Real Cabal

It's common knowledge that every seemingly-local media organization actually belongs to a vast network of similar outlets in other geographic areas. It's for suppressing stories, congratulating each other on liberal bias and conspiring against politicians and celebrities and other things along those lines. For example, every once in a while Seattlest will say, "Hey, SFist, way to stick it to the religious right last week. Let's not report on that story casting gay marriage in a poor light. Pass it on to Gothamist." And they'll reply, "Good call and great job inventing global warming." It's all very fraternal and it's the way media works.

Well it's the same for street newspapers. Seattle's paper Real Change belongs to the North American Street Newspaper Association or NASNA as does Street Roots in Portland and The Rising Times in Spokane. The NASNA launched a website yesterday with links to all of their member papers and information on how to start a street paper which is pretty cool but what is really cool is the news service linked to from that site called, appropriately, The Street News Service. There's some great articles listed there but don't read them if it's going to stop you from picking up a Real Change this week (you buy Real Change right?). Alright, you subscribe to Real Change. Then you may want to check out an interview with a happiness researcher, news on the run up to the Homeless World Cup , and central Washington agricultural workers' concerns about pestcides.