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.
The Rio Grande Foundation, a local libertarian think tank that funds The New Mexico Watchdog, seems to have attracted a watchdog of its own in the form of RGFWatch (hat tip to Democracy for New Mexico).
RGFWatch complains that New Mexico Watchdog blogger Jim Scarantino is a Republican wolf in journalist’s clothing—but the blogger behind the site is anonymous, going only by “Richard C.”
Scarantino, an attorney, explains his political views on the Watchdog site:
Jim has been a Democrat and a Republican. …He was persuaded to become a registered Republican by the gubernatorial campaign of Gary Johnson, “America’s Most Dangerous Politician.” In 2000, Jim co-chaired the McCain for President effort in New Mexico. In 2004, in protest of the administration of George W. Bush, Jim switched to the Democratic Party. Since then, he has continued to support the person he believes is the best candidate for the office, left the GOP. Jim is currently registered Independent, but reserves the right to register with either party to support the right person in a party primary.
On the blog, Richard says he’s “Writing about the pro-corporation, anti-regular person non-profit known as the Rio Grande Foundation. While they will not respond to e-mails and on some of their blogs censor comments, they cannot stop me from telling the truth on this blog.”
Although there is no contact information for Richard C., it appears that he’s got a bone to pick not so much with the foundation, which is clearly partisan aligned with libertarian or free-market, fiscally conservative philosophy, but with the Watchdog site.
Although the Rio Grande Foundation is non-partisan, it is
(Richard also takes a mild swipe at The Independent—because Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing is one of the panelists invited to opine about current events in our “Independent Forum.”)
Here’s a post from today, about a post on Scarantino’s personal blog, in which he links to an op-ed in The New York Times:
This post has been updated to more accurately describe the nature of the Rio Grande Foundation.
