Cincinnati Vice Mayor Alicia Reece (pictured here) has threatened to call out the firefighters to intimidate a political rival and a Cincinnati CityBeat staff writer, the paper's Gregory Flannery reports. "Your Negro Tour Guide" columnist Kathy Y. Wilson has filed a complaint with police about the alleged threat. Editor John Fox says Reece visited him to complain about Wilson's coverage. "She said, 'If you can't control her, I will ... I have 150 firefighters who are willing to do anything I ask them.'"
Bowing to reader pressure, Cincinnati CityBeat has resumed printing movie times for two art movie houses after a nearly yearlong standoff with the owner. City Beat's film critic, Steve Ramos, is still banned at the theaters, and the owner, Gary Goldman, still won't allow CityBeat racks in the lobby. Ramos made Goldman mad last June by revealing that Goldman had ordered three XXX seconds of film snipped out of the movie, The Center of the World. "We will not, however, apologize for br eaking the unauthorized editing story last year, nor will we apologize for criticizing Goldman's handling of the situation," Co-Publisher and Editor John Fox writes.
Pittsburgh City Paper has obtained an injunction ordering the new weekly Pulp not to place its papers in City Paper racks. The judge, however, has told both sides to reach a final agreement on other distribution issues without further rulings from the bench. City Paper Publisher Michael Frischling says he wants Pulp to “make an investment in racks.” Pulp’s Publisher Catherine Nelson, former publisher of In Pittsburgh, says what City Paper is demanding amounts to Pulp not distributing, period.
Four writers at AAN newspapers have won awards in the 2001 National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association. They are: Nigel Jaquiss, Willamette Week, first prize in investigative reporting for "The Poisoning of Whitaker"; Margaret Downing, Houston Press, first prize in opinion writing for "But Who's Counting"; Emily Bliss, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, second prize in feature writing for " A Scout for Life"; Mike Mosedale, City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul), special citation for "Take Till It Hurts."
Artvoice Publisher Jamie Moses buys and closes rival Blue Dog Press in a deal announced today. Blue Dog prints its last run Thursday, ending alt-weekly competition in Buffalo. Former staffers at Blue Dog, once called Buffalo Beat, lament the demise of the scrappy paper, but Moses has the last word: "This market can support two weeklies, but not two successful weeklies."
In a case against two Connecticut Tribune Co. papers, The Hartford Courant and AAN-member New Haven Advocate, knotty issues of jurisdiction and Web pages are at stake. Editor & Publisher examines the "long-arm statute" case involving coverage of housing Connecticut prisoners in Virginia jails and whether the two papers libeled a Virginia prison warden. AAN is one of more than two dozen newspapers and trade associations signing onto an amicus curiae brief in the case.
AAN Attorney Alice Neff Lucan looks at efforts by many state legislatures to roll back Sunshine Laws. Her conclusion is that these laws and legislative efforts are troubling but not yet the end of Freedom of Information as we know it. Her advice: ask who's been requesting government information and being denied, then publish that information. "If you don't tell them about access, how is anyone to know or care?" she asks.
Keith Kelly reports in today's New York Post that Russ Smith discussed selling his paper to Taki Theodoracopulos, one of its well-heeled columnists, for $5 million. (In a letter to Jim Romanesko's Media News, Smith said Kelly's story is "wrong.")
