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Journalist group to media: Be careful how you cover swine flu

Here's a press release sent out today by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists regarding recent coverage of the swine flu scare and its treatment of Mexican immigrants. For full disclosure, I must reveal that I am on the board of directors of NAHJ.

Here's the release:

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists called on the media on Wednesday to be fair and prudent when covering the spread of swine flu in the U.S. and around the world, and resist the portrayal of Mexican immigrants as scapegoats for the possible pandemic.

The following is a statement from the NAHJ Board of Directors:

“We have come to expect immigrant bashing from the usual suspects – commentators who use purposefully inflammatory rhetoric to seek attention and to suit their agenda. And they haven’t disappointed, now using the swine flu as cause to decry immigration and immigrants. Immigrants, of course, have long been favorite and convenient scapegoats for some for everything from high taxes to infectious diseases. Facts haven’t much mattered.

 But we trust that credible journalists will cover what is undeniably a big national story with more fairness and accuracy than we are hearing from these talking heads. We would ask that these stories be written as if facts did matter. Because they do.

The temptation even in more credible media, we know, will be to link Mexican immigrants with the spread of the disease to the United States. The consequence of too much of this will be even more anger – and perhaps even more violence – against a community no more responsible for the spread of this ailment than U.S. tourists returning from scenic, balmy vacations.

 There are more than 4,000 flights per week from the United States to Mexico. Mexicans are not the only people on those flights. About 80 percent of visitors to Mexico in 2008 came from the United States. 

 The Mexican immigrant community in the United States is a part of this story. But not in such narrow fashion as we’re hearing at the moment. This community is as fearful of the swine flu’s spread as anyone else. Viruses strike regardless of where you were born. And, please remember, the fear is not just for themselves but for family members and friends still in Mexico.

 The World Health Organization is raising its alert from Level 4 to Level 5, an action that will cause further temptation to overreact. If the swine flu becomes a true pandemic, we ask simply that the news industry do its job. That would be covering the story, not in the breathless fashion of the talking heads, but as a story as needful of truth, fairness, accuracy and balance as any other important story. In fact, the bigger the story, the more it needs these attributes.

 With such stories as this, the news media can be part of the solution or part of the problem.”

KVIA won't air Obama speech tonight

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation today to give an update on his first 100 days in office. He's asked the major networks to carry the speech, and although it is costing them millions ($21 million by one account), most of them are abiding. Only Fox networks said they would skip this one. They said they would carry the speech in their cable news channels instead.

Locally, though, at least one station is saying they're not going to air the speech, which starts at 6 p.m. KVIA-TV Channel 7 (cable Channel 6) will air their regular newscast at 6 p.m. and instead send the president's speech to their digital weather channel. The station's Web site will also stream the speech live.

KINT's Renpenning expecting

Quick note to congratulate Heidi Renpenning, a reporter with KINT-TV Channel 26 (cable Channel 2) on her recently announced pregnancy. Heidi and her husband, lawyer Rogelio Rodriguez, were married several months go and now they're expecting their first child. Heidi is about three months into her pregnancy so expect her baby in the early fall.

She'll join KINTers Karla Mariscal and Ariadna Lopez as Mamas del Canal 26. 

The Strelz goes off on the Times

I went to see my first-ever arena football game on Saturday evening. The El Paso Generals handily beat the Corpus Christi Hammerheads. The crowd was great and it was great to see some football during the summer.

One thing kind of took me by surprise, though. It seems Paul Strelzin, who is a play-by-play caller for the Generals was upset at what he thought was the El Paso Times' lack of coverage for the team. At one point he asked the crowd to call Times sports editor John Erfort and complain. During another rant, he used his microphone to ask if anyone from the Times was covering the game. When his question went unanswered (he was on the sidelines and the press box is at the top of the El Paso Coliseum), he told the crowd not to buy the paper on Sunday.

When the game ended, I approached Mayor John Cook who had been sitting on the front row of the coliseum near The Strelz. Cook pointed out to me that the Times had gotten a tough break all night long, and yelled down to Strelzin to let him know that someone from the Times was in attendance at the game, pointing to me. Strelzin used the mic to mention that the paper had gone to the game and that he expected a big article in the paper.

Perhaps The Strelz was still upset about a story the Times ran recently outlining a lucrative contract the El Paso Independent School District gave the former principal and radio show host to boost morale at several campuses. Still, the Strelz didn't call out any other media during his stint on Saturday.

By the way, to read Times sports writer Aaron Bracamontes' coverage of Saturday's Generals game go here.

