Editor,
News editor Jeremy Hunt's abysmal coverage of the Albuquerque municipal elections in "Voting begins today for City Council race" is hands down the worst reporting I've seen in the Daily Lobo.
To begin with, a more accurate headline would have been "Voting ends today ...," because early on-site and absentee elections started Sept. 5.; Oct. 2 was the last day to vote in that election.
"(A) job waiting for them" as an argument for college students to vote is the kind of simple-minded understanding of politics I'd expect from a ninth-grader writing a civics paper, not a so-called professional journalist. It's nice that the article mentions that there were three contested races and City Councilor Don Harris was facing a recall. But why was Harris facing a recall? Was it about ethics charges or speed bumps?
Some say both. Who are the candidates in the contested races and what are their positions? Not interviewing a single candidate or even naming a single contested candidate was sheer laziness on Hunt's part. The only candidate mentioned in the story was the one who ran unopposed.
That makes no journalistic sense. The Daily Lobo is not blameless in all this. Where were the candidate profiles and ballot initiative analyses in the weeks leading up to this important election? Why did the editorial staff simply stay silent to the end on this election when they read this drivel?
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In my mind, the Daily Lobo has recently risen to new heights of bad journalism by allotting precious inches to dancing dogs, shamelessly exposing unsubstantiated gay bathroom sex and covering local politics like a junior high school rag. This article is a perfect example. It is misleading, full of false information and poorly written. To add insult to injury, its author is simply lazy.
Please send him back to remedial journalism classes and don't let him write another word until he understands that good journalism isn't merely tracking down the nearest warm body for a quote.
Danny Hernandez
UNM student
