Everyone expected the Justice Department to approve the New Times / Village Voice merger. But everyone expected it to take a few months. Instead, it took about four weeks. Which goes to show how this alternative weekly merger is just, like, exactly what The Man / The Pigs / Big Brother / The Suits want/s, because it totally silences non-mainstream voices. At least that’s what we’re expecting at least one letter-writer to declare in next week’s LA Weekly. Probably with lots of CAPS and EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!

Anyway, still no reliable word on what this is going to mean for the LA Weekly. I just hope they don’t silence the Jonathan Gold reprints.