At Saturday's First Amendment Luncheon, the former federal prosecutor for New Mexico who helped sparked the scandal presently engulfing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration discussed loyalty, politics, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) with Santa Fe Reporter editor Julia Goldberg. "I'm still processing the damage that could be done to the rule of law [by the administration]," he said. Among other things, Iglesias also said that John Ashcroft's staff at the DOJ was older and more experienced than Gonzales', and that Gonzales led a shift in the department from "working for the people" to "working for the White House." We have three video clips available from the luncheon. Part one is embedded below; part two can be found here, and part three, here. MORE: Read bloggers' reactions to the Iglesias' speech at the convention blog.
David C. Iglesias is the former federal prosecutor for the District of New Mexico whose revelation about receiving an improper phone call from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) was the spark that ignited the scandal presently engulfing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and the Bush Administration. Iglesias will join us for lunch in Portland on Saturday, June 16, for our annual celebration of a free press, where he will be interviewed by Santa Fe Reporter editor Julia Goldberg. You've probably heard about Iglesias' role in the DOJ scandal, but did you know that the former United States Navy Reserve Captain was the basis for the character played by Tom Cruise in the movie A Few Good Men?
The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently posted comments about the future of alternative newspapers submitted by Richard Karpel, executive director of AAN; Matt Gibson, publisher of The Missoula Independent; Julia Goldberg, editor of the Santa Fe Reporter; and Alison True, editor of the Chicago Reader. The discussion is one of nine that were conducted via e-mail to supplement PEJ's report, The State of the News Media 2006, which was issued earlier this year. The four panelists share their thoughts on the New Times/Village Voice Media merger, the aging of the alt-weekly audience and the long-term outlook for mainstream-media organizations.
Santa Fe Reporter's editor files the first post-convention blogpost after returning from San Diego. Well, we think it's the first. If anyone else has written about the convention in their paper or on their blog let us know and we'll find a way to post it.
Julia Goldberg ignited a brushfire on the Editing mailing list earlier this week when she sought advice regarding an angry letter sent by a teacher who was upset by a recent article in the Reporter about her school (which Goldberg felt she had "completely misunderstood"). The letter contained the kind of spelling and grammatical errors that the Reporter would normally correct for publication. What should she do? Most AAN editors advised her to avoid vindictiveness and adhere to the paper's regular letters policy. She took their advice and corrected the mistakes, and saved her revenge for her blog.
This week, almost two dozen Association of Alternative Newsweeklies member papers published "Soldier's Heart," an article by freelance reporter Dan Frosch that casts a critical eye on the Department of Veterans Affairs' ability to properly treat Iraq War veterans with serious psychological problems. The article will appear in more than 40 AAN papers in coming weeks. Many of the participating weeklies will supplement the article -- AAN's latest collaborative story project -- with additional reporting to reflect the issue's regional and local impact. The collective stories can be found in a dedicated section of AltWeeklies.com.
