Where does our recent election put the Times?
If for the moment you were to assume that their editorial policy has been well intentioned and that their conflicts of interest did not influence them, the fact is that the Times is woefully out of touch with the voters of El Paso.
Unless I have missed something, only one of the eight candidates they endorsed was chosen by the voters.
Maybe their circulation numbers will not be affected and as a result the Times does not care.
What to do?
Stay the course and be proud in knowing that the editorial board is smarter than the citizens. 74% is an incredible number. Personally I have never heard of that kind of victory in any free election of this size. The voters do not like what has been going on. The Times claims it does.
Hector the new mayor and council. Point out every little thing that they can to put them in a bad light. The Times largely ignored the mis-deeds of the city the last few years. Attacking the voter’s choices would be interesting but dangerous.
Switch horses and claim righteous indignation as the facts come out about what has been happening.
Pretend nothing happened.
Some combination of the above will probably be their choice.
On a side note, I was particularly irked the other day when the Times needed to refer to an article in El Paso Inc. Instead of attributing the article to the publication’s name the Times referred to it as a weekly newspaper. Maybe that is how the game is played and the Times followed the editorial style of other newspapers. I found it to be petty.
I hope that they find their way. El Paso needs a good newspaper. It would be nice if I could start reading the Times looking for balanced coverage of news items instead of to see what news they are trying to influence.
Muckraker
elpasospeak 
I don’t have an issue with a newspaper taking an editorial stance or position that is not in agreement with the majority of the community. I don’t even have an issue with columnists, such as Joe Muench, rendering an opinion. I do, however, get a lot of heartburn when opinion and bias are obvious in what are supposed to be news stories and when a newspaper feels compelled to continually run editorials to support a particular candidate. The latter begins to feel more like campaign support.
The petty, poor loser award goes to KVIA-TV, which referred to the Mayor-elect as “car salesman Oscar Leeser” in its election night reporting. Not “business owner” and not “car dealership owner”. There is anything dishonorable about being a car salesman, but Leeser is clearly a successful businessman, yet KVIA chose to demean him and describe him in a less favorable manner.
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The long time history of EPT endorsements is that of not very accurate. If anyone puts any belief in a newspaper endorsement then they should have their voter card torn up. Endorsements don’t create votes – unless of course you are a celebrity and tell everyone to vote for Obama
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I support and respect Mr. Leeser. For that reason I do not buy the El Paso Times or watch KVIA-TV anymore.
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This came to me with the request that the author be anonymous:
Loved your article on the Times. I believe the Joe Muench column has devolved into the most specious, divisive and harmful portion of the paper each Sunday. Even worse, he is incoherent and has bad grammar!
The first thing the Times can do is make Joe stop calling 75% of its citizenry “crazies.” This misuse of the term serves only to further divide the community into the haves (Times and Co.) and the have-nots (the rest of us). His hate-filled diatribes tend to ramble, and each one includes mean-spirited name-calling.
It’s time the Times puts a stop to Joe. Joe is in no way a qualified political analyst. He has no prior qualifications and was merely a sportswriter before he landed on the opinion page.
I encourage everyone to call Bob Moore and ask him to take Joe out of the paper. His spite-filled column the day after the election was nothing short of pathetic. Someone needs an intervention!!!
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