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Maine Man Torched Trump Sign, Police Say; News Stories Bury ‘Trump’ Part

February 9, 2019

A 39-year-old man who lives in Wells, Maine was indicted for arson for setting fire to a homemade political sign promoting President Donald Trump, according to police in South Berwick, Maine.

Police announced the indictment Friday, February 8, saying it occurred Tuesday, February 5. The incident, according to a written statement from South Berwick police, took place December 9.

South Berwick is a town of about 7,000 people on the New Hampshire border about 40 miles southwest of Portland, Maine.

An online news story by WGME-TV Channel 13, the local CBS affiliate in Portland, Maine, mentions President Trump for the first time in the fourth paragraph. Here’s the headline on the Channel 13 story:

The Bangor Daily News also published the Channel 13 story. Here is the newspaper’s online headline for the story:

A news story in the Portland Press Herald about the incident notes that police in South Berwick, Maine did not mention the nature of the sign in a Facebook post, and the reporter apparently never learned the nature of it by calling police. So the story never mentions President Trump. Here’s the newspaper’s headline for the story: