AAN News
All Charges in New Times Case Droppednew
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced this afternoon that he was dismissing the case against Village Voice Media executives Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, who were arrested last night after publishing a story revealing that their Phoenix New Times was a target of a grand jury probe. Thomas said that the case had been grossly mishandled, according to the Arizona Republic.
"It has become clear to me the investigation has gone in a direction I would not have authorized," Thomas says. The grand jury had been convened to investigate charges that the New Times violated the law when it posted Sheriff Joe Arpaio's home address on its website in 2004.
Arizona Republic |
10-19-2007 7:32 pm |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly in Legal Battle Over Synthetic Pheromone Ingredientsnew
Monterey County Weekly is being sued by the chemical company Suterra for referencing one of its product's "inert" ingredients, which the company claims are protected as trade secrets under federal law. The Weekly reported on health and environmental concerns related to two of the ingredients (first disclosed by the Santa Cruz Sentinel) in a story last week. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected the pesticide company's request for a temporary restraining order on the paper. The Weekly has counter-sued the company, asserting its First Amendment right to disseminate information in the public interest.
Monterey County Weekly |
10-19-2007 10:02 am |
Legal News
Village Voice Media Executives Arrested for Phoenix New Times Storynew
When New Times published a story yesterday revealing that it was the target of a grand jury probe, it acknowledged that it was exposing itself to potential criminal charges. It sure didn't take long for those charges to come to fruition. The co-authors of the piece, VVM executive editor Michael Lacey and chief executive Jim Larkin, were arrested last night at their homes in Phoenix on charges that the story revealed grand jury secrets, according to the New York Times. The East Valley Tribune reports that the arrests came at the request of the special prosecutor. "It is an extraordinary sequence of events," says Steve Suskin, legal counsel for VVM. "The arrests were not totally unexpected, but they represent an act of revenge and a vindictive response on the part of an out of control sheriff." In addition, New Times reporter Ray Stern was given a criminal citation on Thursday for disorderly conduct after an argument over taking photos of public records at the sheriff's office. "They're trying to muzzle us," editor Rick Barrs says. "This is retaliation against us. And it's not just retaliation against us, it's retaliation against the press." UPDATE: Lacey, upon being released from jail this morning, spoke with reporters. "The way that this operates is that they select someone to make an example out of, and they selected our organization," he says. "Hopefully, other media organizations will begin to speak up and speak out about what's going on here."
The New York Times |
10-19-2007 8:12 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weeklies Grab a Handful of Utne Independent Press Nominations
Utne Reader has announced the finalists for its 2007 Independent Press Awards, which honor the very best in independent media from the pool of more than 1,300 sources Utne uses to cull its content. Louisiana's Independent Weekly and Denver's Westword are nominated for Local/Regional Coverage; The Texas Observer and The Village Voice are nominated for In-Depth/Investigative Coverage; and L.A. Weekly is nominated for Best Writing. Winners will be announced in early 2008.
AAN News |
10-18-2007 5:24 pm |
Honors & Achievements
Tags: Editorial, Management
AAN Introduces HTML Newsletters
If you thought your daily AAN.org newsletter looked a little different this morning, you were right. AAN has transitioned the daily and weekly AAN.org emails from staid plain-text to rich HTML. Newsletters for AltWeeklies.com will soon make the same switch, once the site redesign is complete. To sign up for daily or weekly AAN newsletters or to update your preferences, click here (if you are an AAN member) or click here (if you aren't an AAN member).
AAN Staff |
10-18-2007 10:12 am |
Association News
Texas Observer Pushes for Public Records Withheld by State Police
Two years ago, the AAN member biweekly attempted to obtain security tapes to confirm that multimillionaire James Leininger was secretly lobbying for school vouchers at the state capitol. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) immediately blocked the release of the tapes, saying it would compromise "homeland security." The Observer appealed to the state attorney general, who agreed that the DPS was obligated to release the videos. But the story doesn't end there. Instead of complying, DPS filed suit in state court, lost, and appealed the court's decision. Now documents obtained by the Observer and posted online show the department has spent more than $160,000 on the suit. "Beyond this being a frivolous lawsuit, what I find a little depressing is the DPS is proceeding like there is this bottomless bag of money from which to draw," Observer editor Jake Bernstein tells the Austin American-Statesman. "It just never occurred to us that they would carry this as far as they have."
(FULL STORY)
The Texas Observer Press Release |
10-18-2007 8:40 am |
Press Releases
Tags: Editorial, The Texas Observer
Registration for AAN West Conference Now Opennew
This year's AAN West conference was organized a bit differently than years past: A committee of AAN members in Northern California did most of the heavy lifting, and they've put together a wonderful staff training program that includes business, design & production, editorial, and sales tracks. "The committee's focus was on staff training and providing an opportunity to network with others in the alt-weekly world," says the News & Review's Deborah Redmond, who chaired the committee that organized the event. The conference will be held Feb. 1-2 at the the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco. The early-bird registration rate is only $75 for AAN members and $150 for non-members (the rates increase by $25 after Dec. 7). Hotel options include the Cathedral Hill Hotel and the Kabuki Hotel (formerly the Miyako), which is also the site of the Web Publishing Conference that will immediately precede AAN West. (AAN members can also register now for the Web Publishing Conference, although the complete program won't be announced until next month.)
