Jack Briggs
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 1999
- Messages
- 16,805
If you live in a medium-sized city or larger, you are fortunate to have access to what is called the alternative press--usually in the form of a free weekly newspaper/magazine.
In this town, as in New York, we are blessed with two well-known freeweeklies: LA Weekly and New Times L.A. And I was honored to be an editor at a previous alterna-weekly, the Los Angeles Reader (which was folded after New Times bought it out).
Since the writing style is closer to that of magazine feature stories, there's more artistic latitude for authors--not having to adhere to the AP-style straight-on news format allows for more engaging prose.
Most of all, though, we need the alternative press as, well, an alternative to the often bought-and-paid-for dreck that passes for journalism in the establishment press. Our own Los Angeles Times took a huge credibility hit when it was revealed that several upper-echelon editors struck an unseemly and commercial deal with the movers and shakers at the recently opened Staples Center in downtown. The Sunday Times magazine supplement did a full cover story on the Staples Center--after a hushed, behind-closed-doors payoff had been arranged.
Of course, LA Weekly and New Times ran with that story big time. And the establishment Times was so roundly criticized that it created a position for a special editor to serve as a liason with readers who suspect biased or compromised coverage in the paper.
But the damage had been done. The Times, like a lover caught cheating, can never again be trusted.
You can thank the alternative weeklies for playing a role in that development.
And now, in light of recent events, it is great to have a different media take on what's happening--as opposed to a mainstream paper that seems to be printing press releases as fact.
My point? Support your local alternative press. It may be closer to the truth than your local daily. (Besides, the writing is often better.)
(No political comments, please.)
In this town, as in New York, we are blessed with two well-known freeweeklies: LA Weekly and New Times L.A. And I was honored to be an editor at a previous alterna-weekly, the Los Angeles Reader (which was folded after New Times bought it out).
Since the writing style is closer to that of magazine feature stories, there's more artistic latitude for authors--not having to adhere to the AP-style straight-on news format allows for more engaging prose.
Most of all, though, we need the alternative press as, well, an alternative to the often bought-and-paid-for dreck that passes for journalism in the establishment press. Our own Los Angeles Times took a huge credibility hit when it was revealed that several upper-echelon editors struck an unseemly and commercial deal with the movers and shakers at the recently opened Staples Center in downtown. The Sunday Times magazine supplement did a full cover story on the Staples Center--after a hushed, behind-closed-doors payoff had been arranged.
Of course, LA Weekly and New Times ran with that story big time. And the establishment Times was so roundly criticized that it created a position for a special editor to serve as a liason with readers who suspect biased or compromised coverage in the paper.
But the damage had been done. The Times, like a lover caught cheating, can never again be trusted.
You can thank the alternative weeklies for playing a role in that development.
And now, in light of recent events, it is great to have a different media take on what's happening--as opposed to a mainstream paper that seems to be printing press releases as fact.
My point? Support your local alternative press. It may be closer to the truth than your local daily. (Besides, the writing is often better.)
(No political comments, please.)
