Dear Joe,
I was pretty disturbed by
today regarding The Santa Fe Reporter. I beg of you, the next time you write a paranoid tirade against our paper, could you please let me know in advance so I can send you a better photo of myself? I have so many really nice ones. That one makes me look, well, a little sweaty and, as everyone who knows me will attest, I am many things, but sweaty is not one of them.
As everyone also knows, the idea of a Santa Fe Reporter journalist trying to intimidate advertisers away from one news source over another is absurd. No one on the news team here has any thing to do with advertisers. Unlike some news sites where the line between advertising and news is—how shall I say this—hard to discern, the line at the Reporter has been, and will remain, a hard line. Feel free to call up one of our ad sales people and ask them the likelihood of one of the news team here trying to steal advertisers away for us. But hold the phone a little away from your ear when you do, because they will probably laugh pretty loudly.
As a matter of fact, feel free to call me or anyone here if you are reporting on us and we will be glad to comment or answer any questions on whatever you're writing about. We've found that interviewing people for the stories we write usually garners better results than making up stories in our heads and publishing them as if they were facts. WE'RE CRAZY LIKE THAT.
Actually, if you were to return Dave Maass' phone messages to find out why he was calling, you'd probably learn it's because he's reporting on the already reported
between yourself and, well, everyone else, I guess.
We thought the reported story opened up some interesting questions about the way in which journalism plays out on blogs versus traditional news media, the use of anonymous sources and the like. Sometimes it's interesting, as journalists, to talk about journalism.
Of course making shit up is easier.
Feel free to call us back, Joe. We'd love to talk.
xoxo,
Julia
P.S.There was one item in your story that was correct. NMI Managing Editor David Alire Garcia did used to work here, and Maass does sometimes appear on InFocus. I've been on it too, pre and post Garcia's involvement. Sometimes our reporters also talk about stuff on the radio and other news programs. Kind of like you do?
P.P. S. Our publisher Andy Dudzik (nice photo of him, I notice) does not dictate or involve himself in our reporting, so please don't worry about his "plans" for you. As you suggest, he's got better things to worry about.
