By Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
The previous editor of The FXBG Advance solicited ads and other forms of financial support from data center companies and the minions who represent them. You may have seen their “sponsored content” on these pages in the past. Some of those ads, under long-term contract, are still running and will continue until the financial commitments end.
That said, I’m writing to let our readers know that The Advance won’t be taking any more ads from data center companies, or from anyone promoting or representing them, going forward. Our writing over the past four months about data centers’ harmful financial, environmental, and aesthetic impacts on the community should make it clear why we’ve come to this decision—most recently my Sunday, Sept. 20 post “Wedding Day.”
Plenty of folks won’t agree, and I expect we may lose a few subscribers as a result. Some have already made their displeasure known.
“The Advance should be re-named The Retreat.,” one reader wrote in response to my Sunday post. “It has devolved into an echo chamber for a preening, fear-mongering gaggle of Luddites.”
That may be so, but at least we have the English Romantic poet Lord Byron on our side. (For context, you may want to read “What the Luddites Really Fought Against,” in The Smithsonian.)
“Song for the Luddites”
By Lord George Gordon Byron
1.
As the Liberty lads o’er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!
2.
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding sheet
O’er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has poured.
3.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
***
THE ADVANCE still needs money—
—to stay in operation, minus the corporate sponsors, who despite what they promise, always want, and always get, their pound of flesh.
So if you’re an unpaid Advance subscriber, maybe consider becoming a paid one at $8 a month, or $80 a year. If you’re already a paid subscriber and have the wherewithal and a large enough bank account, maybe give some thought to becoming a Founding Member. The default Founding Member amount listed is $500, but you’re welcome to pledge more (or less). You can find all the subscription options HERE.
And if you want to talk about advertising, or hand me a wad of cash in a Cava bag, give me a call at (540)842-2066 or email me at swatkins000@gmail.com.
Here, in any event, is some of what you get in The Advance that you won’t get anywhere else around these parts:
All the news under one roof
Daily Fredlines, Virginia News headlines, and Advance Reads, Monday through Saturday: Ledes and summaries of local and state and Advance articles and posts from The Free Lance-Star, the Fredericksburg Free Press, the Potomac Local News, the Virginia Public Access Project—and us.
You don’t have to go anywhere else for your local and state news, but with links to all those other media outlets’ posts—the work of dedicated journalists working their tails off—we encourage you to read further, and make it easy for you to get there.
The Free Lance-Star, The Fredericksburg Free Press—those folks are all about the daily news, and we appreciate what they do. We cover our selective share of it too: breaking stories on threatened destruction of cherished trees in downtown Fredericksburg, a radiology group filing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Mary Washington Healthcare, a King George School Board’s anti-GLBTQ+ actions making national news, planned construction of a 400-foot cell phone tower next to a city school and subdivision, a majority of Fredericksburg City Council members announcing in advance that they’re opposing another data center in town.
What we also do—which they don’t—is go above and beyond, with personal essays, advocacy reporting, deep dives, offbeat features, and expert commentators weighing in on what it all means:
Our own Heather Cox Richardson
Many of our readers already subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s excellent and essential Letters from an American daily newsletter with updates, analysis, and historical context on national and international news. The Advance has her local counterpart, Phil Huber, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army-Reserves, Vietnam War veteran, former Military Intelligence officer, U.S. State Department Kuwaiti Oil Fires Team Leader, Deputy Civil Affairs Commander, NATO Implementation Force, and civic educator. Phil takes on a lot of the same issues and political developments as Richardson—and then some: exploring their local impact and significance and ways for us to effectively respond.
Our own Aldo Leopold
Ranjit Singh has lived his entire life on or a stone’s throw away from Crow’s Nest and Potomac Creek—except for extended forays for research and work in the Middle East. In his own substack No Lines in Nature, and as Environmental Columnist for The Advance, Ranjit brings an insightful, passionate, preservationist’s knowledge, voice, and perspective on the natural world, and what rapidly vanishing features of it we still have left in our precious, and shrinking, corner of Virginia.
And More
· Editor Steve Watkins, national award-winning author and investigative journalist whose 15 books published by Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Candlewick, the University of Georgia, and SMU Press have sold 1.5 million copies.
· Steve Farnsworth, retired professor emeritus of Political Science, former director of the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, and author of eight books, including Late Night with Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency.
· Edie Gross, award-winning journalist, humor columnist, and child advocate.
· Lauren Bock, Preventative Cardiology P.A. and Health and Wellness Counselor.
· Drew Gallagher, humor writer, whose new essay collection Funny for Nothing prompted a near riot for copies at a recent J. Brian’s barside book signing, although it was a Friday and also Happy Hour.
Just to name a few.
Oh, yeah, and with enough funding, we’ll bring back the obits. No firewall.
***
One last thing
I’ll be hanging out at Curitiba Art Café in downtown Fredericksburg tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 1-3 if you want to drop by for coffee and conversation. Bring your ideas, feedback, concerns, suggestions, whatever. I’ll have a sack of my books—author comps from publishers—to give away and sign. Hope to see you there.
Happy to be both a paying subscriber and a columnist. This is no time for the meek. Onwards.
I was incredibly grateful to the "prior' Advance for how they shone a light on governmental overreach and abuse of a citizen volunteer. That, and some other features, were (in my biased opinion) gold. Having said that, I love the new direction and tone of the "current" Advance. Kudos, keep it up, and thank you for all you are doing, and for dropping data center advertising!