I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Last week, in a two-page internal memo announcing cuts and newsroom layoffs, Albuquerque Journal Editor Kent Walz explained the many painful decisions he’s had to make, then closed with this memorable line: “And despite the challenges, our goal is for the Journal to continue to set the bar for real journalism in New Mexico.”
While the announcement of layoffs at the Journal sent us reaching for the Alka-Seltzer (hey, we work in the same industry and it sucks all around), we were amused by that last line, particularly the part about “real journalism.” So was the floor sweeper (no, not really) who leaked the memo to us.
Who exactly is it that’s producing fake journalism in New Mexico? What is fake journalism? Is that like “The Daily Show’s” fake news? (But wait, isn’t “The Daily Show’s” fake news actually pretty much real news?)
We’re confused. Certainly Walz didn’t mean … no … us? Well, if he did, we heartily encourage Gov. Bill Richardson to file a restraining order against the New Mexico Independent’s Trip Jennings, because that crazy fake news reporter is stalking him!
Meanwhile, in a posting about the Journal cuts, blogger Joe Monahan mentioned layoffs at KOB-TV, the Santa Fe New Mexican and at NMI, then, four paragraphs down, kicks us right in the shin. “Original statewide coverage of New Mexico news is essentially limited to the Journal, a smallish AP presence and three television stations,” he writes.
Joe Monahan is a big stupid poopy head, and he is NOT invited to our birthday party!
And we hereby invite all the reporters at KUNM, The Santa Fe New Mexican, the Santa Fe Reporter, the Las Cruces Sun News, the Clovis News Journal — and, hell, everyone else who gets paid an annual salary much smaller than David Harris’ “deferred compensation” to pore over campaign finance reports, chase down a recalcitrant governor, attend mind-numbing press conferences and ask hard questions of people in power — to join us in sticking our tongues out at him.
Oh, this childishness is exhausting.
