The Albuquerque Journal: Habitual Wall-Jumper

I am remiss in not posting this sooner – visiting family and the holiday weekend threw me a little out of sorts.
Last Friday, New Mexico Independent commentator Arthur Alpert penned an interesting piece on media bias.
The final half of the commentary focuses on a recent Albuquerque Journal story regarding President Obama’s recent visit to Rio [...]

Advocates With a Pen

There’s been so much talk about the decline of the traditional media and concern about what kind of in-depth journalism might rise up to up to take its place.
But I’m more encouraged now about the future of journalism since I’ve seen the ambitious and righteous project called  “Divided Families,” a series of stories by journalism [...]

Crashing the Gates of the Mainstream Media

Check out this great read from PBS’s excellent Mediashift website about the crucial role the blogosphere plays in media criticism. My favorite line is about bloggers crashing the gates traditionally kept by the so-called “legacy” media:
Here comes the crowd, and in many instances, they’re not very happy and they have cheap global distribution for their [...]

Ethics Reform for Dummies: The Journal doesn’t get it, but Sherry Robinson does

The legislative session passed the mid-point of the sixty-day session last week, and the major ethics reform bills are still in the Senate Rules Committee.
Bills still waiting for their day are ones to establish an independent ethics commission, Clean Elections public financing, and contributions limits (N.M. is one of only five states with no limits [...]

NM Independent makes its mark

New Mexico seemed particularly blessed last April when the non-profit Center for Independent Media founded the New Mexico Independent, a comprehensive online newspaper designed to cover local news exclusively.
The CIM had already established similar online papers in four states and Washington D.C as part of its New Journalist Pilot Program. The idea was to train [...]

Netroots Nation: Bloggers speak for mainstream now

I’ve just returned from this weekend’s inspiring Netroots Nation conference in Austin, TX, where 3,000 of the nation’s most progressive political bloggers met not only to network with each other but to sit down with some of the country’s most exciting established and emerging progressive leaders.

Why the Tribune will be missed: Remembering Welsome

The tributes from the bloggers are rolling in.
Chantal at Duke City Fix comments with a plea to maintain the Tribune’s invaluable on-line archives. LP at FBIHOP weighs in with an excellent post on the sad statistics about the nationwide decline of afternoon dailies. And Coco takes the loss very personally.

Contemplating Klan Radio

Right-wing talk radio’s hate spew has become an accepted part of the media landscape. In Albuquerque we have 770 KKOB-AM radio – home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage for seven hours every weekday.
Consider Michael Savage. We’re talking the purest, most unadulterated bigotry imaginable. Even Don Imus at his most vulgar never [...]

Albuq. Journal: Read the headline, miss the story

Mayor Martin Chavez’s U.S. Senate bid may have collapsed in the face of abysmal poll numbers but that doesn’t mean there will be any abatement of the Albuquerque Journal’s bend-over-backwards favorable reportage of his administration.