Voices carry

Public discussion on any issue is biased toward what is known and what is considered respectable or safe. One simply needs to look or listen to the mainstream media as proof of that.

Like it or not, the mass media sets the agenda of public discussion. The public gets concerned about issues that are promoted as significant. The scariest aspect of the power of the media is how quickly it can change the socio-political landscape on an issue.

But what about those issues that are not respectable and safe? How do they get heard or get on the agenda?We have chosen to write about one such subject in the cover story of this newspaper (See “The Disbelievers,” page 18). It’s about a group of people who are speaking, in particular, about what we currently believe to be unsafe. They have questioned whether all the evidence that equates HIV with AIDS is correct. It’s pretty shocking stuff when activists broadcast the idea that unprotected sex is fine and, hey, while we’re at it, let’s open up the bathhouses.But, of course, there’s much more to it.

When people ask me what the word alternative means in regard to alternative weekly papers, I quickly tell them it is not a synonym for liberal. It means we provide a forum where alternative ideas, which are often excluded from the mainstream agenda, can be explored, and done so in depth.