Why I love the AVA

[gordonzola]

I'd fallen behind in my reading so I just now caught up to the fact that Bruce Anderson of the Anderson Valley Advertiser just stepped up his campaign to convict Judi Bari’s husband of the car bombing that eventually killed her. Anderson’s theory is that her husband tried to kill her, and while he very well may have been (or continue to be) an FBI informant, the bombing was personal, not political. Anderson also views the Redwood Summer Justice Project as a scam, Darryl Cherney as a fraud, and that the case is easily solvable with a few subpoenas for DNA samples.

Anderson just recently published a series of articles bylined to Mike Sweeney, the husband, where he "confesses" all. Because the proper authorities won’t take action, Anderson is hoping to get sued for libel by Sweeney so he can argue truth as a defense in court, call witnesses, and basically put Sweeney on trial. Instead of a libel action, Sweeney responded by complaining to the Post Office about mail fraud because he didn’t write the articles.

Clearly Anderson is willing to risk his livelihood on his belief that Sweeney did it. He’s also threatening to do a citizens arrest if the local DA won’t take action. The whole case has implications for the Left, credibility of activists, and the underbelly of political movements and it’s going to be fascinating how it plays out. The AVA is my favorite newspaper, certainly the best written weekly in the country, but keep in mind that I do not expect to agree with my reading material 100% of the time.

Check out the website and you can read a few articles and even get a free copy.

Comments

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

oh man. i *really* should subscribe to the ava. its what i say to myself every time i read a copy. if nothing else, its entertainment value is through the roof - and its got more than just that! damn fine paper. the bari stuff is pretty damn serious, but at the same time manages to be hysterical.

smart move by sweeney to go to the usps rather than hit em with the libel, though. that does throw a wrench in the works of andersons plan...

of course, half of anderson valley hates the ava, and thinks hes a nutcase :) mention it in a cafe there and get an earful, or maybe start a huge argument between other patrons!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

The thing about Anderson is that he's really not afraid to be hated for what he writes and he lives in a tiny, tiny town. For years he had that Pulitzer quote, "Newspapers should have no friends" on the masthead and only took it down fairly recently announcing that he actually had some friends.

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

yeah - thats a lot of what i respect the ava for - it speaks its mind pretty much without reservation, and theres a lot to be said for that. its only really answerable to its own journalistic/political bent. pretty damn ballsy sometimes, which is a rarity in a newspaper these days...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Though I haven't seen this issue, I love your idea that the New Yorker is somehow regional. I read it in the waiting rooms of expensive doctors.

[brownstargirl.livejournal.com]

just outta my ass, do you think there's any credibility to his claims? I read the IV with the AVA dude in the "Land" issue of Cometbus where he waxes on similarly about Judi Bari, basically dismissed her efforts to get Earth First to not just bash on forestworkers outta middleclass wankerdom. I had this total defensive surge for her; from my very at-a-distance readings of her work I'd really admired the fact that she ID'd as working class as well as an environmentalist and seemed to have much more sense about how to organize than most Efers because of it. But I don't really know jack shit besides what I'd read. What do you think?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I think his arguements are compelling. I wouldn't say I'm 100% convinced. Honestly, I don't think the FBI tried to kill them. Generally, I think the government has only killed radicals of color in the last 40 years or so. Killing a white lefty woman with kids and a sister who's a semi-famous writer seems pretty risky for the amount of actual threat in Redwood Summer.

However, I saw her speak during that time and she was amazingly inspiring. I suppose the appearance of such a threat could be enough for the goverment to help along such an opportunity as the bombing if the stuation arose.

But Anderson's analysis of the sad joke that is much of the American Left is pretty good. I start disagreeing with him when he starts dismissing all the new social movements in favor of only an old school class-first analysis, but is Earth First "Ecotopia" participated in by mostly needy, middle class, nutballs? Clearly the answer is yes.

His evidence is circumstantial but, I believe, makes more sense than the RSJP's who have never really looked for the bomber after their first target cleared his name.

Did Judi Bari actually ID as working class? I can't remember. I do know that his criticisms of her environmentalist/worker alliance had to do with the fact that he thought she wasn't really serious about it, thus the lip service without actual organizing alienated the timber workers from the EFers even more.

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

Judi Bari and the sister you mention, Gina Kolata (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/ask_reporters/kolata.html), are both red diaper babies--daughters of the American Old Left. (Actually, I was going to say that Kolata is a major corporate apolotgist--she's a long-time science writer for the NYT--but a quick search turned up some fascinating turns in her career, especially after her cancer piece (http://archives.cjr.org/year/98/4/kolata.asp), which is has to make you think, given how Judi died). Anyay, it makes a lot of sense to me that Judi would "identify" as working class (with all the problematic issues that attach to all identity politics), and that she would be focused on including labor as part of the environmental movement.

But I'd agree that I don't think this means the FBI killed her.

