It's been a year since ...

...I first wrote a memo. And the blogosphere continues to bring it up.

It was a memo to the news staff, asking them not to read wire service or newspaper stories with unattributed quotes by high administration officials talking about Iraq or any of the Axis of Evil powers. Why? There had been too many set-up stories, promoting the administration's agenda.

Was I ever surprised when that memo went around the world. It's still out there.

As I said at the time in a media interview: "Why am I being interviewed? I'm in the media, after all. Isn't this what we do -- check it out? Am I the only guy hanging out there alone?

Still, it's a curiosity that my memo is still being quoted, as in this blog, exactly a year later.

This public broadcasting trade magazinewrote about it at the time.

Needed: Pub broadcasting to separate from universities

When the Santa Fe Community College wanted to sell its public radio station license, the community rose up in arms. Out of that came the not-for-profit foundation that penned a management agreement with the college to operate KSFR radio independent of the rest of the college. The college retained the license.

We didn’t know it at the time, but this method of saving the radio station also gave it a great strength – its total independence.

More public broadcasting stations should examine whether they are truly independent under their current organization as part of a university or college. When crunch time comes, they may be under pressure from whatever administration is in charge of the school at the time.

Imagine the public broadcaster having to report, objectively, on a savory matter bubbling up inside the academic institution. Inevitably, there would be the pressure to succumb to playing the school’s tune about the matter.

There’s always the possibility the local college might try to strong-arm KSFR if push came to shove. But they wouldn’t get very far. We don’t work for them.

Now, public television in New Hampshire is splitting off from the University of New Hampshire to be an independent nonprofit. They don’t cover the point of journalistic independence in their statement about the move. But that’s what they’ll have. And that’s a mighty beneficial thing.

More public broadcasters should take this approach.

Why do newspapers "endorse" candidates?

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I've probably wondered this, too. But the tradition is so ingrained (I actually wait to read these endorsements), the thought in the back of my mind never fully marched forward into a question.

But now the editor of Time Magazine raises the question. And it's a good one.

An excerpt:

"How can a newspaper be objective on the front page when it endorses a candidate on the editorial page? They're dubious about whether the reporter who covers Hillary Clinton can be objective if his newspaper has endorsed Barack Obama — and vice versa. And they're right. At a time when newspapers are trying to ensure their survival by attracting younger readers, the idea of endorsements is both counterproductive and an anachronism. It's certainly the prerogative of newspapers and their owners to endorse candidates, but in doing so they are undermining the very basis for their business, which is impartiality. It's a recipe for having less influence, not more."

Read it here.

N.M. Superdelegates 2

It took some looking around to find it, but here's how New Mexico's superdelegates stand as of Feb. 14, 2008

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON

Martin Chavez MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Diane Denish NAT'L ASSOCIATION OF DEMOCRATIC LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS
Mary Gail Gwaltney NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Annadelle Sanchez NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Raymond Sanchez NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Christine Trujillo MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

SEN. BARACK OBAMA

Fred R. Harris FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN


UNCOMMITTED

Democratic Governor
Bill Richardson

U.S. Senate
Jeff Bingaman

U.S. House of Representatives
Tom Udall

Brian Colon, state party chair



State's Total Number of Super Delegates: 11 with one yet to be named.

Gov. Bill finally speaks on "Super Delegates"

We've been asking the question: What if it's so tight a Democratic race for the presidential nomination that the party's nearly-800 superdelegates around the nation have to resolve the question? Some pundits predict a voter backlash if the final choice doesn't reflect the popular vote.

In New Mexico, about half of the state's superdelegates say they've already committed their support, and they did that before the final vote count was released.

No public statements yet to New Mexico media, but Gov. Bill Richardson tells the New York Times*** this weekend, "I just think there are too many superdelegates and I don’t think party bosses and elected officials should have the say they’re given today.” He goes on to say he hasn't yet decided who to support but believes it should be the candidate with the most popular votes.

And who are New Mexico's superdelegates?

Martin Chavez MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Brian Colon NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Diane Denish NAT'L ASSOCIATION OF DEMOCRATIC LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS
Mary Gail Gwaltney NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Annadelle Sanchez NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Raymond Sanchez NEW MEXICO DNC MEMBER
Christine Trujillo MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Democratic Governor
Bill Richardson

U.S. Senate
Jeff Bingaman

U.S. House of Representatives
Tom Udall

Distinguished Party Leader
Fred R. Harris FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN


State's Total Number of Super Delegates: 11

*** (Free registration required at the NYT)

5 years since Colin Powell's UN speech?

Times does fly. Greg Mitchell, editor of the newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher reminds us that it's already the fifth anniversary of Colin Powell's persuasive speech to the UN about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Remember the image of George Tenet sitting behind him? Editor & Publisher's editor reminds newspaper editors this week that more than a dozen U.S. daily papers "signed on" to sell the war back in 2003.

How is it possible that the editor of a trade publication for the newspaper industry, and the news director for a small public radio station in New Mexico believed not one word of it?

Gov. Bill not a "spoiler" after all

Turns out New Mexicans were not asleep at the switch in large numbers. Gov. Bill got less than one-quarter of a percent of the total vote in the state's 2008 Democratic Presidential Caucus. He would have needed 15 percent to snare any delegates for the August Democrat National Convention.

But, then again, with the massive vote recount underway, who knows what the final tally will be?

NYT still "coming clean" on Iraq

The New York Times is still trying to "come clean" years after I stopped reading it because of Judith Miller's shilling for the administration. They've already apologized for that.

Now, the public editor in her blog asks the question, why didn't the Times and other media write about criticism of media coverage of the Iraq occupation delivered by the general who was in charge of all forces in Iraq at the time of Abu Ghraib. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez delivered the media a rebuke in the same breath he blasted the administration for its "incompetent" management of the war.

Good question. Why not write about his comments on the media? The Times tries to explain it this way: "Sanchez is an important figure in the history of U.S. involvement in Iraq, and if his criticisms of the administration were worth front-page play, his criticisms of the news media were also worth reporting." See the full mea culpa.

Gov. Bill a spoiler in New Mexico on Feb 5?

How many votes will Gov. Bill Richardson take from Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama when New Mexico Dems go to the polls Feb. 5?

Probably some big part of 5,000 is our conjecture.

The New Mexico Democratic Party sent out about 5,000 absentee ballots, starting in December. Some pundits suggested Bill would have gotten a huge part of the party turnout if he had stayed in the race. But he pulled out January 10, probably after some of those absentee ballots had been mailed in.

Plus, he's still on the ballot for walk-in voting Feb. 5. Voters who've been asleep this past week just might mark him in.

So, a news angle we'll be following on Tuesday night is the vote for Bill, and how much it may subtract from the remaining two candidates.

KSFR 101.1 and KSFR.ORG streaming live will carry election returns beginning at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5, with Bill Dupuy at the news desk, Dan Gerrity at a local watering hole popular among local politicos, and national coverage from Public Radio Interactive.