Heath Haussamen
It’s ironic that I had to write an article this week about discovering improper spending on news releases sent to the media in 2004. Why didn’t I and others recognize the problem five years ago?
The irony of having to write an article this week that revealed, for the first time, the improper spending of public money on political news releases sent to the media five years ago isn’t lost on me.
The fact that it was inappropriate for government officials who work for Gov. Bill Richardson and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish to send out political news releases on government letterhead was apparently unnoticed by the media when the releases were distributed in 2004. Earlier this week, I came across those news releases online and wrote an article about how such an expenditure of public money is improper.
Acknowledging that, Denish’s campaign is reimbursing the state for the cost of producing and distributing three news releases and for other political activity. Richardson’s office has still not responded to request for comment about whether he sees a problem with something his office did that is blatantly inappropriate.
I choose those words carefully: “Blatantly inappropriate.” That’s exactly what using public funds for political activity is.
So why was it a revelation, five years after the fact, that Richardson and Denish did something inappropriate by using public money to send out these news releases? Why didn’t the media pick up on that fact five years ago?
By the media, I mean every journalist who was getting those news releases. That includes me.
I have no memory of receiving releases from then-Denish spokeswoman Lauran Cowdrey. I was working at the Las Cruces Sun-News at the time, and my primary beat was county government. I don’t think I was ever on Denish’s distribution list when I worked at the Sun-News, and I don’t recall ever meeting or talking with Cowdrey.
However, I do remember receiving Richardson’s news release — from spokesman Gilbert Gallegos — about the governor being pleased with then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards to be his running mate. I don’t recall it ever occurring to me, until I rediscovered that news release this week, that it was inappropriate.
So I’m to blame, along with the rest of the media, for not calling out the governor and lieutenant governor for this inappropriate behavior when it occurred.
An awakening
In the last several years, New Mexico has had an awakening of sorts as it relates to ethical behavior in government. Corruption has landed two former state treasurers, a former state Senate president and others in jail, and criminal charges against a number of other current and former public officials are pending.
Calls for ethics reform have grown louder as the depth of the political corruption in New Mexico has been revealed. Many state officials have, albeit slowly, come around to the realization that government needs to change. New Mexico still has a long way to go.
So I guess it makes sense that, five years ago and before the corruption dominoes started falling, the media was also, to some degree, not paying attention. There are probably a number of reasons for that, and they have more to do with the institution of journalism in New Mexico than they do with individual journalists.
There are many good reporters in New Mexico. But, as traditional media organizations collapse under financial strain, there are too few of us, and we’re all busy, have limited resources to work with and are constantly being doused by a fire hose that’s spewing public relations spin at us.
That doesn’t mean journalists haven’t done important stories over the years, but it hasn’t been consistent, and it hasn’t been enough. After all, if New Mexico had a strong tradition of watchdog journalism that rooted out corruption, our state would not be as crooked as it has become in the first decade of the 21st Century.
Yes, the media’s role in society is that important.
New Mexico’s media has taken some steps in recent years to become a more aggressive government watchdog, but we’ve still got a ways to go. I’ll try to take that to heart as I continue to do work I consider important for a healthy Democracy.