Talk:Los Angeles Free Press

Good stories that need citations before being re-incorporated in the article

"The Staff" now located on Santa Monica Blvd continued publishing weekly with Harlan Ellison articles and interviews with Andy Warhol and others. Just after this happened however, the building in which the Free Press was housed mysteriously burned to the ground in a conflagration the arson investigators termed “remarkable”. The Los Angeles Fire Department took over two hours to respond to the alarm. The cause of the fire has never been determined. Concurrent with this incident was the forced closure of the bookstore of the Free Press at the corner of Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, on the grounds of “Health Code violations”; the bookstore sold no food, only printed material.

The newspaper also ran a weekly television column by noted fantast and screenwriter Harlan Ellison. After the Free Press folded, approximately 104 of these columns were published by Ellison in two volumes, The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat. Because of some remarks Ellison made concerning then Vice President Spiro Agnew, the publisher was quietly informed by the Nixon administration that these works were not to be distributed in the United States, although they were freely available at the time in Canada. They were finally distributed in the 1980s by Berkeley Press, with a foreword by Ellison describing the suppression.

There is no support for the claim that the US government suppressed Harlan Ellison's books.

This tale appears to be a fabrication concocted by Ellison to explain poor sales of his books, more readily explained by the fact that booksellers didn't know where to shelve a paperback book of television criticism written by a science fiction writer for an underground newspaper. Do you shelve it under TV, SF, or Counterculture? Paperbacks that distributors didn't know what to do with got stripped and sent back at the end of the month, at no loss to the distributors or the booksellers, the entire loss being absorbed by the publisher. And this is what happened to the Glass Teat books.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.89.107.63 (talk) 16:18, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

The "new" Free Press...

...appears to be related the old one in name only, and the information comparing it as such comes from an editor -- TenFoldResultsMedia (talk · contribs), aka Joseph Falcone -- who's their public relations agency.

I say nuke they section entirely unless there's some proven connection -- from a third-party, reliable source -- to the two entities. --Calton | Talk 02:51, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I am Joseph Falcone (TenFoldResultsMedia). It is the same LA Free Press from the 60's, the same one started by Art Kunkin. However it is under different managemnet at this time, which is why it seems so different from its earlier days. I am no longer associated with the paper, I would like to state that my leaving the paper has nothing to do with Art Kunkin in any way. Art is not involved with the paper on a day to day basis this time. I was surprised to see that they kept me on the masthead of the .net page. If an editor of Wikipedia needs more info as to my not being with the LA Free Press, I will explain in a private direct Email. Also If an editor needs third party verification that it is the same LA Free Press, I can help with that by pointing you to people whose names you will know, who can verify it. As to my edits, what I wrote about the Free Press's activities in 2007 & 2008 is completely factual as well as pertinant. Because I am no longer wih the paper, I was very careful to avoid being derogatory in those edits. TenFoldResultsMedia (talk) 05:53, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I am no longer associated with the paper - So why did you insert yourself into the article claiming to be their PR firm? That was your edit, not someone else's.

At this point, the "new" Free Press section looks less like history and more like advertising. How's about some evidence that this entity is documented in third-party reliable sources? --Calton | Talk 16:11, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Note also that User:TenFoldResultsMedia has been blocked, and has apparently been replaced by Joseph Falcone (talk · contribs). --Calton | Talk 16:13, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, he is not blocked. Some users are assuming good faith and working out the issues with this new user. Hopefully we do not scare him away. Tiptoety ^talk 18:32, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Role accounts get blocked: this not even slightly difficult a concept, especially for a PR firm. I've re-reported it at WP:UAA. --Calton | Talk 06:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello again, Inserting myself was accidental, when I went to review it,I was going to remove it, but someone at wikipedia did it first. later I made another edit and I did not re-insert myself. I am new at doing Wikipedia, so I am clearly making "beginning errors" TenFoldResultsMedia (talk) 17:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)72.194.94.172 (talk) 17:22, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Again Hello to all. I thank everyone for the assumption of good faith, it is appreciated. I am glad, appreciative and excited to be a new user here. I will try to learn the ropes as quickly as possible, thanks again, TenFoldResultsMedia (talk) 23:25, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for working within the system (I realize that that is not a phrase that should be written on the talk page concerning the FREEP). Sticklers for core policies, like WP:Verifiability, may complain abuot having too much unsupportable opinion or personal knowledge. Unfortunately it's hard to find sources for everything. It's apparent that the website is partially down (the ".com" domain is parked) and from the ".net" site it's apparent that the last issue was a while ago. Hopefully either the Freep or another news source will write about the recent history. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 00:41, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Regardless of whether it was accidental or deliberate, you self-identified as working directly for the subject -- in public relations, no less -- so you have a great big conflict of interest, a great big problem that others in their falling over themselves to help you haven't bothered to mention. --Calton | Talk 06:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)