The Gutting of the Village Voice

New Times, now known as Village Voice Media recently bought The Village Voice to stop its activism. Michael Lacy, the new owner, fired staff and stopped publishing any piece containing a stand on an issue or that is critical of the Bush administration.

Based in Phoenix, the newly named Village Voice Media despises activism and appears to have a game plan of buying up all alternative papers all around the country (there are 17) in order to make them all the same and eliminate their points of view.

The Village Voice was part of an activist tradition of the alternative press for decades. It has now been neutralized in the same way that a few big chains like Gannett have bought up and neutralized most of the daily newspapers in the United States.

Likewise Clear Channel controls the lions share of radio and 5 big corporations control most of the TV. They all cater to entertainment, soundbites and ratings, not in-depth news reporting or "pro and con" perspectives. Most of them have run "newsclips" manufactured by the Bush administration - and by corporations to get their products in the public eye - which has been the basis for the flurry over "fake news."

Virtually the only way to get fact-based, non-fluff, non-soundbite, in-depth news is through PBS, NPR and the Internet. (CNN reports real news, but sticks with major, middle-of-the-road stories. It also wastes air time - and the viewer's time - on dramatic come-ons and repeating - in addition to commercials.)

Yet partisan appointees are working from inside PBS to change it and the budget for PBS and NPR are slated to be slashed again. (It has long been part of the Republican agenda to kill both).

Meanwhile, big media continues to lobby hard to control broadband content - to have the power to block content and e-mails and charge users extra to have their websites come up or their e-mails sent.

The best thing to do is sign up for alerts at www.freepress.net.

Americans are more and more isolated from real news and issues they should care about (but which are not publicized) and the views of the rest of the world (5.9 billion people.)

(For instance, do you know that the move to eliminate the estate tax - supposedly some sort of grass roots movement supported by trade unions, etc. to protect the middle-class as well as the rich - was the brainchild of 18 of the richest families in America? They created sham organizations to lobby on their behalf, looking as though there was more widespread support for the move.)

A letter-writing campaign is needed to rescue our media, with weekly letters (easy to print out and mail the same letter with a different date) to your representatives.

Please alert the people you know who care and who think it undermines the whole premise of our nation to stifle different points of view.

If we don't turn the tide of repression now, people will have to take to the streets and put their bodies on the line later. Considering the Patriot Act and the possibility of being branded a "domestic terrorist" while actively demonstrating, what's the likelihood that will happen?

China controls a billion people quite nicely by blocking Internet content and news and making sure only the party line is heard. Is that what we want?

If not, compose a letter to your Congressional representatives today, keep it on your computer, change the date each week and mail it out afresh.

It's volumes of real mail - not e-mail - that get the real attention and have the real power.

You can change things. Start today.

And keep the faith.