{"id":4,"date":"2010-10-02T22:09:14","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T04:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/?p=4"},"modified":"2010-10-09T23:30:09","modified_gmt":"2010-10-10T05:30:09","slug":"v-is-for-vendetta-the-albuquerque-journals-vendetta-against-the-wild-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/v-is-for-vendetta-the-albuquerque-journals-vendetta-against-the-wild-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"V is for Vendetta: The Albuquerque Journal&#8217;s Vendetta Against the Wild Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Albuquerque Journal has now printed, over the past two weeks,\u00c2\u00a0six opinion pieces denigrating\u00c2\u00a0Governor Richardson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed 12,000 acre expansion of Cerrillos State Park and creation of a wild horse sanctuary.\u00c2\u00a0Four of the opinion pieces masqueraded as news articles, with one printed front page and just below the Albuquerque Journal banner, and featured the neutral headline of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Horse Haven Would be Exclusive Club\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<p>A listing of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153news articles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and editorials shows the increasingly strident view of the Albuquerque<br \/>\nJournal with each item:\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$2.8M Set Aside for Horse Sanctuary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sept 17th \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Mark Oswald<\/li>\n<li>Horses, Kids And Stimulus &#8211; Sept 18th &#8211; Thomas J. Cole, Upfront Column<\/li>\n<li>Governor Delays Vote on Sanctuary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sept 22nd \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Thomas J. Cole, Upfront Column<\/li>\n<li>\u00c2\u00a0Wild Horses Couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Drag Sense into Deal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sept 23rd -Editorial\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>\u00c2\u00a0Horse Haven Would be Exclusive Club \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sept 25th \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Thomas J. Cole, Upfront column\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Somebody Holler Whoa on Sanctuary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sept 29th \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Editorial<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of the news articles presented any information or quotes from proponents of the wild horse sanctuary, besides Governor Richardson himself, even though a chief proponent for New Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wild horses, the Wild Horse Observers Association (WHOA), sought out the Journal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Thomas J. Cole to\u00c2\u00a0 provide comment.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, the headline of their most recent editorial against the wild horses snarkily incorporated the organizations acronym.<\/p>\n<p>In the earlier news articles and editorials the Journal clearly tries to promulgate a false choice: funding childcare assistance vs spending on wild horses. Why is it a false choice? The $2.8 million being allocated for the park expansion calculates out to a mere 0.07% of the $3.9 billion Federal stimulus\u00c2\u00a0 funds being directed to New Mexico. The budgetary category of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Family Safety Net\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has already been allocated 8.18% of New Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share of stimulus funds. Also, the $2.8 million is but a fraction of the\u00c2\u00a0shortfall in childcare assistance funding.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an anecdotal sampling of other stimulus funded projects in New Mexico:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>0.21%: Reconstruction of Existing Lanes fo NM 128, a rural road in Lea County (birthplace of Governor-Candidate Diane Denish).\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>1.31%: Levee improvements in Dona Ana County (home to Governor-Candidate Susana Martinez\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>0.06%: Improvements to Columbus US Land Port of Entry in Luna County (home of NM Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The primary point being made here is that, clearly, the expansion of Cerrillos State Park is not preventing the funding of childcare assistance, as there are many other choices, many of them larger, which comprise the allocation of the $3.9 billion of stimulus funds for New Mexico. \u00c2\u00a0False Choice.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the news articles and editorials attempt to make great hay (sorry for the pun) out of the\u00c2\u00a0 opposition of Governor candidates Diane Denish and Susanna Martinez, and State Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthurs Smith to the proposal. Here are some other anecdotal figures to\u00c2\u00a0 chew on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$1.9 million: Increase budget for DA office of Governor-Candidate Susana Martinez, from 2003 to 2009.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>$2.8 million: Approximate cumulative budget for Lt. Governor office of Governor-Candidate Diane Denish, 2007-2010.<\/li>\n<li>$7.5 million: Expenses for 2010 NM Legislative Session<\/li>\n<li>$4.2 million: FY2010 Budget Recommendation for Legislative Finance Committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>True, these numbers have no direct relationship to the proposed wild horse sanctuary, however, it does provide a sense of proportion to the cost of a project which is an investment into New Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and the\u00c2\u00a0 nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest private sector employee, tourism. The Albuquerque Journal takes little note of the\u00c2\u00a0 financial benefits this investment in tourism will bring throughout the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Just to throw out another loosely related fact:\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Energy and Natural Resources: Biggest Campaign Contributors to NM Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, 2004\/2006\/2008.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just saying\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n<p>When Governor Richardson addressed the childcare assistance shortfall, the Albuquerque Journal changed tack and attacked the wild horses themselves, in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Horse Haven Would be Exclusive Club\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0front page, below the banner news article (no, it was not labeled an Editorial or Opinion). The Journal\u00c2\u00a0 writer, Thomas J. Cole, merely repeated misinformation fed to him by the BLM regarding the existing wild horse herds in New Mexico, both underestimating their numbers and calling many of them \u00e2\u20ac\u0153feral\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The writer makes no mention of the role the BLM has played in the creating the current sad state of the\u00c2\u00a0 wild horses in the West.\u00c2\u00a0 The article also conveyed the BLMs viewpoints on the proposed wild horse sanctuary, without any countervailing viewpoints. The BLM is hardly a disinterested party when it comes to wild horses and certainly should not be the sole source for information on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, when a Farmington-area BLM manager\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s questionable ethics came into the spotlight last\u00c2\u00a0 month, the Albuquerque Journal could not be bothered to assign a reporter to the issue, but relied on AP reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, five negative articles and editorials in eight days was not enough. The Albuquerque Journal\u00c2\u00a0published another editorial on September 29th denouncing the wild horse sanctuary, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somebody Holler Whoa on Sanctuary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The Editorial contained no new information and no new insight, and so it seemed unnecessary, except to add more stridency to their opposition and to fit the acronym of the most vocal proponent of a wild horse state park to the headline, the <strong>W<\/strong>ild <strong>H<\/strong>orse <strong>O<\/strong>bservers <strong>A<\/strong>ssociation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albuquerque Journal has now printed, over the past two weeks,\u00c2\u00a0six opinion pieces denigrating\u00c2\u00a0Governor Richardson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed 12,000 acre expansion of Cerrillos State Park and creation of a wild horse sanctuary.\u00c2\u00a0Four of the opinion pieces masqueraded as news articles, with one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/v-is-for-vendetta-the-albuquerque-journals-vendetta-against-the-wild-horses\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,3,4],"tags":[9,11,16,13,15,12,14,10],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cerrillos-state-park-wild-horse-sanctuary","category-placitas-wild-horses","category-wild-horse-ecotourism","tag-albuquerque-journal","tag-diane-denish","tag-governor-richardson","tag-john-arthur-smith","tag-sanctuary","tag-susanna-martinez","tag-thomas-j-cole","tag-wild-horse-state-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoanm.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}