Entries Tagged as 'economy'

What If Someone New Took the Journal Helm?

November 1st, 2013 · 7 Comments · economy, Education, energy policy, Fact Check, journalism

By Denise Tessier Here’s a thought: What if Alan Webber, who’s just announced he’s running for the Democratic nomination for governor, ran the Albuquerque Journal? Whether he was to take the helm of state administration or of the state’s leading newspaper, I submit the effect on New Mexico could be comparably profound. To be clear, […]

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Government Shutdown Coverage: A Discordant and Disqualifying Performance

October 27th, 2013 · 2 Comments · budget policy, economy, journalism, Uncategorized, Washington

By Arthur Alpert You have noticed, surely, how the Albuquerque Journal’s song changes from time to time, as if an unseen fiddler was calling variations on the tune. Now, for example, the editors are segueing from the shutdown/debt ceiling crisis to promote austerity, even as they maintain the underlying theme. One day soon I’ll document […]

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False Equivalency Shifts Into High Gear

October 11th, 2013 · 1 Comment · economy, health care reform, journalism, role of government, tax policy, Washington

By Arthur Alpert I must break the habit of understatement. In that last post, I mean, where I wrote the Albuquerque Journal was guilty of false equivalence and worse, in playing the shutdown story as a partisan divide where the parties are almost equally to blame and solutions lie in negotiations aimed at meeting in […]

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False Equivalency in the Government Shutdown Story, Journal Style

October 7th, 2013 · 3 Comments · budget policy, economy, health care reform, journalism, role of government, tax policy, Uncategorized

By Arthur Alpert Editors must work around the staff to distort local reality so it fits the Albuquerque Journal’s agenda. It’s a snap, however, when the issue is national. Witness the current campaign to persuade readers the federal government shutdown represents a split between Democrats and Republicans, the parties are almost equally to blame and […]

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Samuelson’s Fables

August 27th, 2013 · 2 Comments · economy, financial coverage, journalism, role of government, tax policy

By Arthur Alpert Henny Penny, hit by a stray acorn, assumed the sky was falling and raced around spreading hysteria in the barnyard. It’s a folktale about a deluded fowl scaring the bejeebers out of the community. The obvious moral is, watch out for idiots flapping wings. Or jaws. The Albuquerque Journal’s favorite economics reporter, […]

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Balancing Act

August 23rd, 2013 · 1 Comment · economy, immigration, role of government, Uncategorized

By Arthur Alpert How ridiculous is journalistic balance? Well, back in my TV days, we would conjure up a documentary on air pollution; the first half would explain scientifically how it poisons living things while the other 50 percent argued that dirty air is good for us. Hey, it was perfectly balanced. Balance has lots […]

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‘Burying’ the Death Spiral of the American Dream

August 1st, 2013 · No Comments · economy, journalism, Uncategorized

By Denise Tessier On a slower news day, this story might have been – should have been – on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal: Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and […]

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Identity Problem

July 24th, 2013 · 4 Comments · economy, Education, environment, journalism

By Arthur Alpert A couple of weeks ago, business reporter Winthrop Quigley used his UpFront column in the Albuquerque Journal to remind us the state is mired in poverty, to suggest many leaders are losing heart and to wonder if we New Mexicans even know who we are. He concluded: “Until we understand who we […]

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Congress Failing Our Students

July 1st, 2013 · No Comments · economy, Education

By Denise Tessier The Albuquerque Journal can’t be blamed, because it has published not one, but two editorials in the past month encouraging Congress to pass legislation that would have stopped today’s doubling of the interest rate on federal Stafford student loans — from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. Several bills aimed at curbing student loan […]

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Some Context, Please

June 10th, 2013 · No Comments · economy, tax policy

By Arthur Alpert Oh, gosh. I was hoping objectivity was dead but no, the monster rages still and still destroys journalism. Case in point- a horrible Saturday, June 8 Albuquerque Journal story headlined: “Pearce Warns of Economic Failure” James Monteleone’s account of Rep. Steve Pearce’s comments to the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce ran on page […]

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