The most recent incarnation of The Village Voice, based in New York, was originally launched by Ed Francher, Dan Wolf and Norman Mailer during the McCarthy era in 1955, to counteract what then was the challenges facing the freedom of the press.  It introduced in depth journalism to the mainstream media shortly, before Alan Ginsberg’s "Howl" (1956) and William S. Burrough’s "Naked Lunch" (1959) overcame what were known as Obscenity charges leveled by the United States at their published works - the then Supreme Court held that a published work is obscene if it a) appeals predominantly to prurient interests; b) is patently offensive by contemporary community standards; and, c) is utterly without redeeming social value.  This Victory led to the Liberalization of the mainstream media and the enforcement of freedom of speech as enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

Now in 2009 I have started The Village Voice Hudson for several different reasons.  The question is no longer one of outright censorship, but of several interlocking factors that are deteriorating the public’s understanding of reported issues.  The first of these issues is the monopolization of Media sources; slowly but surely the mainstream of media in Canada is being swallowed by larger conglomerates who operate all their titles from one business plan.  As such, the reflective quality of a media source on it’s immediate area is invariably diminished, ironically a complaint now often echoed by the critics of this year’s New York Times takeover of the aforementioned Village Voice in New York. 

Another factor is purely financial; advertising revenues are the lifeblood of any large distribution newspaper, and as such editorial content can often be given second consideration when revenue is threatened, this I have gleaned from a recent analysis of Canada’s news wire, the Canadian Press who supply all the mainstream news titles with much of their content.  It was a revelation to read what is reported initially on the wire, and to see what ends up in the paper after the last revision.  Even to a point where stories can pass, untouched and unreported, from the Command News Wire.

But most importantly is the disjointed nature of any news that is taken without context; by this I mean Headlines cannot tell you the whole story - what is required, like Mailer, Wolf and Francher in the 50’s knew - is more in-depth analysis of these headlines and have those disjointed headlines put back into a practical story line context.  This was the thinking behind my participation on the initial Blog-site.  The idea was to open forums where people could openly discuss these headlines, but I decided to take a stab at researching a bit deeper some of the headlines that I saw; and often I came to different conclusions than what the article had initially stated.

And this is the sum of this work:  The ISSUU edition.  This will be a quarterly, compiled from the best works on the Blog site, and packaged into a newspaper format.  This edition has 12 pages, much like the first Village Voice published in New York in 1955 - which sold 200 copies at .5c each.  There are plans for The Village Voice Hudson: Sunday, where TVVH  pulls a thread of related stories from various news wires from around the world and contextual in Review outline the larger picture - to be published on the Blog site.

Join the Facebook Group Here, and visit the home page Here.

Black and White Photo Gallery - 35mm Camera, Rigaud, QC, Canada.

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