” newspaper coverage telling us this was a huge witness to the locals. Of course, we were thrilled, and to our ingenuous (sincere) minds this information was proof of our “distinctiveness” and caused us to enthusiastically clap and clap out of the bliss of recognition that made our religious commitment even more certain."
When Joe was in Bethel, he worked in the press room. During the 1958 convention, he worked at night printing special papers (the size of one of those large color tracts the Witnesses nowadays distribute every so often), which the Society gave out freely each day that contained convention news and interviews with prominent Witnesses such as Witness attorney, Hayden Covington. However, those who attended the convention wanted the "Special Edition" newspapers to read and take back to home congregations to show everyone the tremendous "witness" given to the City of New York. During assembly intermissions, all around the stadium more people could be seen reading the "exciting" coverage of the convention in the daily NY papers than the Society's convention tract.
Barbara