Press Club event will address Darren Hunt incident

The El Paso Press Club will tackle the issue of police media relations this Saturday morning. This event comes just days after KVIA journalists Darren Hunt and Ric DuPont were arrested by police while they were covering an accident on Interstate 10. The event will feature representatiaves from the El Paso Police Department, KVIA and a former high-ranking police officia.

Here's the press release:

Saturday’s Meet the Press: Who polices the police?           

This week’s arrest of arrest of KVIA-TV’s reporter Darren Hunt and photographer Ric DuPont by a police officer as they were reporting on Interstate-10 traffic accident got many people talking about the El Paso Police Department’s interactions with the news media and the public as well.

The El Paso Press Club has arranged a Meet the Press program this Saturday to explore questions the arrests raise about law enforcement procedures, training and discipline, and what working journalists and the public should expect from police on the city’s streets.

The panelists will be police department spokesman and former reporter Javier Sambrano, KVIA’s news director Brenda DeAnda and George De Angelis, a former assistant chief of the El Paso Police Department. De Angelis, the department’s No. 2 officer until 2002, teaches criminal justice at El Paso community College and holds two masters degrees, including one in criminal justice administration and security. He has also testified as an expert witness on police matters.

The panel will be open to questions from members of the news media and the public. Saturday’s event begins at 10:30 a.m. and will end about noon at Kinley’s House Coffee & Teas, 2231 N. Mesa St. at Kerby Ave.  

For more information contact David Crowder from NewspaperTree.com at 630-6622 or the El Paso Times’ Gustavo Reveles at 546-6133.

 

Newspaper Tree is growing

Let's take a break from the Darren Hunt saga. I'm sure we'll get back on it tomorrow, so don't worry.

Instead let's talk about Newspaper Tree which keeps growing, despite frequent reports of its demise. Their latest addition is Jaime Abeytia, who writes The Lion Star blog. Jaime will be taking on reporter-like duties at the online publication.

According to an editor's note on Jaime's first story (you can read it here), he will be writing a story three times a week. His first one focused on nepotism at the county courthouse.

I talked to Jaime tonight and he told me that he was a little nervous about taking on news stories, since he's been known to have an opinion or two on his blog. But he is excited about the opportunity that the folks at El Paso Media Group have given him.

This is the second time EPMG goes to Jaime. For a short period, he was the host of his own radio show on the short-lived KQBU 920 AM station. 

Darren Hunt makes CNN

By this point, Darren might be glad he wasn't just let go. He's made the big time.

And if you have a lot of time on your hands, as of about 3:20 p.m., there were 388 comments in the forum area of the Times story on the incident.

UPDATE: If you are on Facebook, here's a page for you: Free Darren Hunt.

Ankle biter defends Darren Hunt

Lisa Turner is a well known ankle biter at City Hall. On any given Tuesday, she is ready to give City Council a piece of her mind. Most of the time, she focuses on finances, but this week her topic of discussion was the much publicized detainment of KVIA Channel 7 (cable Channel 6) reporter Darren Hunt and photographer Ric DuPont.

During the citizen's input portion of the meeting, Turner said she was "quite disturbed" and "really upset" about what happened. She asked for a citizen's oversight committee in the police department, too.

Here are some of the things she told council:

"One of the most important rights is the freedom of the press. You don't arrest a reporter, takethem to a command center and then release them. If you put (hand) cuffs on a reporter and arrest them, you better have a charge. Otherwise, that tells me your'e doing this for intimidation and that is unacceptable."

She also said that "there is an apparent lack of respect for the press in the police department."

New KDBC reporter has roots in local journalism

As I covered a joint meeting of the El Paso and Las Cruces city councils last week, I noticed that KDBC Channel 4 (cable Channel 3) had sent a new reporter to cover the event. His name is Daniel Horsch.

I went up to introduce myself and it took me all of five seconds to remember that I had actually met Daniel about two years ago. It was at the funeral of my good friend, and Daniel's uncle, John Gutierrez-Mier.

JGM, as his friends in the media called him, was an El Pasoan who worked in newspapers on the East Coast, the South and all over Texas. When he died of heart failure he was a minority affairs reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He also worked at the El Paso Herald-Post when it folded in 1997.

When I first met Daniel he was still a student at Texas Tech and his family was excited that he was following in the journalistic footsteps of his uncle. I'm happy to see that he is keeping the memory of his uncle alive in the business.

Gene Savard leaves KDBC

Gene Savard said goodbye to viewers last night on KDBC. Savard was senior forecaster at the station.

No word yet on Savard's next move.