New York: Save Sparky!
I'm hearing credible rumors that the Village Voice is poised to axe Tom Tomorrow's award-winning comic strip This Modern World.
Not only is TT an excellent cartoonist and a strong liberal voice, he's one of the progressive blogosphere's strongest allies in the established media. "Tom" even gave the keynote address at the first YearlyKos. He also came out to support the Ned Lamont insurgency in the primary.
Help prevent another power grab by the corporate media. In other words, help the Village Voice continue to lag behind the Village in gentrification.
Email:
http://villagevoice.com/aboutus/index.php?page=contact
The post:
Editor, Village Voice, 36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003
If you love This Modern World, please tell the VV editors what you think.
The Village Voice is an embarrassment, and this doesn't surprise me in the least.
Posted by: aeroman | November 16, 2006 at 09:27 AM
The Voice has sacked everyone else. Why should Tom be any different?
Posted by: Cassius Chaerea | November 16, 2006 at 10:34 AM
The Voice has sacked everyone else.
No...they still have Robert Christgau, the worst music critic in history.
Posted by: Uncle Kvetch | November 16, 2006 at 02:03 PM
Kvetch, where have you been? The Voice (infamously) fired Christgau back in August.
His tastes don't align all that well with mine, and he is a particularly poor judge of jazz (I think he's the only person in the world to praise Don Byron's horribly misguided new record), but his chops are amazing -- that 30 Bands in 30 Days piece he did this summer is jaw-droppingly virtuosic, regardless of whether you agree with his conclusions.
Plus, he'd been writing for the Voice since 1969. For someone who'd devoted the better part of his life to the Voice, the way the new management handled his dismissal was particularly classless.
Posted by: DJA | November 16, 2006 at 02:47 PM
DJA, where I've been is clearly "out to lunch"--I think I had heard about RC being fired, but that particular factoid must have slipped my mind. Whoopsie.
The VV may indeed have handled his firing in an utterly classless way, as you say. Nonetheless, we'll have to agree to disagree about the man's writing--I found his prose consistently, irritatingly self-indulgent. De gustibus etc.
Posted by: Uncle Kvetch | November 16, 2006 at 03:55 PM
They currently feature Worst Music Critic in History Chris Ott.
Posted by: aeroman | November 16, 2006 at 05:26 PM
Obviously, the question is: Does the Village Voice deserve This Modern World?
Posted by: Jonathan Hendry | November 16, 2006 at 08:49 PM
Of course they don't, but Tom deserves the VV's money! :)
Posted by: Lindsay Beyerstein | November 16, 2006 at 08:52 PM
Perhaps I don't read the Voice closely enough, but it seemed to me that TMW has been absent from the newspaper for some time now. Am I wrong?
Posted by: Mark | November 16, 2006 at 10:24 PM
I don't really understand why people keep clinging to, say, the LA Times and the Voice. It's over. Get it? Over. They are not and are not ever going to be liberal again. They were quite intentionally taken over and neutered by mendacious conservative assholes who fired the lefty writers but also the real journalists and just for fun, the cartoonists and the fact checkers as well. Don't waste your time and energy on them now. Coax, oh, TPM to give Dan Perkins a weekly check. Yes, there are a few okay writers left on both papers but don't worry, they will not be producing serious articles and soon they will be gone.
Here's the New Voice in a nutshell:
>SYDNEY SCHANBERG: Well, as I said before, he [Lacey the new Voice publisher] said, “If I want to read regular criticism or bashing of the Bush administration, I'll read the New York Times. I don't want it in this paper.” And I agree with Redmond about them doing a cookie-cutter job. This was a wrecking crew...
>...I said I had one question, and how could you have -- how could we
have a press column if we can't write about other work done in the
press? And he said, “Did you hear what I said in there?” And I said,
“Yeah, you were quite clear. But that doesn't answer my question.”
“Just listen. Just remember what I said.” And I shook his hand, and I
walked away and I walked out of the place.
>....the fact of the matter is the Voice still [though after all the journalist were fired, not any more] provides the majority
of investigative coverage of New York City and New York state...
***
>SYDNEY SCHANBERG: As I understand it, Lacey has dismissed all of the
fact checkers.
http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/0604_index.html
Posted by: Marco | November 17, 2006 at 12:32 AM