AAN Staff |
10-17-2007 9:27 am |
Association News
Federal Shield Law is Passed by House of Representatives
More than 50 media organizations, including AAN, applaud the House's passage of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 (H.R. 2102). The bill, passed yesterday by a veto-proof vote of 398-21, would ensure that reporters don't face federal prosecution for refusing to identify confidential sources except in special circumstances. The Senate version of the shield law was strongly passed earlier this month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but has not been scheduled for a full Senate vote, according to the Washington Post. The Post also reports that President Bush threatened to veto the bill, saying the protections it would afford "could severely frustrate -- and in some cases completely eviscerate -- the federal government's ability to investigate acts of terrorism and other threats to national security."
(FULL STORY)
Shield Law Coalition Press Release |
10-17-2007 8:43 am |
Press Releases
Tags: Editorial, Management
Knight Foundation, PBS Unveil 'Idea Lab' Blog Featuring Online Innovatorsnew
Editor & Publisher |
10-17-2007 12:35 pm |
Industry News
Phoenix New Times Sues County and Special Prosecutornew
Facing intensified threats of felony criminal prosecution for publishing the home address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2004, New Times and reporters Paul Rubin and John Dougherty filed a complaint against Maricopa County and a special deputy county attorney in federal court earlier this month. It alleges that the Arizona law being used to threaten felony prosecution "is invalid and unconstitutional because it violates the guarantees of free speech and free press under the First Amendment" and seeks an injunction prohibiting authorities "from using investigative procedures and compulsion to investigate" or prosecute the paper and its writers and editors. "It is extraordinary and unprecedented for a newspaper to find itself subject to criminal legal attacks for the publication of newsworthy, true facts about such a publicity-seeking, controversial elected official as Joe Arpaio," New Times co-founder and Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey says. "New Times has no choice but to vigorously defend its constitutional free-speech rights against those in the government who seek to abuse their power."
Phoenix New Times |
10-16-2007 8:34 am |
Industry News
As the Buzz Builds, Two Folio Weekly Staffers Leave to Pursue Band
They say the buzz cycle on Next Big Things gets shorter and shorter each year, with music blogs and MySpace breaking down the geographic constraints that may have prevented a label-less and record-less band from Jacksonville, Fla., from becoming one of the most-talked-about bands in the indieverse in a matter of weeks. The case of Black Kids seems to affirm this notion. Last month, the band, which counts as its members Folio Weekly staff writer Owen Holmes and graphic designer Kevin Snow, popped up on a blog from British tastemaker NME, and it wasn't long before Black Kids were everywhere, from The Guardian to Vice to Pitchfork. The band is set to make a big splash at the CMJ Music Marathon this weekend, with three shows scheduled in New York. But before they head up I-95, both Holmes and Snow are leaving the paper to pursue the band full time. Holmes took a few minutes to talk to AAN News via email about the band's rapid rise, the difficult decision to leave Folio, and Barack Obama.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-15-2007 8:24 am |
Industry News
San Diego CityBeat Music Editor Explains Why He's Stepping Downnew
"I didn't want to end up the creepy 40-year-old taking notes in the corner of The Casbah," Troy Johnson tells KPBS. "It's a crisis in music journalism that I wanted no part of -- the aging rock critic who never goes out except to 'marquee shows,' but occupies space as a music editor because that's all they know." Johnson, who has been with CityBeat for five years, will be the new senior editor at the glossy RIVIERA magazine. "There's a lot to miss about CityBeat," he says. "That's a small paper built on chewing gum, bailing wire and severely passionate, severely talented, severely underpaid editors and writers."
KPBS |
10-12-2007 11:23 am |
Industry News
Bay Guardian Joins Group to Continue Slain Journalist's Worknew
The San Francisco Bay Guardian has signed on to the Chauncey Bailey Project, which will continue the investigative reporting the Oakland Post editor was pursuing when he was murdered a few months ago, Editor & Publisher reports. More than two dozen Bay Area journalists and organizations are taking part. "A group of us agreed to put aside competitive rivalries and work together to send a crucial message: that you can't kill a journalist with impunity," Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond tells AAN News. "The combined weight and resources of our community will come down on you and push until all the facts are out and everyone involved has been brought to justice."
Editor & Publisher |
10-11-2007 2:39 pm |
Industry News
2007 AAJ Class Was 'Ambitious and Industrious'
The ten young journalists who spent eight intensive weeks this summer at the
Academy for Alternative Journalism at Medill School of Journalism were among the best that program director Charles Whitaker has seen, he tells AAN News. Two of them have already been offered jobs by AAN papers. This year also marks the first time the fellows have produced a website, rather than a
print product. Whitaker says he hopes to grow the website as an alumni
resource over the coming years.
(FULL STORY)
AAN News |
10-11-2007 10:58 am |
Association News
Tags: Editorial
Howard Kurtz's 'Scoop' Was First Revealed by David Blum Two Years Agonew
The Washington Post media columnist's new book Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War has the Beltway buzzing after being partially leaked on the Drudge Report this weekend. "Kurtz's story was treated as big news -- but the substance, and some of the language as well, was no different from New York Press editor-in-chief David Blum's 2004 book, Tick... Tick... Tick..: The Long Life and Turbulent Times of 60 Minutes," according to Gawker. The big scoop from Kurtz was that Dan Rather threatened to take his Bush/National Guard documents -- which ultimately cost him his anchor chair at CBS -- to the New York Times, which was included in the 2005 paperback edition of Blum's book. Kurtz says he never saw that edition of the book. "Good for him for getting there first," he tells Gawker. "I'm a fanatic about giving credit, which is why my book is filled with footnotes, but you can't do that if you've never seen the information." That's all fine and good, but it leaves the New York Observer to wonder: Will Kurtz "continue to tout the anecdote as a 'scoop' in his upcoming appearances supporting the book?"
Gawker | The New York Observer |
10-10-2007 10:25 am |
Industry News
