''The San Diego Free Press'' was an

underground newspaper The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

founded by philosophy students of

Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...

at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

in November 1968, and published under that title biweekly until December 1969, when it became the weekly ''Street Journal'' starting with its 29th issue. The paper's contents were a mix of radical politics, alternative lifestyles, and the counterculture, reflecting in part Marcuse's

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...

Marxist/Freudian ideas of cultural transformation. Founders of the ''Free Press'' included

Lowell Bergman Lowell Bergman (born July 24, 1945) is an American journalist, television producer and professor of journalism. In a career spanning nearly five decades Bergman worked as a producer, a reporter, and then the director of investigative reporting at ...

, later an investigative reporter for ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

''. Members of the staff commune, called The People's Commune, included John Lawrence, Richard Blackburn ("Black Dick"), Herman Rumper, and Larry Gottlieb. The Policy Coordinator, who wrote most of the editorials, was Jan Diepersloot, a graduate student in linguistics. The staff lived communally in a 3-story brick house in Hillcrest, and also had a dilapidated rural retreat in

Ramona ''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...

, where marijuana was sometimes grown. Both the ''Free Press'' and its successor the ''Street Journal'' were subjected to arrests by local police, and harassment and spying by the FBI. Break-ins, vandalism, and the fire-bombing of a car owned by the commune were allegedly carried out by paramilitary vigilantes calling themselves the Secret Army Organization (SAO). Police and members of the military Shore Patrol entered the commune and the paper's offices without a warrant, in search of deserters. Street vendors were arrested and the paper's editorial offices were broken into and robbed; in a break-in on Christmas Day 1969, a $4000 typesetting machine was thoroughly wrecked. Subsequent issues were printed from typewritten copy. Several weeks later a fund-raising cocktail party to raise funds for the ''Street Journal'' was raided by police, who arrested Diepersloot for selling alcohol without a license. The paper made powerful enemies in San Diego by running a series of investigative exposés, largely based on rumor, on the corruption of San Diego's richest and most powerful, including tycoon C. Arnholdt Smith, publisher James S. Copley, and race track owner John Alessio. The paper's close ties to the

Movement for a Democratic Military The Movement for a Democratic Military (MDM) was an antiwar and GI rights organization during the Vietnam War. Initially formed in late 1969 as a merger of sailors from San Diego and marines from the Camp Pendleton Marine Base in Oceanside, CA, i ...

(MDM) was a source of friction with local military bases. It became impossible for the paper to find a willing printer in San Diego and the staff had to go out of town, to Los Angeles or farther afield, to find printers. Financial shortfalls took their toll, and the ''Street Journal'' finally published its last issue toward the end of 1970.

Revival

The title ''San Diego Free Press'' was revived as a local leftist alternative paper produced by

Indymedia The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seatt ...

, starting in 2005. Other than the title it had no other ties to the original ''San Diego Free Press''. On June 4, 2012 a group, associated with the

OB Rag The ''OB Rag'' (originally the ''OB People's Rag'') was an underground newspaper published between 1970 and 1975 in the Neighborhood of Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, United States. The O in the title is also a peace symbol. Other San Die ...

, including former contributors to the original ''San Diego Free Press''/''Street Journal'', started SanDiegoFreePress.org as a website featuring neighborhood news and progressive viewpoints. Stories are published 7 days a week, including a daily (m-f) news summary and weekly columns covering everything from photographic essays to politics. SanDiegoFreePress.Org is a volunteer organization made up of citizen journalists, progressives and community activists. An editorial board oversees daily operations and sets policy.sandiegofreepress.org

References

{{reflist Newspapers published in San Diego Defunct newspapers published in California

Revival

See also

References