The Border Observer announced the end of its print edition, with the last issue going out July 13. In an unsigned editorial, presumably from Editor Jaime O. Perez, the Observer promises to resurface online.
The move accompanies larger changes at the top of the publishing house that owned the Observer, El Diario. Former Editor Gerardo Rodriguez left the Spanish-language daily. Rodriguez is son of the patriarch Osvaldo Rodriguez Borunda, who owns the influential Diario de Juarez and a chain of associated newspapers. link
When the Observer first began publishing, Gerardo Rodriguez stated in an article in NPT that “I talked to (Perez) about the ethical policies of El Diario and how I didn’t want his personal perspective or ideals reflected on the magazine, that we need to be very balanced, fair and accurate on issues and be very plural and he agreed to do that. I told him if he wanted to have an opinion he can do it in his own column but that the magazine should be made from very different perspectives.” article
In the goodbye note, (presumably) Perez writes that he leaves “the print edition with gratitude for the opportunity to demonstrate it is possible to produce an honest product.”
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Propaganda: information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
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In issue after issue, the names of Council members opposed by the Observer, under Perez, were prefaced with terms such as “tax-and-spenders.” In articles, without attribution, terms such as “The Gang of 5” were juxtaposed with terms such as “The No-Tax 3.”
Facts were stated in support of conspiracy theories: For example, in a recent article, it was purported that “The Gang of 5” began to look at Kelo v. New London, a 2005 decision regarding eminent domain, in 2006 as a way to push the Downtown Plan forward. It also was purported that Bill Sanders, a driver of the PDNG, an investor in the REIT that is buying property Downtown, and the father-in-law of Rep. Beto O’Rourke, began circulating around town at that time discussing the opportunity to use Kelo as a hammer to secure access to land cheaply Downtown.
There are plenty of facts that could lead honest observers to question the relationships of those involved in the Downtown Plan. But in this case … the fact is, the city, like most governmental entities in the summer of 2005, did not want the state to reduce its powers of eminent domain. By that time, the PDNG Downtown Plan already was well underway. The contract with the PDNG was approved by the city in early 2005 under the Wardy administration, with now-County Judge Anthony Cobos, lauded by Perez’s Observer as a stalwart for la gente, was one of the most vociferous supporters of allowing the PDNG a free hand to decide what ought to happen Downtown. background article
The fact also is that Jaime Perez is a political operative who helped elect many of the public officials that the Border Observer, under Jaime Perez, has supported through the crude use of negative adjectives and techniques to make some people look bad and others look good.
The Border Observer would have much better off, and much better for El Paso, with just the facts.
Correction: The editorial in the print edition was signed. The unsigned version appeared online.
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The Chicago Media Blitz
There’s a media storm from Chicago that has garnered worldwide attention. In the middle is a former El Paso reporter, Amy Jacobson, who worked for about a year at KVIA in the early 90s (at press time, NPT was able to contact several people who remembered Jacobson, but were not able to pin specific dates to her employment).
Jacobson, a television reporter for NCB Channel 5- WMAQ covering the story of a missing woman, was videotaped by a rival television station CBS Channel 5-WBBM at the home of the missing woman’s husband. The fact that she was wearing a bathing suit added a salacious spin to the story, although it later turned out that Jacobson brought her children and that several other people were at the scene. Jacobson was fired by her employer, WMAQ. Jacobson said she brought her children because she worked so much and she was trying to spend time with the children. She also said she never would have gone to his home if other people were not present.
The rival station had staked out the home when it caught Jacobson on tape.
The event has raised issues of journalistic ethics, both on the part of Jacobson, who admitted to making a mistake in going swimming with her children at the home but said competitive pressures led her to go to the home in hopes of getting information, and on the part of her competitors, who were in a neighbor’s yard staking out the home.
-- From the media center at Poynter, a discussion on ethics. link
-- In-depth examination of the event from a Chicago paper. link
-- Review of the story as it plays on the Internet, with commentary and observations.link
-- The Chicago Sun-Times on the rivalry between stations WBBM and WMAQ. link
