El Typo Times

February 8, 2014

A recent comment on this blog came from an El Paso Times reporter.

He explained:  “A lot of people don’t realize this, but the people who do second edits on stories and build pages in EP don’t just do that for the Times. They do it for five New Mexico papers as well.”

It appears that part of the editing and production of the Times is done by a team that may not be controlled by Times management.

If that is the case and I were running the Times, I’d be furious.  The grammatical and spelling errors as well as the lack of effective editing contribute to the poor perception that the public has about the Times.

The title of this article is not meant to be cruel.  It reflects one of the many names that I have heard the Times called regularly.

Ask around.  Many people will tell you that they have not read the Times for years.

It now seems that part of the problem may have been exposed.  I hope that they can get control of the situation.  I think it would go a long way to improving their credibility with the readers.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Cover up

February 7, 2014

Take a look at the city’s agenda search page below.

search

City staff asked for new software to change the way we access city council agendas.

The result is that we can no longer search for things that occurred before 2014.

Neat, huh?

Opaque

Any embarrassing details about what was said or done in the past are now effectively hidden from us.

This has to be deliberate.  If the new software cannot handle the old agendas, then leaving the old system up would give us access to past events.

Shameful!

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, Open Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Tell me a story

February 6, 2014

Part of the dialogue the other day resulting from the post Timely irony was this comment from a Times reporter:

If you think we’re missing an important story like this, don’t just assume that we’re pulling our punches because it’s Foster. Email Bob, Ramon Bracamontes, Armando Durazo or Melissa Martinez and ask for coverage. Feel free to email me, too, but unless it’s a state story, what I’ll probably do is foward it to one of the people listed above because they have the power to assign them. Humans being what they are, a note that is laced with abuse probably isn’t going to be read with more alacrity than one that isn’t.

Let’s do it

I have my own list of things that I would like the Time to do impartial stories on.

Feel free to make your suggestions as comments to this post or email the Times people directly.  Please remember to filter the venom as much as you can.

Let’s see what they can do.

We deserve better

Brutus

5 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Good point

February 5, 2014

This statement was part of a comment a reader of Refuse the Juice made the other day:

If I, a person with a regular 40+ hr a week job, can take the time to read through the agenda before council and have a feel for what’s coming up, I’m amazed and saddened by how often the council can’t (after many years in some cases) figure out the process which they can have explained to them any time they want.

Well said

It is gratifying to me that we can see rational, civil dialogue occurring in our local blogs.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Unfair criticism

February 4, 2014

I agreed with almost everything in this post the other day on Refuse the Juice.

A bidder on a construction project evidently did not quote a number on a line item.  On a bid this  should disqualify the bidder.

According to the post, city staff recommended awarding the bid to the bidder anyway.  The bidder with the lowest complete bid filed a protest.  The item was pulled from the city council agenda.

Do over

Now it seems that the city is going to start over and rebid the project.  Of course the new bids will be made after looking to see what everyone bid before.

This is unfair.  I know many El Paso businesses that do not even bother to bid for city business because of things like this.

Where we part

The post went on to say:

None of this crap was going on with construction bids until Mayor Leeser took office.

I cannot agree.  This kind of thing has been going on for a long time.

I don’t know whether the Mayor got involved with this bid or not.

I do know that the purchasing function at the city often is unfair.

We deserve better

Brutus

14 Comments | City government, Purchasing | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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