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

[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...