Poplicks.com bemoans the sale of the (NYC) Village Voice to the alternative weekly big fish New Times Media, and worries that truly "still independent" weeklies such as The San Francisco Bay Guardian may go the same way, eventually. The Guardian is hardly "alternative," though. Like many "alternative" weeklies, most definitely including The Village Voice, it has become a predictable purveyor of paint-by-the-numbers canned Leftist outrage and political intolerance - the kind of insufferable publication that, on a good day, equates Wal-Mart, urban condo developers, and George W. Bush with Hitler, while lauding graffiti "artists," Starbucks window-smashers, jihadists, slavery reparations hustlers, the Earth Liberation Front, and ESL-for-life curriculum designers.

"Alternative" weeklies such as the Voice and the Guardian are entirely status quo; carefully tailored to suit the sensibilities of the liberal urban gentry, whom are still sorting out the socio-political and moral ramifications of gentrificiation with their psychotherapists. Such orthodox "progressive" weeklies are a cheaper form of psychotherapy, actually - delivering appropriated virtue to the bohemian bourgeoisie, and saving them the trouble of actually thinking for themselves.

Here, in an online report, The Village Voice worries about whether its "inherent lefty bent" will be transformed by the pending sale to New Times, but holds out hope that since their bias is so marketable, all will remain unchanged. That would be a shame; for an "inherent lefty" or "inherent righty" bent serves readers of any publication poorly.

The best weekly in San Francisco, BTW, is The San Francisco Weekly, especially the sometimes-against-the-grain columnist and reporter Matt Smith, whose work I've blogged about here, and here. These days, the real alternative city media, especially in the Blue Cities where "alternative weeklies" thrive, is that which challenges the standard "progressive" dogma. It may take the form of the rarely aberrant cover story in an alternative weekly, or, more likely, urban conservative bloggage. The SF Weekly's Smith does a great job of upsetting the applecart, and other alternative weeklies should take notice.

Oh, and SF Weekly is owned by New Times.

TECHNORATI TAGS: ALTERNATIVE WEEKLIES, NEW TIMES MEDIA, VILLAGE VOICE, SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at October 24, 2005 08:08 PM