Big Business Neuters the LA Weekly

Jon Wiener's article "End of an Era at the LA Weekly" got me thinking about how exactly chain ownership of local weeklies hurts journalism. For starters, journalists working for news outlets that are owned by much larger, corporately invested companies have to pick their words with more care than an independent Internet blogger like myself. Since I am free to say whatever I want as a blogger, I will take advantage of this great freedom now. Fuck big business, and fuck journalists who refuse to speak out on issues they themselves know are important. They are slaves to their paychecks, and while I cannot place myself in their shoes, I hope I would have the courage to write objectively and honestly about subjects that are taboo for the larger chain corporations.

For three decades, the LA Weekly served as the West Coast's premier alternative weekly, renowned for its news coverage and political writing. Unfortunately, when the Phoenix-based New Times Media purchased the Weekly in 2005, the honest, opinionated reporting that readers had grown to love was suddenly absent. The one example that Wiener used that really struck a chord with me was the lack of editorial coverage for the May 2007 police riot in MacArthur Park. The LAPD, acting like a group of thugs rather than civil protectors, charged families - women and children - with billy clubs and nonlethal projectile rounds. The story became international news, but was quickly brushed under the carpet in the states. The Weekly the following week devoted a miniscule 330-word story to the event, while devoting six articles totalling 3,700 words to the Coachella music festival.

Without belaboring the point much further, that's seriously fucked up and is only happening because big business has invaded the newsroom, turning once objective journalists into scared slaves of the corporate machine. If that's the future of journalism, I want no part in such a charade...