The Reader's cover this week features an illustration of Barack Obama with the text "Don't Screw This Up." Editor Alison True writes the paper has heard from several callers who told her the paper was "assuming he'll screw up because he's black." True insists this isn't the case, and reiterates a crucial point: "No matter how jubilant some of us may feel about his election, the media's role isn't to cheerlead for elected officials," she writes. "We were addressing Obama as the person -- not the black person -- whom we've handed an important new job and letting him know that even though we put him there, we'll be watching." The Reader had a companion cover ready to go if McCain won with the text "Please Don't Die." To see these and more post-election alt-weekly covers, check out AAN's Flickr page. We've also assembled some pre-election covers. If your paper published an election-themed cover that isn't there, email it to Jon Whiten at jwhiten (at) aan.org.
In the fourteenth installment of this year's "How I Got That Story" series, the Santa Barbara Independent's Nick Welsh discusses his award-winning media coverage of the local daily. In the midst of reporting on turmoil at the Santa Barbara News-Press, Welsh eventually became part of the story himself, as he was sued by the paper for copyright infringement. He tells Tess Martinez how he became the go-to guy for News-Press news, the chilling effect of being sued by another paper, and how the Independent has stepped in as the News-Press has essentially committed suicide. "Santa Barbara is a community trying to figure out how to live without a daily paper," Welsh says. "At the Independent, we're trying to figure out a way to become a de facto daily with the internet. We're doing OK, but we're still struggling."
The Albany alt-weekly's Halloween cover depicts Barack Obama as a vampire, holding a scantily clad and prostrate Sarah Palin, who has a spike through her heart. It caught the attention of the conservative website World Net Daily. "Can you imagine conservatives trying to do anything like this?" asks Albany resident Bill Dudek. Metroland art director John Bracchi tells World Net Daily that he was "just trying to combine Halloween with politics." The public response has been mixed, according to Bracchi, with people either loving or hating the image. He says negative emails had a common theme: "If you think this is funny, you have a warped mind, you're racist and sexist."
Former stripper Michelle Peacock was exonerated by a jury of all charges on Tuesday, the Nashville Scene reports. Peacock is seeking at least $25,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from reporter P.J. Tobia, the Scene, and its parent company in a defamation suit over an October 2007 story which cited an arrest report detailing the alleged prostitution.
Phil Busse, the former Mercury managing editor and one-time Portland mayoral candidate, was charged with misdemeanor theft for stealing McCain campaign lawn signs in Minnesota. Busse was in the state for a visiting professorship at St. Olaf College, and admitted his deeds in a Huffington Post blog last Thursday titled "Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer." He has since resigned from St. Olaf, the Oregonian reports. "I have no problems with taking personal responsibility for stupid actions," says Busse, who faces up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. "I certainly regret I took down the signs."
Adam Ebbin directed donations from "a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors" to defeat anti-gay politicians in Virginia in 2005, TIME reports in a story examining the group, known as "the Cabinet." AAN's former marketing director is the only openly gay member of Virginia's general assembly. Ebbin is also a former employee of the Washington City Paper, where he worked during the 90's with John Cloud, the author of TIME's story.
To save costs in an ever-tightening economy, two of the three New Mass. Media papers will now share office space in New Haven. Staff members have been given laptops and cellphones and will seemingly be traveling in the Fairfield County area -- about 20 miles from New Haven -- quite a bit.
Thousands of people took to the downtown Seattle streets last night to celebrate Barack Obama's election in what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer describes as "exuberant mayhem." Police told the P-I that the crowd fueled by people leaving The Stranger's election party was peaceful, and as of midnight no injuries or vandalism had been reported. On the Slog, the Stranger sums it up: "Hundreds of people have been marching up and down 1st and Pike since our election night party got out a few hours ago. It's the most beautiful mob scene we've ever seen."
LEO Weekly founder John Yarmuth was re-elected to Congress yesterday, where he'll continue to serve Kentucky's 3rd District. Today's Louisville Courier-Journal reports that with 99 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial vote totals had Yarmuth, a Democrat, with 59 percent of the vote and Republican challenger Anne Northup with 41. In California, San Diego Reader publisher Jim Holman once again bankrolled a ballot measure that would require doctors to notify parents before performing an abortion on a minor, and the Los Angeles Times reports that it remained too close to call Tuesday night. With four-fifths of precincts reporting last night, 52.8 of voters were opposed to the measure while 47.2 favored it, according to the AP, which says the initiative "appear[s] headed for defeat." Holman contributed more than $1.3 million of the reported $2.6 million raised for the measure, the AP reports. UPDATE (4:55 pm EST): A number of news outlets are now reporting that the ballot measure was indeed defeated.
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