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Alt Weeklies and Alte Kackers
10 July 2005An ancient Indian burial ground... A modern construction project that can't be stopped... A remake of Poltergeist? No, something better: good alt-weekly journalism from Chrisanne Beckner of the Sacramento News & Review, writing on the debate over "science," "grave robbing," the rights of the dead, and the sacred, recently excavated by transit workers beneath downtown Sacramento. Most "alternative" weeklies deserve only one half of that label these days. Owned by corporate chains, the majority function as arts & leisure supplements to local dailies that are too busy retreading wire reports and running "health" columns. That may be the economic reality, but it's no excuse for the poverty of writing one encounters in these rags -- self-styled Menckens who think muckraking consists of bashing pop bands and regurgitating already-antique cultural studies dogma. And yet, some of the more interesting religion writing in recent years appears in these papers, reported by journalists who simply haven't been trained in the dailies' doctrine of religion as either a transparent vehicle for politics or "inspirational." No alt weeklies we know of are publishing great religion writing on a regular basis, but there are a few writers who are simply doing the job the dailies aren't, with a little extra kick: Malcolm Gay, at the East Bay Express; Eli Sanders of the Seattle Stranger; Gregory Flannery of the Cincinnati CityBeat; Lisa Sorg of the San Antonio Current; veteran Doug Ireland, most regularly in the L.A. Weekly; and -- with this story, at least -- Chrisanne Beckner in Sacramento. All of these writers work the alt weekly tradition of snark, tough-mindedness, and distrust of authority. Conservatives, political or religious, won't find many champions among them. That's ok -- they have the Weekly Standard. Back to the alts. Our list of talented alt weekly writers is too short. As a solution, we recommend less crap in the alt weeklies. We also propose a directory of alt weekly writers who deal with religion. For that, we need help. Check out your local alt. Keep an eye out for good journalism about religion. Not just the obvious, but also the tangential, such as Beckner's piece on Native American bones. And then nominate your contenders -- below or by email.
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