{"id":4530,"date":"2009-05-04T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-04T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/journalism-requires-due-diligence\/"},"modified":"2009-05-04T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T19:30:00","slug":"journalism-requires-due-diligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/journalism-requires-due-diligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism requires due diligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving out the context and failing to assure his readers that he\u2019s not being used as a tool in a political game means Joe Monahan\u2019s reporting on criminal probes and other matters can\u2019t be taken seriously<\/span><\/p>\n

Marjorie Childress, a colleague of mine at the New Mexico Independent<\/a>, is right on today in her observations about the reporting of political blogger Joe Monahan and his alligators.<\/p>\n

And though I don\u2019t usually get involved in criticism of Monahan, today\u2019s posting on his site<\/a> about the federal investigation<\/a> of allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration is fairly egregious in its cavalier handling of serious allegations that could have a big impact on people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Monahan named two officials who are in some way connected to the circumstances the grand jury is investigating: Amanda Cooper, one of Richardson\u2019s top political operatives, and Chris Romer, a Colorado politico who worked for one of the companies that\u2019s part of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Monahan reports that both have been given immunity by federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The problem is, he doesn\u2019t provide any context. If it\u2019s true, what does that mean? It\u2019s a valid question raised by Childress on her blog, m-pyre<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\u201cDoes that mean they\u2019ve admitted to wrongdoing? Or would they simply not agree to talk to the grand jury about what they may or may not know without immunity?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know, because Monahan doesn\u2019t give us any context or anything on the record. He simply passes on the leak as it was handed to him. Someone gave him some info, possibly with an agenda, and he obliged them by getting it out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s those hidden agendas that one has to keep in mind when it comes to Monahan\u2019s blogging about real people who\u2019ve built real careers. Because without real facts and real context, we\u2019re left with a general perception of wrongdoing that may be completely off base, and for certain quite damaging to those people he\u2019s writing about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

And that\u2019s the real problem. Monahan\u2019s blog is, as Childress points out, \u201cthe place that a certain sector of New Mexico\u2019s political class leaks information.\u201d In addition to leaving out the context for the information he\u2019s reporting, Monahan tells us nothing about his sources in today\u2019s posting other than that they are \u201cpeople familiar with the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do we know why they talked to Monahan? What if they\u2019re trying to sway public opinion by selectively giving him some facts but leaving out others?<\/p>\n

By his own admission, Monahan passes on what he\u2019s told without independently verifying it or doing due diligence to ensure that it\u2019s true. When he reports something that he later learns was inaccurate, he publicly chastises an \u201calligator\u201d for giving him incorrect information\u2026 as if the burden isn\u2019t on him to independently verify what his alligators are telling him and assure his readers that he\u2019s not being used as a tool in a political game.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not journalism.<\/p>\n

What Monahan writes, especially as it relates to alleged criminal activity, has a real effect on people\u2019s lives. He should take that fact more seriously.<\/p>\n

Until he does that, it\u2019s impossible to take what he reports seriously. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving out the context and failing to assure his readers that he\u2019s not being used as a tool in a political game means Joe Monahan\u2019s reporting on criminal probes and other matters can\u2019t be taken seriously Marjorie Childress, a colleague of mine at the New Mexico Independent, is right on today in her observations about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}