Of all the people that read my blog, it is David Karlsruher that finally made me understand why the local media is such a disaster. We have all figured out why the management types at the local media allow mediocrity, or in the case of the El Paso Times masquerading as a newspaper outright create propaganda for the horde, in their news stories and it has everything to do with who pays the bills. However that does not explain the attitude of most media personalities in the local media scene. That is until I read David’s blog on October 11 when he was commenting about my blog on how the English media is quick to proclaim themselves “first” to break the news.
I know I know what you are all thinking, what! Martín agrees with David on something? Not so fast, David actually makes my point by trying to make it look like I have no clue about El Paso politics.
First David tries to create the ridiculous assertion that Joyce Wilson submitting a letter of resignation wasn’t breaking news. I don’t blame David as he is just following the illusion the English media was trying to create after I pointed out their failure. An El Paso Times reporter actually wrote on my El Paso News Facebook page that the city manager submitting a letter of resignation wasn’t breaking news.
Never mind that as I pointed out, the El Paso Times was feverishly trying to get confirmation from city officials well into the night, although according to some of its supporters, including David it wasn’t “breaking news” at all. The truth is the first thing dispensed by useful idiots.
David Karlsruher goes on to write that the news doesn’t “lead with a Twitter post”.
Sometimes I have to wonder if David actually reads what he writes or he just takes the email sent to him and posts it on his blog. Rather, I believe David writes, as his handlers ask him to in order to create an illusion regardless of what the truth is.
He asserts that the news doesn’t “lead with a Twitter post” knowing full well that Twitter is a vehicle and as such it is just another outlet for the news media, like video. I can’t believe that in his insulated world David hasn’t noticed the transformation of the news media lately. For example the television news outlets now regularly post write-ups about the day’s news on their websites while the local paper now includes video for some of their stories. Video and write-ups are vehicles just like Twitter. And regardless of where David is in his made-up world even he can’t deny that the news media trips all over itself proclaiming they were the first to break the latest news event.
However, I know he knows this but unfortunately for him the truth is sometimes an inconvenience and thus he does what all useful idiots do, ignore the truth.
David goes on to pretend that the local news media hasn’t ever broken into programming to break news with ticker ribbons or flashing announcements or commercials saying “see what’s coming later in the newscast”.
Ask any woman who is enthralled with the latest Kardashian drama queen breakdown or the latest bachelor/bachelorette segment if the news ever breaks into programming to run breaking news. I bet he’d get an earful!
In know, I know get to the point Martín.
David goes on to write that “Karla [Guevara] Walton is the key”. And he is right except for a very different reason than that he wrote.
Karla is the key because she does what a respectable news media personality is supposed to do; develop sources and chase a story.
Instead, David Karlsruher would have you believe that the news media’s job is to wait for the city to give it permission to run with a story. In other words, wait for the government to issue you a press release to report.
David writes; “I have confirmed that city council members were told late Wednesday afternoon that a press conference would be held Thursday morning to announce the resignation.”
Clearly and without any qualms David is stating that the news media just needs to wait until the city gives it permission to write a story.
And this is precisely what is wrong with the El Paso news media. You have two types of media outlets in El Paso. Some are just plain incompetent because of the lack of funds and the others are just acting as mouth pieces for those who write the advertising checks.
As with anything I shouldn’t and I won’t paint everyone with a broad stroke and therefore I know that there are a few news reporters, including Guevara Walton that are true to their profession and chase the story. There are, however, many more that believe what David Karlsruher is writing and that they shouldn’t chase a story down, but rather they sit on their collective asses waiting until given permission to report on it.
All sources of news have their own biases and agendas for collaborating with a news reporter. It is the job of the reporter to cultivate the news sources, vet the information given to them and chase down the details to inform the community about important things such as the city’s controversial city manager submitting a letter of resignation.
Therefore, David, gracias for making my point for me, it really made today’s post one of the easiest ones I have ever posted.
Martin,
I read all of that, but I’m still not sure what your point is. You need some kind of declarative sentence telling us what you want us to know. Are you trying to say that the media is controlled by Joyce Wilson and thus didn’t report her resignation in a timely manner? they all reported it via their web presence the same night Karla did, so you’re point lacks evidence there… evidence you provide with your own write-up
Just becaues karla at the El Dario tweets that the city manager is going to resign doesn’t mean that TV news should include it in the first five minutes of their newscast. You may have never worked in a newsroom, but I have. In order to run a story you need a minimum of one reliable source willing to give you a quote to run a story. Most respectable news outlets require two. If they can’t get anyone to talk into the camera, they don’t have a story.
And… You fail to realize that Joyce Wilson said way back in the summer time that she was done when her contract was done. Nobody is going to break into programming to report something everyone already knew.
You’re just pissed because your handlers told you that her contract was up in January of 2014 and they were wrong. She’s here until September of 2014… which makes the news of her leaving all that less news worthy. Even the Dario backpaged the story after it came out that she wasn’t leaving for a year, so your whole rant should be at Karla, not the english speaking media.
I was hoping you were going to talk about parking!
I think the declarative sentence Martin is trying to say is that El Paso lacks a credible investigative news source, one that isn’t beholden to the Shadow Government or even the regular one. The old NPT used to do a good job at ferreting out stories before they were stories, and ones the Times would not run. I agree with Martin that the Time is pretty much an extension of the PIO in city hall, not that Wilson tells them what to write but that they write what Wilson would want them to write, like it was a good deal for the taxpayers to buy their p-o-s building for its asking price and they would hype the AAA deal.
I’d like to believe that the El Paso Times is in the city’s pocket, but the evidence just isn’t there. The EP Times ran the story before the press conference and used nothing but quotes from people who hate her. If the Times is functioning as an extension of the city’s PIO office, they suck at it.
You’re missing the biggest piece of evidence that the EP Times is under Joyce Wilson’s thumb… Martin told you they are.
My point is that the city needs more sources of investigative journalism and the Times is generally not that, especially when they owe city hall such a big debt for taking their white elephant building off their hands at, effectively, asking price. Meunch is still calling people who question the stadium business case “crazies” and “livids.” There is probably a codicil in the purchase contract that obligates the Times to denigrate anyone who questions city hall decisions.
If Twatter isn’t helping push breaking news then what is? Twatter is the first source for all breaking news today. All media use their Twatter accounts to get the story out.