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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">did investigation watchdog local corruption</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see alt newspaper</font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/grocery-store-chains-are-trying-to-kill-your-favorite-local-newsweekly-but-you-still-have-time-to-stop-them/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/grocery-store-chains-are-trying-to-kill-your-favorite-local-newsweekly-but-you-still-have-time-to-stop-them/</a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kroger's grocer</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ----</font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/media/radical-right-attempting-hostile-media-takeover"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/media/radical-right-attempting-hostile-media-takeover</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">magine, if you can, reading a glowing profile of former national security adviser Steve Bannon, or a featurette about White House communications director Hope Hicks' favorite hobbies. Now imagine reading one of those stories in the formerly progressive alt-weekly that launched the careers of Ta-Nehisi Coates, David Carr and Katherine Boo, among countless others. </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That is the scenario in play if Armstrong Williams and his shadowy business partner, Steve Kalifa, follow through on their threats to buy the Washington City Paper.</b> According to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/why-does-conservative-armstrong-williams-want-to-buy-the-liberal-washington-city-paper/2017/12/04/217db692-d5f9-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html?utm_term=.6999ed6f2b83" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Washington Post</a>, news of Williams' interest has "rattled" staffers, with some discussing the possibility of resigning in protest should the purchase come to pass.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their apprehension would appear justified. While Williams maintains he has no desire to alter the publication's politics, far-right investors are setting their sights on some of the country's most prestigious newspapers and magazines, as the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting Group has expanded in <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/11/27/sinclairs-conservative-news-takeover-will-rock-15-regions/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">15 territories</a> and Donald Trump continues his unholy crusade against "fake news." (A recent Poynter <a href="https://poyntercdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/PoynterMediaTrustSurvey2017.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study</a> finds Republicans' trust in the mainstream media has plummeted to <a href="https://www.alternet.org/media/chilling-disparity-between-republicans-and-democrats-trust-media" style="text-decoration-line: none;">historic lows</a>.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Washington City Paper's uncertain future dovetails with the demise of the American alternative weekly newspaper</b>. Once flush with local advertising dollars, these local weeklies were leveled by Craigslist, then crushed by Google and Facebook. The Boston Phoenix <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/boston-phoenix-folds-paper" style="text-decoration-line: none;">folded</a> in 2013, and the Village Voice <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/end-an-era-village-voice-will-no-longer-be-print-1031578" style="text-decoration-line: none;">canceled</a> its print edition earlier this year. For the time being, the Washington City Paper is owned by SouthComm, but the Nashville media company has signaled it will either sell before the end of the year or terminate the publication altogether.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Enter Armstrong Williams. A friend and associate of Clarence Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Williams first entered the public consciousness when he told the Wall Street Journal that Anita Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment, was unstable. ("Sister has emotional problems.") Thomas would later be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, and Williams parlayed his new celebrity in conservative media circles into radio programs and op-ed columns. In 2005, USA Today <a href="https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-06-williams-whitehouse_x.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;">revealed</a> that he had received $240,000 to promote George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act on his nationally syndicated television show.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Williams himself is no stranger to charges of sexual misconduct. A former staffer filed a <a href="https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13013288/he-saidhe-said" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a> in 2014 claiming “at least once a week, the Defendant Williams would grab Plaintiff’s buttocks or penis when Plaintiff was least expecting it," while a separate employee of a Jos. A. Bank men's clothing store alleges he "[grabbed] his penis through his pants." Both cases were settled out of court.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although Williams served as Ben Carson's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/28/armstrong-williams-the-man-of-political-mystery-behind-ben-carson/?utm_term=.5a2a70a0d207" style="text-decoration-line: none;">top adviser</a> during the Republican primary</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, he watched the 2016 election returns with Donald Trump. Perhaps it's no surprise that he's now proposing "soft-focus takes on prominent Trumpites."</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Let’s, for a moment, take Williams at his word that he doesn’t want to turn the paper into a vessel for his worldview," writes the Post's Ben Terris. "What then could he possibly want with a newspaper that loses money?"</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same question might be asked of the billionaire Koch brothers, who recently contributed $650 million to Meredith Corporation's <a href="https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/koch-brothers-buy-time" style="text-decoration-line: none;">purchase of Time Inc.</a> Like Williams, the libertarians whose contributions to far-right candidates and think tanks across the country were meticulously documented in Jane Mayer's "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-RadicalRight-ebook/dp/B0180SU4OA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512596947&sr=1-1&keywords=dark+money" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dark Money</a>" claim they will preserve their publication's editorial independence. And like Williams, they almost certainly have an ulterior motive. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Knowing the Kochs, I think they’d have to see it as a business that could at the same time further their political interests,” Stanley S. Hubbard told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/business/media/koch-brothers-time-meredith.html?mtrref=www.google.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times</a> in November. (Hubbard owns multiple television stations across the country and calls himself a friend of the reclusive oil magnates.) “They probably see Time magazine as a left-wing rag. I’m sure that they would like to see it be more objective and also to straighten it out to make it a profitable venture.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich describes the Kochs' vows to stay out of managerial operations in a single word: "rubbish."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The Koch brothers don’t invest $650 million for nothing," he wrote in a <a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-kochs-just-scored-major-media-coup" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook post</a> last month. "My guess is they intend to use Time and its other publications—which reach millions of online and print readers—to promote their right-wing conservatism. The investment also gives them a way to combine their cache of voter information held by a data analytics company controlled by their network, i360, with the publishers’ consumer data."