AAN News
Nashville Scene Deep-Sixes Media Columnnew
"That we keep finding incompetence at The Tennessean is apparently no longer news," says Editor Bruce Dobie, telling the Scene's readers that 13 years of "Desperately Seeking the News" is enough. The column had become "far too formulaic and predictable," Dobie complains. "Bruce is wrong, as editors often are," argues media columnist Henry Walker, who nevertheless is forced to admit, "What the editor giveth, He can taketh away."
Nashville Scene |
07-18-2002 3:00 pm |
Industry News
In Tacoma Hotel Room, Suburban Porn King Makes Movie Magicnew
The vast majority of the 15,000 porn titles released in the U.S. every year are amateur productions. Gonzo, anal, oral, facial, gangbang, bukkake, black-on-black, interracial, all-Asian, girl-on-girl, compilation tapes, Internet sites -- the sheer size of America's amateur pornopalooza is overwhelming. To get a closer look, The Stranger's Bradley Steinbacher spends a few hours in a hotel room watching amateur porn entreprenuer Jeff Harder shoot his latest feature.
Fort Worth Weekly Reporter Files Discrimination Complaintnew
Betty Brink claims the AAN-member paper hired Pulitzer-winning former Dallas Morning News reporter Dan Malone at a salary exceeding her own by over 50%. The Dallas Observer reports that Brink -- at 70 perhaps the oldest working journalist in the alternative newspaper business -- has filed a complaint with the EEOC, alleging age and gender discrimination.
Dallas Observer |
07-18-2002 10:14 am |
Industry News
Tags: Betty Brink
Gay Youth Coming Out Like Never Beforenew
It's a new sociological phenomenon: Increasing numbers of gay teenagers are proclaiming their homosexuality at an early age. Douglas Sadownick of LA Weekly talks to several gays who came out early to learn how a growing child ultimately decides to choose loyalty to his or her unfolding queer feelings over affiliation to family, religion, friends, and their own internalized homophobia.
The Poorest Town in America Stays Optimisticnew
Deep in the heart of Texas, near the Mexico border, lies Cameron Park -- the poorest town in the United States. The per capita annual income of the residents of Cameron Park is only $4,103. Disease and illness plague the community and many of its inhabitants do not have health insurance. Yet, the people of Cameron Park sing merry songs and find solace in that things are getting better. Carlton Stowers of the Dallas Observer journeys to the town of Hispanic immigrants to chronicle their story.
Seeking Adult Ads, Dailies Encroach on Alternative Turfnew
"It's a newspaper advertising category that for decades has been owned lock, stock, and fur-lined handcuffs by alternative papers," reports Editor & Publisher's Mark Fitzgerald. "But now increasing numbers of daily newspapers are coyly succumbing to the many seductions of sex ads."
Don't provide a sales rep, jack up the rates, slap restrictions on the ads -- despite these barriers, adult sections in most alternatives still grow like kudzu. Daily papers are beginning to take notice.
Editor & Publisher |
07-16-2002 1:28 pm |
Industry News
New Buffalo Alternative Accuses Artvoice Publisher of Threatening Behaviornew
In a 4,000-word article that dominates the second issue of The Beast, co-editor Matt Taibbi says Jamie Moses wasn't happy about "Artvoice Death Toll at 7," an article in the Beast's inaugural issue which lampooned the AAN paper "for spending money on a color cover instead of on starving children abroad," or another that ridiculed Moses' physical features. Taibbi spent the past five years as an editor of eXile, an English-language biweekly newspaper published in Moscow "that among journalists acquired a reputation ... for being quite possibly the world's most outrageous and mean-spirited newspaper."
The Beast |
07-15-2002 1:10 pm |
Industry News
Judge Lifts Restraining Order Against Creative Loafing Charlottenew
The gag order that was lifted last
Wednesday prohibited the paper from
publishing documentation of high school
grade-tampering provided by former
teachers of Crossroads Charter High
School. In CL's June 19 issue, staff writer
Tara Servatius reported that the
teachers complained that school
administrators changed grades so
students could graduate.
Creative Loafing Editor John Grooms
hails the decision: "We're glad we were
able to strike a small blow for
freedom," he says.
Creative Loafing Charlotte |
07-15-2002 1:06 pm |
Industry News
Environmentalists Aim to Eliminate Common Toxic Metal
It’s not just in thermometers. Toxic mercury is in fish, cars, tooth fillings. The hazardous metal can have devastating neurological, kidney, fetus-developmental effects. Still, some federal agencies and private corporations are doing little to get rid of mercury in the web of life. “Enacting a nationwide ban on sales is an essential safety net to protect Americans,” Felice Stadler of the National Wildlife Federation tells Hartford Advocate columnist Jim Motavalli. Motavalli takes an in-depth look at what some legislators and environmentalists are doing to reduce the amount of mercury in the environment.
Nashville Media Column Discontinuednew
Nashville Scene Editor Bruce Dobie has discontinued "Desperately Seeking the News," a hallmark of the Nashville Scene since its inception, the Nashville City Paper reports. Dobie reportedly says the column, which has traditionally served as a launching pad for strikes on The Tennessean, has gotten stale. Matt Pulle and Henry Walker, the two writers who have alternated weekly columns in the past year or so, say they're disappointed but defer to Dobie's judgment.
Nashville City Paper |
07-11-2002 2:41 pm |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Nashville Scene
New Evidence Rejected in Missouri Death Row Casenew
Pitch Weekly’s T.R. Witcher goes behind the bars of death row to examine the case of Joe Amrine, who’s awaiting execution for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Amrine admits he raped and stabbed other inmates. "That was just the way it was," Amrine tells Witcher. "Either you did that or you were done to." But Amrine says he didn’t stab his friend Gary Barber to death in 1985 with a shank made from the metal handle of a paint roller. “Despite jurors' admitting they made the wrong decision, despite three witnesses who now say they all lied … Amrine remains on death row,” Witcher reports. “Now the buck stops at [Missouri] Governor Bob Holden's desk -- or on Amrine's gurney.” Amrine is realistic about his chances. “For him to give me a pardon, that would be kind of like career suicide.”
Young Couple Struggles With Love and Addictionnew
For a quarter million New Yorkers like Terry, heroin is a life-shattering addiction. When Terry’s former girlfriend, Juliet, returned to the city, she found him in desperate straits, strung out and panhandling for his next fix. Before she leaves again, Juliet must help him renew his lease on life. “If I leave him now, he’ll get in really deep,” she says. Michael Kamber of The Village Voice spends four days with the couple as he chronicles their struggle to help Terry kick his toxic habit.
