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Fertilizing the Truth by Natural Means.
— The newspaper slogan.

The Liberty Tree is a newspaper that serves Liberty City in the 3D and HD Universes. The Liberty Tree has been "Promoting Family values for over 50 years". Each issue costs $2.00 in Grand Theft Auto III, and $1.00 in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Events[]

3D Universe[]

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]

The manual that accompanied the game was provided by the newspaper. Liberty Tree was featured prominently in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories through Ned Burner, who pretends to be a preacher. He gives missions to protagonist Toni Cipriani from a confessional box in the Liberty City Cathedral saying that they will help save him. The first mission is to retrieve a briefcase from an FBI informant before he hands it to the FBI, and then delivering it to the Liberty Tree offices. Cipriani then steals another briefcase containing diamonds, and then creates chaos on Staunton Island whilst driving a Firetruck. The final mission for Burner was killing three celebrities (Faith W., DB-P and Black Lightman) on their way to an interview with Liberty City Free Radio. Burner would report on each story: the first about an athlete on steroids, the stealing of diamonds, chaos on Staunton Island and the death of three celebrities. Burner would eventually be killed by Cipriani on orders from Donald Love, as Burner witnessed the killing of Avery Carrington. The user guide for GTA: LCS is in the form of a copy of the Liberty Tree.

Grand Theft Auto III[]

Liberty Tree was first featured in Grand Theft Auto III, copies of the paper featuring Claude with a different skin featuring the now famous headline Zombie Elvis Found! can be seen among debris particles that are blown around by the wind in the game. A Liberty Tree website was used as a teaser site. Articles appeared on the characters such as Salvatore Leone, Toni Cipriani, Joey Leone, Luigi Goterelli, Donald Love, Barry Harcross and Mayor Miles O’Donovan.

HD Universe[]

Grand Theft Auto IV[]

According to the Grand Theft Auto IV documentary A History of Liberty City, the first edition of the Liberty Tree newspaper was published in 1835; however, citizens complained about this as they wanted less political news and more "dirty" news, like murder and rape.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, the Liberty Tree can be read on the in-game Internet on the Liberty Tree website. It shows the happenings of the city, along with Niko's exploits. The Liberty Tree name is found on some Steed trucks. A Liberty Tree newspaper can be seen in certain interiors, with Manny Escuela on the front page.

The publishers of Liberty Tree planned to discontinue the print version of their newspaper by 2010, following a report from the National Library Center indicating that the net generation prefers to consume content online and rarely reads physical books or newspapers. However, readers will still be able to access the news stories through the newspaper's web platform.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars[]

An updated 2009 advertisement of the Liberty Tree newspaper can be found in various areas of Liberty City. It features a news headline suggesting Liberty City was ranked the "worst place in America again".

Grand Theft Auto V[]

Articles from the Liberty Tree newspaper can be read in the in-game Internet after some of the missions are completed: one of them even mentions a storm that hit and devastated Liberty City; others mention some of the events of the storyline, like the "disappearance" of Devin Weston.

Influence[]

It is a parody of The New York Times.

Location[]

3D Universe[]

The Liberty Tree is headquartered in the Liberty Tree Offices building in Staunton Island.

HD Universe[]

The Liberty Tree Building is in The Triangle, based on the NY Times building at One Times Square.

List of newspaper articles[]

3D Universe[]


Note: These newspaper articles can be read on the official Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories website and in the game's manual.


October 1998[]


Note: These newspaper articles are archived from the official Grand Theft Auto III website, which is no longer available.


February 2001[]

March 2001[]

April 2001[]

May 2001[]

June 2001[]

July 2001[]

August 2001[]

September 2001[]

October 2001[]

HD Universe[]


Note: These newspaper articles can be read on the Liberty Tree in-game website.


Grand Theft Auto IV

The Lost and Damned

The Ballad of Gay Tony


Note: These newspaper articles can be read on the Eyefind.info news feed, which will update after completing certain missions. Previous articles cannot be read after the news feed is updated.


Grand Theft Auto V

News reporters/Journalists[]

3D Universe[]

HD Universe[]

Newspaper Sections[]

  • Business
  • Classifieds
  • Column
  • Comics
  • Entertainment
  • Employment
  • Forum
  • GORE
  • Horoscope
  • Hypocrisy
  • Lifestyle
  • Lottery
  • Marketplace
  • News
  • Puzzles
  • Real Estate
  • Reviews
  • Sports
  • Traffic
  • Travel
  • TV Listings

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In GTA V, both the article and the radio news report about the storm that had recently hit and devastated Liberty City are a clear reference to Hurricane Sandy, a severe tropical storm that struck New York City and its surrounding areas (including New Jersey), devastating many coastal areas of the city and its suburbs in late October 2012.
  • In the Liberty Tree newspaper with the headline "MY EXPLODING HOOTERS RUINED OUR HONEYMOON," just above it reads "FREE BROADWAY TICKET PROMO". The same message also appears in another newspaper with the headline "MAYOR HONORS MANUEL ESCUELLA" above Manny Escuela's picture. The real Broadway is not mentioned in GTA IV. This is most likely an oversight by the developers.

See Also[]

External Link[]

References[]

  1. Grand Theft Auto III release date.
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