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the Washington City Paper and Time are both facing hostile right-wing takeovers, then one is already underway at LA Weekly, which just laid off its top editors and all but one of its staff writers following its sale to a mysterious company called Semanal Media. (As recently as last week, the buyers had refused to reveal their identities, to the alarm of the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-20171204-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Society of Professional Journalists</a>.) Not much is known about Semanal Media's backers, but boutique hotel developer Paul Makarechian and real estate redeveloper Mike Mugel have both donated "large sums to numerous Republican campaigns," according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-la-weekly-20171204-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">LA Times</a>. Brian Calle, who is currently running LA Weekly, <a href="https://twitter.com/AWolfeful/status/937133173342855169" style="text-decoration-line: none;">previously served</a> as an officer at the Claremont Institute—a conservative think tank whose stated mission is to purge civic life of progressivism. One of his first orders of business after assuming control of the newspaper's operations was to put out a call for unpaid contributors.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Jacob Sugarman is a managing editor at AlterNet.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, Joe Ricketts, the former chairman of Ameritrade and a prominent Trump donor, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/billionaire-joe-ricketts-shutters-dnainfo-and-gothamist-after-employees-vote-to-unionize/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">shuttered</a> two essential local news sites, DNAInfo and Gothamist, days after its staffers had voted to unionize. Ricketts contends the move was merely a business decision, but as Hamilton Nolan <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/dnainfo-gothamist-ricketts-union.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">argues</a> in the New York Times, he gives away the game in his statement calling the union a “competitive obstacle making it harder for the business to be financially successful.” America's institutions are under assault from an increasingly authoritarian White House, and as the right continues to consolidate its wealth and power, the free press has never looked more vulnerable.</font></p><div wibbitz="embed-main-player" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.pbssocal.org/programs/inside-oc/inside-oc-rick-reiff-whither-register/</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;">In late April, Brian Calle moved from being Vice President and Opinion Editor for the Freedom News Group (which included the </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; text-size-adjust: 100%; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif;">Orange County Register</em><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;"> and the </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; text-size-adjust: 100%; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif;">Riverside Press-Enterprise</em><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;">) to a new gig at the same desk. With the purchase of Freedom by Digital First, he is the newly-appointed Vice President to the newly-named Southern California News Group, publisher of </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; text-size-adjust: 100%; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; text-decoration-line: underline;">eleven</span><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;"> newspapers. With many important issues and candidates on the June ballot, Calle is at the center of the action. </span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;">---</span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 14px;">bs</span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">igital First Media expanded Brian Calle’s duties as opinion editor at the Orange County Register in Santa Ana and Riverside-based Press-Enterprise to include oversight of the editorial board and opinion content for its entire Southern California News Group.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">Calle, who joined Register in 2009 as an editorial writer and columnist, was promoted to opinion editor in 2012, and became vice president of commentary the following year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">He now will “actively engage community leaders and publish editorials around local issues specific to each market” in the region where DFM has a presence.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">The company has a roster of 11 daily newspapers under the banner of the Southern California News Group, including the Los Angeles Daily News, Daily Breeze in Torrance, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun and Redlands Daily Facts.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">He will report to Ron Hasse, the regional group’s president and publisher, and Executive Editor Frank Pine.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">Calle will bring “a thoughtful, credible and articulate voice that advocates for pragmatic policies that are economically and fiscally responsible and socially inclusive,” Pine said in a statement.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">“As an opinion group, we will aspire to be the thought leaders shaping a new advent of social and economic prosperity,” Calle said. “We will provide a unique and different perspective that both honors the values of each of our local communities, but also moves our region and state forward.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.305em; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">Digital First formed the Southern California News Group last month after acquiring assets of Freedom Communications Inc. in a bankruptcy auction.</p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ocs-scariest-people-2016-tony-rackauckas-pedophiles-and-trump-fans-galore-7621559</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">#1</font></div><div><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">RACKAUCKAS</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;">Enshrined in our Scary Hall of Fame </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">waaaaaay</i><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;"> back in 2003, Orange County's district attorney claims to be a law-and-order proponent hell-bent on protecting society from criminals and standing up for the victims of violence. But in the past two years, Rackauckas has advocated that two vicious serial-killer inmates, Oscar Moriel and Rene "Boxer" Enriquez, should have the right to freely roam public streets again. His rationale? Moriel and Enriquez supposedly redeemed themselves while in custody by serving his office as jailhouse snitches. Meanwhile, the DA is helping to lead the effort to pass this November's Proposition 66, which seeks to speed up state executions under the theory that ruthless killers aren't redeemable. </span><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">Mitigating factor:</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;"> Susan Kang Schroeder, the DA's chief of staff, wears expensive, killer red outfit</span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">BRIAN CALLE</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;" /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;">The </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">Orange County Register</i><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;">editorial board boss oversaw three embarrassing gaffes this year that drew national attention. In January, he apologized after an editorial argued pro sports cheerleaders shouldn't seek state classification as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) because the job has "fringe benefits . . . such as working closely with" millionaire players. Then came a piece in March blasting Assemblymember Don Wagner for running against State Senator John Moorlach. Only problem? Wagner wasn't running. The </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">Reg</i><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;"> swung and missed again in October, when it endorsed Ling-Ling Chang against Sukhee Kang for a State Assembly seat. But Kang wasn't her opponent. </span><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif;">Mitigating factor:</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: serif12, serif; font-size: 18px;"> Calle has luck, because despite these fuck-ups, Digital First promoted him to oversee the opinion pages at the chain's 11 Southern California dailies.</span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div></div></div></div>