In the radio industry, playlists are power, dictating which albums get noticed and which albums don't. They're especially critical to artists who get played on college radio, bands that typically lack the promotional support offered by major labels. But what if the charts don't really reflect what's being played? And what if the people in charge of the charts have a vested interest in seeing that some albums feel more love than others? As East Bay Express music editor Katy St. Clair reports, that's exactly what's been happening at industry bible College Music Journal -- and the result is rocking the radio underground.
The Weekly Planet brings in a new editor, bears down on its most experienced writers, and fires its three news staffers, Publisher Ben Eason announced in a letter published in late January. Eason refuted a St. Petersburg Times' claim that the paper had abandoned news coverage. "Even as we reduce the staff, we have strengthened the leadership of our paper and will have more writing from our most experienced journalists," he wrote. Eason's letter was followed by one from Susan Edwards, who resigned the editorship to return to cultural coverage. "I'm not here to put a good face on the loss of our news staff," Edwards wrote. "What I do want you to know is that there are still people here who believe in the power and responsibility of the alternative press."
A self-professed "left-of-center" journalist attends a huge pro-America rally in Central Florida and comes away disturbed, and more than a little worried. "I'm also terrified at how easily the right is winning the public-relations war by appealing to base emotions of God, family and country. Dissent has suddenly become un-American, even treasonous," Jeffrey C. Billman writes in Orlando Weekly.
A federal anti-terrorism task force has arrested an Iraqi refugee living in the Seattle suburbs and charged him with running a "sprawling illegal financial network" that "funneled millions of dollars" back to his homeland. At least one national security expert thinks the case is "ridiculous." Either way, writes Seattle Weekly's Nina Shapiro, the story of Hussain Alshafei tells a lot about the country with which we may soon be at war, and about our country's hunt for terrorists among immigrant populations.
Jeff Koyen and Alex Zaitchik, American ex-pats in Prague (the Paris of the new millenium) are set to take over editorial management of New York Press this week, the New York Times reports. Koyen, formerly production manager at the Press, will become editor, and Zaitchik, who was running an iconoclastic newspaper, The Prague Pill, will be Koyen's deputy, the Times reports.
The end of the world is right on schedule -- or so believe fundamentalists and the politicians who share their views or want their votes. Salt Lake City Weekly's Zach Abend writes about how some Christians see scripture and politics converging to bring on the apocalypse. He also shows how the current administration's rock-solid support of Israel might be helping speed things along, swayed by "Dispensational premillennialism," or End Time theology.
