Around the weeklies

What with being out of town until the end of last week, I forgot all about Philadelphia's two weekly papers, which generally debut on Wednesday and Thursday. Here are the stories that caught my notice when looking them over today:

• City Paper:
  
  
  
  1. A lengthy article looks at liberal bastion The White Dog restaurant, which appears to be having some turmoil over attempts by employees to organize a union. The tone of the article tends to the derisive (of progressivism, really), but it's an interesting story about how even generally well-treated employees can have legitimate gripes about their input into management practices, etc., and how even principled bosses can react badly to the prospect of sharing meaningful power. Also interesting, perhaps, as an allegory of the different worldviews of the (older) unionizer vision and the (newer) sustainable business movement, or of the question Can benevolent employers really be trusted?
     
     
  2. The second of these two short pieces wonders about the effect on a journalist's worldview of living inside or outside the bounds of the city being covered...
     
     
  3. An opinion piece decries the grim casino designs proposed for Delaware River sites and offers a modest alternative proposal...
  
  
• Phila Weekly
  
  
  
  1. A rather snide reaction to the notion that the Inquirer will set up a committee to police any possible "journalism issues" that arise because of its new ownership. I don't get the snark here; aren't the reporters the ones who'd know if they were being pressured?
     
     
  2. A longer piece looks at the recent Comcast take-over of the Philadelphia cable market and the resulting opportunity to ask it (and/or the city) to follow through on promises to create and help fund a public access channel.
     
     
  3. In further media coverage, a third article looks at a forgotten effort of the Phila Inquirer to extend its activities into the TV realm. "Inquirer News Tonight" lasted just two years in the mid-1990s, failing at its goal of leveraging its reporters and their more in-depth research to create a chewier evening program. A failed test of media "convergence." Sounds like an interesting concept that had a half-assed implementation...