"My job as editor in chief of The Village Voice was not all spent putting out the newspaper, but also keeping people happy thousands of miles away," Blum tells the New York Observer. Blum says he received frequent calls and e-mails from VVM headquarters about running the paper. An unnamed Voice staffer tells the Observer it wasn't clear the j-school adjunct was "comfortable in the editor role," noting he was more at ease with recent hires from Columbia Univ. than with longtime Voice staffers.
Last week, the Portland alt-weekly revealed that The Oregonian's Tom Hallman Jr. was parking for free in a spot owned by a felon he once profiled. This week, Willamette Week reports that Hallman has been suspended for two weeks without pay, must undergo ethics training, cannot represent the Oregonian in public forums, and has been demoted from his current enterprise beat to a still-to-be-determined assignment.
Writing in this month's CJR, Gloria Cooper gives kudos to the alt-weekly for its "long-running series on the state of the health care system in New Mexico" that led to the termination of Wexford Health Sources' contract with the New Mexico Department of Corrections. The Reporter's series highlighted repeated abuses and systemic failures by the for-profit company formerly in charge of inmate care.
The San Francisco alt-weekly joined the ACLU and the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in filing a Freedom of Information Act request for government records on the arrests of more than 800 illegal immigrants in Northern California, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The groups are trying to corroborate "abusive practices reported extensively in the press" including illegal searches and abusive treatment, according to an ACLU press release. "If the federal government is going to spend taxpayers' dollars on a very questionable enforcement action, the public has the right to know the details of how it was implemented," says Bay Guardian Editor Tim Redmond.
On Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals overturned Judge Kelly Moorehouse's decision last week to bar The Pitch and The Kansas City Star from publishing stories based on a confidential letter written by the attorney for Kansas City Board of Public Utilities. Following the reversal, the Pitch reposted its original story based on the document, which addressed the utility's potential violations of federal pollution regulations.
Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey says Blum was dismissed due to differences over "administrative style" and because he didn't get enough "news in the paper."
The day after last week's staff meeting at which concerns about newsroom diversity were raised, Village Voice Media laid off minority writer Corina Zappia, according to the Huffington Post. Zappia, who worked for the internet division, says she hadn't had a negative performance review nor been given any sort of warning. She also notes that although she had spoken up at last week's staff meeting, there was no connection between that and her dismissal. The Huffington Post reports that a HR complaint relating to Zappia's discharge remains unresolved.
Writing on the New Times Broward-Palm Beach's Daily Pulp blog, staff writer Bob Norman says "Ortega's announcement at a meeting yesterday left the staff under what I can I only describe as a funereal pall." He predicts Ortega "will sit in the editor's chair at the Voice for as long he wants to be there," because he has "the temperament to weather the shitstorm" and the "hard-earned trust" of Village Voice Media Executive Editor Mike Lacey.
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