Entries Tagged as 'Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar'

National vs. Local

February 15th, 2016 · 1 Comment · budget policy, Congress, Fact Check, journalism, Washington

By Arthur Alpert About a week go I bumped into a former Albuquerque Journal reporter who said – I paraphrase – we’re essentially on target in our critiques of the daily but I write too often on national and global stories, not enough about the daily’s local coverage. My reaction to the “on target” was […]

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The Rules for Covering Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid: Bad news gets page one, good news gets buried, and Big Pharma gets ignored entirely

November 23rd, 2015 · No Comments · health care reform, journalism

By Arthur Alpert “Premiums to rise for Medicare drug plan” was the headline Journal editors ran over an Associated Press story they front-paged today, Monday, Nov. 23. Of course, they ran it on the front page. There must be a rule at the Journal – anything negative, even potentially negative about Obamacare, Medicare or Medicaid […]

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Tools of Misapprehension

July 30th, 2015 · No Comments · health care reform, journalism, role of government, social safety net, war and peace

By Arthur Alpert That the Albuquerque Journal makes most news decisions politically is so obvious it’s become (borderline) boring. Yet the skill with which the editors wield their tools to produce the paper’s daily misapprehension of reality still fascinates me, as does the relentlessness of the effort. By tools, I mean headlines, where stories run, […]

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Unsourced and Misleading: Who wrote mystery paragraph inserted into wire service Obamacare story?

June 11th, 2015 · 2 Comments · Fact Check, health care reform, journalism, Koch brothers, Uncategorized

By Arthur Alpert Recently, I amused you (I hope) with a post on how the Albuquerque Journal has trained me, as Pavlov did his dogs, to rush to the computer whenever it publishes an Op Ed essay from a group named “Freedom” – something. Salivating, I turn from breakfast to Google for my reward – […]

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More Flailing Against Obamacare, and Related Backdoor Attacks on the IRS

April 14th, 2014 · No Comments · campaign finance reform, health care reform, tax policy

By Denise Tessier When the health care enrollment deadline of March 31 passed with more than 7 million people signed up nationwide – “beating expectations” as the Associated Press put it – the Albuquerque Journal put the news inside , deciding the front-page story should be “NM lags on health care sign-ups.” The latter, more […]

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CBO Report Coverage: A Banquet of Advocacy

February 18th, 2014 · No Comments · health care reform, journalism

By Arthur Alpert Last time out I acquainted you with one Albuquerque Journal recipe for dishing rightist advocacy. Editor/cooks using it print multiple opinions that coincide with management’s editorial agenda while excluding opinions (or stories) that conflict. My example was the CBO report on Obamacare. Non-partisan experts said lots of Americans will choose to leave […]

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Varying the Usual Recipe in Obamacare Coverage

February 14th, 2014 · No Comments · Fact Check, health care reform, journalism

By Arthur Alpert If you visit this site often, you know the Albuquerque Journal is less a newspaper than a restaurant where cooks follow several recipes in a daily effort to feed readers a diet of rightist advocacy. One favorite recipe begins with a ”news story,” often from the Associated Press Washington Bureau, that leans […]

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A Quick Example of Bias Infecting ACA News

February 12th, 2014 · 3 Comments · health care reform, journalism

By Denise Tessier Part of the blame for the Albuquerque Journal’s perceived overall conservative bias comes from the mixing of opinion with news. This is a not problem that lies in the work of its staff reporters, but in its use of national Associated Press stories that increasingly seem infected with opinion. The problem, too, […]

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NM’s Low Health Exchange Premiums: Big News Everywhere Else But in the Journal

September 27th, 2013 · No Comments · health care reform, journalism, Uncategorized

By Arthur Alpert “Darn it. Those Obamacare insurance exchanges are about to open for business and they’re looking good. It’s early but informed competition may make health insurance affordable for the uninsured.” “Yeah, and worse yet, New Mexico is getting lower-than-average rates.” “So how do we avoid reporting that?” I don’t know if the editors […]

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More Than A Grain of Salt

September 26th, 2012 · 1 Comment · health care reform, journalism

By Arthur Alpert I write today to praise salt. Physicians may decry its presence in our food, but it’s essential for reading our local newspaper. I prescribe great quantities to protect yourself, specifically, from the Associated Press product reproduced in the Albuquerque Journal daily – not grains of salt but volumes akin to what our […]

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