By Arthur Alpert
Great minds think alike!
Denise Tessier and Arthur Alpert arrived independently at posts about the Journal and the New Mexico Energy Forum. Now that you’ve read hers, here’s Arthur’s perspective.
The Editor
The Albuquerque Journal is nothing if not resourceful in promoting its editorial agenda outside its editorials. You know those identifiers at the end of Op Ed columns? Well, to fool unsuspecting readers, Journal editors employ even them.
In theory, those IDs should give us useful information about the essayist’s qualifications or political bent.
In Journal practice, however, they – hold it, before characterizing what management does, let’s see what an editor or editors perpetrated on the Op Ed pages Sunday, Feb. 16 (B3) and Monday, Feb. 27 (A7).
Sunday the editors published a column by Gerges Scott headlined “Strike A Balance on Energy”. The only ID was “New Mexico Energy Forum” under his byline.
Monday the editors ran a column headlined “Governor, Backers Sold Out Parents With Education Proposals” by one Michael Corwin.
They inserted “ Independent Source Pac” under his name, but didn’t stop there.
Below his piece, the editors appended a lengthy ID telling us Corwin has an investigative firm that works for Democratic candidates in local, state, congressional and presidential races. Also, his political action committee received $100,000 “from the Communication Workers of America union.”
Fine with me; I’m happy to know where Mr. Corwin is coming from.
But where was the equivalent for Gerges Scott’s column?
No, excuse me, I don’t require equivalence; just tell me what New Mexico Energy Forum is.
Since the Journal didn’t, I visited its web site and read it’s “a community of concerned New Mexico citizens.” That lacked specificity so I looked further.
It’s a front for the American Petroleum Institute.
So the Albuquerque Journal, which is editorially pro-Big Oil, ran a pro-Big Oil column and hid where it was coming from.
And then the Journal, which editorially favors the Governor’s school agenda, took pains to identify a critic of that agenda as a partisan who gets money from a labor union.
Now how would you characterize the Journal’s practice?
Me, I figure (to paraphrase George Orwell) that at Journal Center, “All IDs are equal, but some IDs are more equal than others.”
Is NM Energy Forum a co-flack for the American Petroleum Institute along with another Iowa-based outfit called the American Future Fund, which is running the usual twisted anti-Obama ads in the local market?
Ms.Sanchez: Sorry, but I just saw with your query of last week. Having just checked out the American Future Fund, I can confirm that it is another one of those “free market” outfits running interference for corporate interests. But I cannot establish a tie with API. Perhaps they have donors in common, I don’t know.
Arthur Alpert
To Mr. AA, if you go to their home page, at the bottom, with the copyright info,it’s right there , the API, clearly much,much more, than common donors. Check it out.