At the Daily Lobo in the early 2000s, Jeff Proctor cut his teeth covering campus protests against the Iraq War, uncovering billing fraud at the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center and chasing stories on the golf course — all of which helped him launch his career into investigative journalism.
Proctor was the assistant news editor for the Daily Lobo during the 2002-03 school year. He later worked for the Albuquerque Journal, the Santa Fe Reporter, New Mexico In Depth, and KRQE and is currently the executive producer of New Mexico PBS.
Proctor’s “first real stab at investigative reporting” came during his time at the Daily Lobo when he investigated reports that the former director of the pain management clinic at the UNM Health Sciences Center was billing patients for services that were never rendered, he said.
Federal officials from the Department of Justice also investigated the false billings, which resulted in the former director's medical license being revoked and fines being issued to the University, Proctor said.
The same day the story broke, students protested then-President George W. Bush’s administration and the war in Iraq, while pro-Bush counter protesters gathered as well, Proctor said.
“There was a very spirited debate in the newsroom about how to place stories on the front page for the next day,” Proctor said.
During that time, when print was more commonly circulated and digital media was less relevant, the placement of stories on the front page carried more weight than it does now, he said.
The variety of stories he covered while working for the student paper helped Proctor develop his journalistic curiosity before he moved into professional journalism, he said. Some of his other Daily Lobo ventures included writing about the firing of the contractors hired to construct the Student Union Building, traveling with and covering the UNM golf team and investigating fake IDs throughout the football team.
“I think that one of the first and most important skills is to become a good generalist,” Proctor said. “I think you figure out what you really like, in terms of what a beat or an issue focus might be for later in your career. I think part of the way you figure that out is by writing about everything.”
The Daily Lobo was a place to make friends and have fun, while also taking the job very seriously, trying to break news and compete with the other daily papers, Proctor said.
“Student papers are often thought of as learning labs,” Proctor said. “But that doesn't make a fuck-up any less painful or any less consequential — and we certainly fucked up plenty, and I've learned a lot of lessons about that.”
Jaden McKelvey-Francis is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
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