But, those days are over and idealism has been replaced with board members, recognizable design templates and successful business models. The New York-based Village Voice Media was mother to six papers while the Phoenix-based New Times had 11. Now they will merge and govern almost a quarter of the alternative weekly circulation across the United States.

But, those who still embrace their ideals need not mourn. What’s at stake here is not the alternative media. After all, past owners of The Voice have included investment bankers, wealthy businessmen and the Big Daddy media man himself, Rupert Murdoch. The Voice is far from the blushing virgin. She’s been giving it up to the high-rolling johns for some time now.

And regardless, the alternative press could never exist in the mass market. It never has and it never should. By its very nature, it needs to be something that answers to no higher power. It must be a collection of uninhibited, fearless voices that do not quiver beneath threats of stockholders or domineering publishers. Once the dollar resides over a publication’s content, the purity and value is lost, and it’s just another litter-box liner. When it’s all about ad space, templates, formulas, suits, ties and café latte, it’s not alternative. "Alternative" is just a marketing tool, just another word projected into the public mind, impressing it with the suggestion of something rare and original.

Historically, alternative papers were necessary to reveal truths that popular press would ignore for fear of offending the market share. The point was to challenge popular thought, to make people think for themselves and to rub the crust of sleep from their eyes. Information is slanted, spun, altered, warped and even invented. Trusting the newspaper for truth is about as responsible as trusting George W. Bush with your grammar homework. Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham is more socially relevant than anything out on the stands these days.

The New/Voice merger is just another dirty, commercial partnership. It does not touch the alternative media because as long as dissenting voices exist, they will create their own venues. It’s an insult to that rebel spirit to suggest that the corporate whores stroking themselves with percentages are representative of this.

The alternative voice is strong and persistent in print and on the Web. For this very reason, the print weeklies that have become too comfortable in their successes need to partner up and guarantee their audience. They know that smart people are disenchanted with their media inventions and force-fed gruel. They’ve cancelled their subscriptions and turned off their network news. They’ve begun to hunt for their own facts on the Web and in small publications. They’ve started cross-referencing and reading between the lines.

So, all we really have here is just another breakdown of the faltering media structure as a whole, with less competition and a smaller table of smartly-attired people running the show. More and more, we can find that all of our choices leave us no choice at all. It’s all the same people running this circus sideshow, in print, on TV, and on the radio. It is the on-going homogenizing of our news sources and the assurance that, as long as we continue to look to the popular media for our information, our ability to formulate informed opinions will be stunted all the more.

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