The Civil War prompted extensive and highly partisan coverage. The Western Citizen initially supported the right of Kentucky to refrain from taking sides in the conflict and reported on the Border States Convention that was held in 1861. As events made neutrality impossible, the paper supported the Union. News coverage took the form of reports of movements at the various war fronts, editorials about Confederates, news of local soldiers and reprinted articles about the war from other papers.

Both World Wars garnered front page headlines amidst the local day to day news and the ever-present advertisements. But the Vietnam War was barely mentioned except for news about soldiers from the local area because the newspaper at that time operated exclusively as an advertiser and, for the most part, left international and national news to the daily newspaper, the Paris Daily Enterprise.