The Falmouth Forecaster, a community paper in Portland, Maine, reports that Face -- owned by the publishers of Portland Phoenix, Providence Phoenix and Boston Phoenix -- regularly runs articles by writers using pseudonyms. Among them is Sam Pfeifle, editor of both Face and Portland Phoenix, who has written numerous articles as "Simon Peterson." He explains: "It's meant to be a way to have some fun and allow ourselves creative outlets." The report also notes that Face's "masthead offers few clues to who is real and who is make-believe," with job titles "arranged as if the writers and ad reps are members of a band." (Chris Busby, the author of the piece, is the former editor of the now-defunct Casco Bay Weekly, which competed against Portland Phoenix.)
The Boston Globe reports that a jury awarded $950,000 to plaintiff Marc Mandel, a Maryland prosecutor, in his suit against the alt-weekly. In January 2003, Mandel was involved in a bitter custody dispute when the Phoenix published an article detailing allegations that he had sexually abused children from two marriages. He sued for libel in April of that year. According to his attorney, the jury found two of Mandel's claims actionable, one of which was a subheadline reading, "Losing custody to a child molester." Phoenix editor Peter Kadzis says the paper plans to appeal.
Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe looks at the impending battle between Boston Phoenix and Boston's Weekly Dig. He writes that "others have tried to take on [Phoenix publisher Stephen] Mindich and failed," and that the owners of Boston and Philadelphia magazines "have bought the five-year-old Weekly Dig with plans to pour in the resources and turn up the heat on the Phoenix." Bailey paints a picture of Old Guard vs. Youth Movement, of Champion vs. Challenger, before surmising, "More newspapers are better than fewer newspapers."
In the July 2 edition of the Boston Phoenix, reporter Jason Vest revealed the identity of Anonymous -- author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terrorism" -- as CIA analyst Michael Scheuer. Other print and online media outlets have since published his name. Writing for Slate, Jack Shafer then wonders why the Washington Post and the New York Times continue their attempts to perpetuate Scheuer's deflated anonymity. Writes Shafer, "James Risen reports in the Aug. 5 New York Times that Anonymous is 'known publicly only as Mike,' which is true if the definition of the public doesn't include the readership of the Phoenix."
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- …
- 16
- Go to the next page
