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Claudia Lorena Silva is a reporter for El Paso Matters, whose founder and CEO is Bob Moore.
Today she published a report on the upcoming EPISD vote on whether to cut more than 400 positions to help close the $52.8M budget gap.
One can read the same report on the webpages of both KVIA and KFOX14.
In fact, one can read El Paso Matters reports of one kind or another on the webpages of nearly all local print and television media, both in English and Spanish.
We have never read a KVIA report on the webpage of the El Paso Times, or a report by El Diario de El Paso on the webpage of KFOX14.
However, El Paso Matters seems to be everywhere, all the time.
They cover content that other media outlets are often too cheap or lazy to cover themselves, such as key school district votes.
This would not be so concerning if El Paso Matters were objective and politically neutral but we do not believe that to be the case.
On the contrary, we have read reports and opinions in the pages of El Paso Matters that are nothing but political hit pieces. This was particularly apparent in their coverage of the last mayoral election.
KTSM COMMITS TO COVERING LOCAL NEWS WITHOUT OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE
With regard to the recent report by Silva, we wish to extend our kudos to KTSM 9 News for refusing to publish her piece and instead tasking Aaron Montes with writing an original report of his own.
We asked News Director Chris Babcock whether KTSM 9 News intends to share content from El Paso Matters or other competitors in the future and he stated: “While we have shared certain content from El Paso Matters in the past, it has been with an eye toward community information that we felt was critical to get out there – that we were unable to get on our own. Over my term here at KTSM, I’ve made a concerted effort to make sure that our journalists are producing their own content and their own stories first and foremost, minimizing the need for any content-sharing from any outside organization in the city. Thanks to new hires and team additions, that process has only accelerated over the last few weeks and months, and it’s all about living our brand of “putting local first.” To that end, any story that happens here in our city will be reported on by our staff – not somebody else’s.”
We reached out to KVIA but they declined to comment for this story.
PERSPECTIVE FROM MARTÍN PAREDES
We asked Martín Paredes of El Paso News and the El Paso Herald-Post why we should be concerned about the syndication of El Paso Matters stories across local media:
“In my opinion, the problem with El Paso Matters is that it produces news that will become part of the historical record in the future, including any mistakes and inherent biases. Because there is no other independent news outlet covering certain issues, future researchers would have to accept that El Paso Matters provides an accurate representation as to what happened.
More important is that El Paso Matters is connected to the El Paso Community Foundation, which is developing its own newsroom through The Puente Initiative. This will act as a news feeder to other news outlets, including regional and national, again leaving the community’s record in the hands of a single source, including any mistakes and inherent biases.
When the wealthiest residents of El Paso control the public policy narratives through the El Paso Community Foundation, El Paso Matters, and soon, the Puente News Collaborative, the economic issues facing El Paso will continue to worsen as the narratives around public policies will be driven by those who can afford to fund these organizations.
It is imperative that El Paso’s news outlets understand they have a responsibility to report the community’s public policies independently so the community can rely upon independent news to make important decisions.”
EL PASOANS DESERVE BETTER
We implore the editors and general managers of our local media to follow the example of KTSM 9 News and produce their own content so as to maintain their journalistic independence.
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