This article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (
http://www.sfbg.com/...) seems based on hearsay, but claims the hearsay comes from Village Voice staffers. It claims the new owner told the staff that the Voice's "news section was too soft because it was full of commentary and criticism of the Bush administration. He said he didn't want any more commentary -- just hard news and long-form human-interest stories."
If you check out the links at the bottom of the Voice web site to the other papers owned by these new owners, you will in fact find very little "Bush-Bashing," or even Bush MENTIONING. Compare the "news" sections of the other papers to the news section in the Voice, but do it quickly. There might be very little to contrast them shortly.
The new owner was also quoted as having warned, "be ready to say goodbye to some of your friends."
Yeah, like the concept of a free and independent liberal media. That was a good friend of mine.