[brownstargirl.livejournal.com]

Judi Bari and the sister you mention, Gina Kolata, are both red diaper babies--daughters of the American Old Left... Anyay, it makes a lot of sense to me that Judi would "identify" as working class (with all the problematic issues that attach to all identity politics)

Aha. Thank you for filling that in; it makes total sense.

My reference point for Judi IDing as working class comes from a xeroxed packet of info about the bombing and interviews with Judi that I read at a friend's house in Kitchener, Ontario back in 1995, where she ID as such and talked about actually having respect for the loggers and being able to speak to them regularly, and just seemed to get a lot about activist classism and arrogance. But it makes sense that she's an old lefty. I mean, she could've been a working-class lefty, or she could've been a slumming it kid, but the other makes the pieces of her work come together the most, based on old red diaper kids I've known.

Have y'all read the letter Bruce says is written by Judi that's up on the AVA site, though? I'm willing to be open to alternative theories about what went down, but I have a harder time buying that the letter is for real. It just seems way too crank caller-ish.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

The letter is not real and isn't meant to be read as real. It's written from "her" point of view to outline what he thinks happened.

[felicks.livejournal.com]

hmm, i don't get the appeal of AVA myself - but it's been a long time since i read it.

so what's the explanation for why the FBI was basically there instantly after the explosion?

I have no idea who bombed Judi Barry - but i don't get the reason for Bruce Anderson's obsession with this. I mean, this reminds me of Mike Moore's allegation in his latest book that Mumia actually did kill the cop - I actually agree, i think it's likely, but what the fuck is the point of saying so?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I think most of the "movement" press is so bad that it's almost beyond depressing. But that's for a later entry with lots of documentary evidence.

The appeal of the AVA to me is that it's a left paper that isn't read by just the left. It's well-written, reprints timely articles from elsewhere, and covers its local area with a political slant in a way that no other paper I've seen does. Partly it's just that I like talented journalism and good rants and the AVA gives me that. It certainly isn't the only left publication I read, and it definitely has its blindspots.

His obsession with the case has to do with the fact he knew her, it is a local (Mendocino County) issue in many ways, and, to him, illuminates much of the hypocrisy of the Left. This case is a multi-million dollar lawsuit about assasination and coverup done in the name of the "movement". I'd say he also believes, and this is probably "the point", that an honest and credible left is has to oppose "frauds" done in the name of political action if it's ever going to be taken seriously.

You'll notice that paragraph is full of a lot of "He" and "him". Personally, I don't think that any of it, FBI on the scene or not, will ever really be revealed until the person who planted the bomb is discovered. Has the RSJP done anything to that end? Why can't Hubby have been working for the FBI? If it was big timber, or a deranged or methed-up logger is there really no evidence? What was the extent of surveilence and undercover operations in the forrests during that year?

I have a lot of questions that don't preclude the RSJP's thesis. But I can't really buy their theory completely yet. I personally find it troubling when things go into left culture that are mostly taken on faith. The FBI bombed Bari or Bush planned 911. Maybe. but I really need harder evidence before I take it on as fact. And I resent the feeling I get sometimes (not from you!) that if I don't believe the most cynical theories, that somehow I'm not political enough.

[felicks.livejournal.com]

I dunno, i just feel like we (the left) have so much to work on, externally and internally, why get so worked up about this? i mean, fine, print the editorial saying you think her husband did it, whatever. But why put so much work, and dedicate so much space in your paper, to this? Who exactly is he defending - the FBI? What's the point of that?

I just don't see who is being wronged in this situation. why champion a cause where no one is particularly suffering?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I don't think he has defended the FBI, except as a rhetorical statement.

His politics are not my politics. He's an old school type of newspaper editor, hammering a point or an agenda until something happens. But I don't really understand why people are so upset that he wants to figure out what happened. I think it has historical importance, possibly in a much bigger way than false arrest charges do. What if there was FBI complicity (with the husband or whoever)? Isn't that important to the left? To prove it rather than just imply it to each other?

[felicks.livejournal.com]

also, the law suit as i understood it was because the FBI framed them for bombing themselves. seems ligit. is there another law suit i don't know about?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

no, you're right. Clumsy phrasing on my part. The RSJP is careful to not get too involved in accusing the FBI, but every politico I've ever talked to about the case brings it up.

I support the lawsuit. But is pursuing the lawsuit more important than figuring out who did it? Much of the support around the case hasn't been about false arrest as much as sticking it to the FBI. Redistributing tax dollars to environmentalist is a good cause, but the actual events of the day have been lost.

[walktheplank.livejournal.com]

Salon ran an article about the Judi Bari conspiracy theories, maybe 2-3 years ago. I always wondered if any new evidence had surfaced.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

heh. Which ones do you consider "conspiracy theories"?

[walktheplank.livejournal.com]

Try "all of the above".

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Oh I see, I had to go back to my LJ (instead of e-mail) to see what you were refering to.