A story on the front page of yesterday's Albuquerque Journal about benefits for veterans of the 1980 prison riot in Santa Fe is heartbreaking and important. The only problem: SFR wrote the same story (in some places, the exact same words) three weeks ago.
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Here's our beef:
On Nov. 24, SFR published a story about Mary Racicot, a former National Guard member who served in a medical attachment at the 1980 state penitentiary riot in Santa Fe. Because of a series of administrative complexities, Racicot hasn't had access to veteran's benefits for years, and she suffers from PTSD. SFR went down to Albuquerque to visit with Racicot and broke the story the day before Thanksgiving.
Yesterday, the Albuquerque Journal published essentially the exact same story, in an "UpFront" column by Joline Gutierrez Krueger. Here's one particularly striking echo: SFR: "The most difficult one for me was an inmate that had a blowtorch to his face and groin," she writes. "When I went to move him from the stretcher, his tissue was still melting. It went through my fingers..." Journal: "The most difficult one for me was an inmate that had a blowtorch to his face and groin," she says. "When I went to move him from the stretcher, his tissue was still melting. It went through my fingers and onto the ground."
In the passage above, SFR is quoting a written account of the riot that Racicot wrote approximately two years ago for Santa Fe Veterans' Service Officer Jeff George. SFR found Racicot through George while working on a story about veterans' benefits in September. Her story had not been told previously.
There are other similarities, too.
SFR: "Racicot, a Vietnam veteran who had just graduated from pharmacy school, was in charge of five less-experienced Guard members."
Journal: "Racicot, then 28, was charged that morning with supervising five younger members..."
and:
SFR: "Van Cravens, the public information officer for the state's Workers' Compensation Administration, says the riot occurred six years before WCA even existed."
Journal: "...the New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration was not established until 1986, six years after the riot."
Two of the people quoted in the Journal story, Albuquerque lawyer Rosario Vega Lynn and Capt. Samuel Wright of the national Reserve Officers Association, contacted SFR to thank us for our coverage and find out more information after the Nov. 24 story came out.
Bottom line, we don't mind if you follow us around and break the news after we do. (After all, it's the sincerest form of flattery.) We just want a little credit. A little "As SFR reported" doesn't take up too much room, and we wouldn't ask you to do it if we didn't do it (again and again and again) ourselves.
Thanks.
