One good thing about having a Mothership lording over this and other alternative-media outlets around the country is the ability to instantly access coverage to major news events in the backyards of others.
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For instance, our Village Voice Media partners in Miami and Broward-Palm Beach have been all over the disaster in Haiti–no surprise considering the large population of Haitians living in that part of Florida.
At the Miami New Times Riptide blog: Erik Maza reports on how the Haitian Consulate in Miami has been overwhelmed with phone calls from locals seeking information, advice and support; Kyle Munzenrieder previews Vice President Joe Biden's upcoming meeting with Haitians in South Florida; Francisco Alvarado reveals part-time
Miami resident Wyclef Jean, who has been all over the media seeking donations to the Yele Haiti Earthquake fund, has profited from his nonprofit
organization; and Gus-Garcia Roberts brands Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson the Soulless Morons of the Week for their recent Haiti comments.
At the Broward-Palm Beach New Times news blog: Thomas Francis advises potential contributors to check out charities before giving to disaster relief in Haiti; and Lisa Rab notes Florida Governor Charlie Christ is having to face an almost-certain wave of refugees while engulfed in a tough battle in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
On both blogs, Chuck Strouse has posted about both weekly newspapers donating $5,000 to Partners in Health, “perhaps the most important charity in returning Haiti to normalcy after this week's monstrous earthquake.” But Strouse goes further, challenging other alternative newspapers across the country to give more and vowing that South Florida's papers will match such gifts up to $10,000.
Hear that, OC Weekly bosses?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.