The editors claimed to experience retribution in the form of threats and promises of financial ruin followed, with thousands of phone calls, letters, e-mails, and personal visits to the newspaper.
Shortly after publication of the editorial, due to an immediate lack of local support and funding, the newspaper was transformed into an independent national publication, with emphasis on politics and stories that other members of the mainstream media often tend to ignore or dismiss as left-wing conspiracy theories, such as the dangers of depleted uranium radiation, certain attacks upon First Amendment rights (notably only ones that are restrictive to the voice of the radical left) and their perceived costs of America's War on Drugs.
In August 2005, the Iconoclast provided extensive coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s journey to Crawford to ask the president "for what noble cause" her son Casey died in Iraq.
This coverage resulted in the Iconoclast staff writing a book, The Vigil — 26 Days In Crawford, Texas, which was designed to detail how a peaceful series of protests can be held and to document an event that gave life to this century's first major anti-war movement.
The following day, Buswell was placed under investigation by Colonel Luke S. Green, Chief of Staff of Fifth Army in Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, for "making statements disloyal to the United States."
The contents include national, state, and local news stories, plus a wide variety of opinion columns by writers from throughout the country, plus a staff-written editorial on a current topic.