Utne Announces Press Award Winners

Utne Magazine announced its 2003 Independent Press Awards winners today, with _The American Prospect, The Onion, Mother Jones_ and _Grist_ picking up some of the top honors. The American Prospect took top prize for General Excellence, while The Onion took best Cultural/Social Coverage. Utne commented: "America's funniest newspaper is also one of its sharpest critical voices. Read The Onion for a good laugh and at the same time get real insight into many of the issues, large and small, facing us today." This is a great move for _The Onion_ out of the humor category and into the social commentary slot, as it seems satire, ala _The Daily Show,_ Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, has become the preferred method of cultural and political criticism. The Nation picked up the prize for best Political Coverage and Grist was picked for best Online Political Coverage. (Back-to-Iraq.com was also nominated for the same category, but congratulations, Grist!) "The complete list of winners":http://www.utne.com/pub/2004_121/promo/11017-1.html is truly a rogue's gallery (I mean that in the most complimentary sense!) of independent and alternative media out there, and I urge everyone to check out some of the winners for themselves. You'll be delighted, intrigued and hopefully better informed.