In parallel with the way rich right-wing men like Robert Mercer, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Bros have — often invisibly — distorted our national politics with huge contributions and bogus foundations, especially post-Citizens United — the Weekly’s new owners snuck up on us. This group created a new company, told a number of half-truths, then came in, busting a union and firing nearly the paper’s whole staff. This group of Libertarian jackals has also hinted that they will no longer pay writers for their “contributions.” The Don’t Work For Free movement has never seemed so relevant.<\/p>\n
This<\/a> Pacific Standard story is the fullest recounting I’ve seen so far. (KCRW Press Play’s interview with new boss Brian Calle, former editor of the OC Register’s famously Right-Libertarian editorial page, is also worth hearing if you have a strong stomach for evasion, duplicity, and intellectual shallowness.) The paper’s former film critic, April Wolfe, has been leading much of the opposition among former employees of the Weekly, a paper that got a big early boost in its coverage of underground rock music, gay culture, and LA’s air pollution.<\/p>\n More recently, the paper has been focused on telling the stories of L.A.’s marginalized communities. “I came in with the express intent of raising the profile of women and people of color in our film section, and we did that,” Wolfe says.<\/p>\n “We were reporting on Boyle Heights, communities south of the 10, in the San Fernando Valley, Creative communities that are mostly people of color,” says former managing editor\u00a0Drew Tewksbury<\/a>\u00a0(who on Sunday won a Los Angeles Press Club award for a\u00a0piece on a queer performance artist of Mexican descent<\/a>). “I’m bummed I lost my job, I loved it, but I’m more bummed for the communities.”<\/p>\n … in the week since the staff was laid off, only a handful of articles were published, the majority of which the former editors told me had been pre-scheduled.\u00a0One post<\/a>, published by contributing writer Keith Plocek on Wednesday evening following the firings, is still active on the site. Keith writes: “The new owners of L.A. Weekly [sic] don’t want you to know who they are. They are hiding from you. They’ve got big black bags with question marks covering their big bald heads.”<\/p>\n The new owners’ backgrounds notwithstanding, there has been little evidence of a political shift at\u00a0LA Weekly<\/em>\u00a0during the first week under Calle and co. Instead, the shift has, at least initially, been one toward incompetence and ignorance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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