A northern Maine newspaper was pulled from Hannaford supermarkets earlier this year after it ran an ad for a Nazi-style book burning, although the publication has continued to list the grocery chain as one of its distributors.
Self-avowed National Socialist Ryan Murdough, who founded the New England White Network, ran an ad in the March issue of the Fort Fairfield Journal that included multiple allusions to Nazi history.
“June Book Burning,” the ad read. “During pride month, New England White Network is going to party like it’s 1933.”
Murdough’s ad linked his summer book burning event to the National Socialist German Students’ Association burning of more than 25,000 volumes of what it deemed anti-Nazi books in 1933.
“The Fort Fairfield Journal was immediately pulled from our Caribou store when we learned of this issue in April,” said Caitlin Cortelyou, a spokesperson for Hannaford. “We no longer carry this publication at any of our stores.”
The newspaper ad was not the first time in recent years that a Nazi had pushed a pro-white agenda in the state. In another case, notorious Blood Tribe founder Christopher Pohlhaus attempted in 2023 to create a white ethnostate in Maine from his former Neo-Nazi training compound off Bottle Lake Road in Springfield. Pohlhaus sold his 10-plus acre property and left the state in late 2023 after mounting media coverage and public outrage made him feel unsafe, he has said.
However, it only recently came to the light that the Fort Fairfield Journal was still, as of early this week, listing Hannaford on its website as one of its distributors.
“Although Hannaford supermarket came out and said they would stop offering the paper in April, their Caribou location is still on the Fort Fairfield Journal’s distribution page,” said one reader of the Bangor Daily News, Jannika Coons, in comments to a reporter.
Coons said she is well aware of Murdough and was concerned the store was still carrying the publication.
Staff of the Caribou store told the BDN last week that it was no longer carrying the publication. Additionally, Cortelyou confirmed it was not being sold from the Aroostook County store or any other Hannaford.
“We’ve sent a request to the newspaper’s publisher asking for Hannaford to be removed from the list of distributors on the publication’s website,” she said.
David Deschesne, editor and publisher of the Fort Fairfield journal, did not respond to a request for comment.
After the ad ran in the Fort Fairfield Journal, Murdough shared photos of it online on X, declaring the Aroostook County publication “the most pro-White newspaper” in the nation. Since that time, his X account has been suspended.
Deschesne told the BDN in April that his newspaper is not pro-white, but rather he accepted the ad from Murdough in the interest of allowing free speech.
Also in April, the Aroostook County Democrats encouraged people to — in their own way — follow Deschesne’s lead, according to a Facebook post .
“Exercise your constitutional right to let store owners who sell the FFJ, and businesses who advertise in it, know how you personally feel about the FFJ publicizing racist anti LBGTQ hate,” the post read.
Murdough’s ad was an opportunity for him to post something extreme and draw attention, Christopher Magyarics, a senior investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism who has tracked Murdough’s activities, told the BDN in April.
The June event was not his first book burning. Others, posted on YouTube and GAB, depict Murdough and followers destroying books written by LGBTQ+ authors as well as shooting a bullet through several thick volumes.
In response to BDN questions about his activities, Murdough said in April that the New England White Network has multiple chapters that are promoting their causes in venues such as town council and school board meetings.
According to Hannaford, the company is dedicated to ensuring all customers and associates feel valued, safe and respected in their stores and offices.
“Hannaford has long been committed to being the most welcoming place to work and shop,” Cortelyou said.
