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For many years, I have been showing you how Bob Moore’s journalistic ethics were dropped by him in favor of working for a public policy agenda that favors his newspaper’s bottom line. Moore’s lack of journalist ethics is so egregious that there are so many examples of them that my blog is in danger of becoming the Bob Moore blog on his lack of journalistic standards. Yesterday, March 20, 2015 Moore’s newspaper published yet another blatant example of how certain members of the community are protected by the El Paso Times.

In the latest case, the El Paso Times attempts to protect the public’s perception of Woody Hunt. The issue is about the ongoing flag debacle at the Canutillo Independent School District. Although the editorial titled “Editorial: Let’s end the ginned-up Canutillo flag mural flap” has the generic byline of  the “El Paso Times Editorial Board,” I have no doubt that Bob Moore was instrumental in its content.

The editorial states that the flag issue “is a manufactured controversy that has gone far too long.” Let’s look closely at the use of the words “manufactured controversy.” Here, Bob Moore begins to distort the public record be attempting to create the impression that the controversy is a “manufactured” one, apparently for political reasons. He completely ignores that the reason he is publishing the editorial is because of the public commentary. But he still pretends it is manufactured.

Look closely at what follows next in the editorial diatribe; moving the target of the controversy away from the instigator and directing it to the victim; the Canutillo School District. The editorial begins to frame the issue as one of legal mumbo-jumbo and how the school district is the culprit for not following the rules. In Moore’s world, the culprit is the school district because they signed a document giving away their rights as an independent school district and the expectation that a school is supposed to be a teaching environment not just a rubber stamp for a city’s oligarchy.

Bob Moore has spent too much time being a rubber stamp that he doesn’t know any better.

Unfortunately, the hypocrisy oozing out of this issue is so great that it cannot be ignored, so I must continue.

Now look closely at how the distortion is created. The editorial goes to great pains to include links to two actual documents – the “Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions” and a rendering of the approved school design. Yet, although Bob Moore’s editorial accuses former Congressman Silvestre Reyes of being the culprit in the whole fiasco it does not include any copies of supporting documents. The real culprit is Woody Hunt and his company so the editorial needs to create the illusion that there is another culprit, Silvestre Reyes.

Although the newspaper included the two documents that support their version of the reality, they did not include a copy of the letter that they use to make their case that the real culprit is Reyes. Moore’s editorial cites a “letter sent by the district to Hunt officials” as the basis for the allegation yet they make no attempt to include a copy of it. Is it because the letter does not exist or is it because making it public would destroy Moore’s carefully crafted fantasy?

Too convenient for the editorial board’s attempt to distract from the real culprit.

A controversy needs an instigator for the community’s wrath. Silvestre Reyes is the convenient scapegoat. That is the distraction they are trying to create.

Bob Moore then ends his editorial with the absurd notion that the school district’s actions through the ongoing debacle is teaching children not to keep promises they make. I am not surprised Moore attempts to make this illogical leap because the fact of the matter is that there is nothing else he can use. He has to make a strange leap of promises to create the fiction he is trying to manufacture.

Let me comment a little about this “promise” leap that Bob Moore is attempting to use.

A promise has no place in government or in commercial dealings. That is why societies have contracts and judiciaries to handle commercial disagreements. To make the issue about teaching children about promises not only misses the point of the whole debacle completely but it also shows how desperate Bob Moore is to protect his benefactor – Woody Hunt.

All contracts are open to interpretation. The mechanisms are back and forth communications and letters and when those fail, it is up to a judge, or various judges to make a final interpretation of the intent of the contract. Bob Moore acknowledges that a contract stipulation is in dispute but in his desperation and twisted logic, he tries to make it about a promise.

What, in reality, Bob Moore is teaching children is that an oligarchy class system is in place in El Paso and everyone should adhere to their will. Independence, critical thinking and challenging the status-quo have no place in the fantasy that Bob Moore wishes to live in.

The most egregious part of the whole fiasco has nothing to do with covenants or colors and everything to do with patriotism and the belief that the nation should be honored. The Canutillo School District isn’t asking to be allowed to violate the color covenants by painting the school building an outrageous pink or orange color. Rather it is trying to instill citizenship and pride upon its student bodies about what it is to be a US citizen.

Isn’t that what schools are supposed to do?

Understand what Bob Moore is trying to do with his newspaper’s editorial.

He is trying to end the discussion about the flag colors and protect the reputation of his largest benefactor. This is because the truth is that Woody Hunt wants to be king and does not want any dissention among those he believes he should be governing over.

The sad fact that most have ignored is that Woody Hunt makes a substantial amount of his income from government work, a government best defined by the colors red, white and blue. To me that is hypocrisy at its worst. Hunt makes housing for US soldiers yet he doesn’t want the school to honor the flag they fight and sometimes die for. He knows he can’t let people realize this so he uses his useful idiots to end the controversy and deflect the attention away from the facts and onto a fantasy he wants created.

Martin Paredes

Martín Paredes is a Mexican immigrant who built his business on the U.S.-Mexican border. As an immigrant, Martín brings the perspective of someone who sees México as a native through the experience...

4 replies on “An Examination of How Bob Moore Controls Public Perception”

  1. I have to disagree with the basic gist of this blog… Bob Moore’s journalistic failures aside this SHOULD be about teaching children about utilizing the legal system to remedy a contractual dispute instead of stamping your feet, whining and crying in the court of public opinion and dragging up all these sunshine patriots. Worse of all is placing Congressman Reyes on a pedestal that he is undeserving of… yes, he devoted his life to public service but his service to immigrants or El Paso his last few years is questionable…

    Both sides should take a step back, rethink their actions til now and seek an amicable solution to allow the flag placement. Especially the Canutillo ISD who obviously know they CANNOT win this in court, regardless of having a flag waving justice or not.

  2. I think you should request rep Limon for a subcommittee to study this issue further for she will be the one must likely to solve the problem thru committees and sub committees. Reyes posts on FB clearly show his true colors as well. He unfortunately was a disaster that never got anything done for El Paso during his tenure. He should have formed more committees and subcommittees like rep Limon to really get things done.

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