Don’t let the focus on Bush and his conservative Christian Taliban turn you away from a situation in Amarillo with people who would be just as controlling, only on a local level.
The Amarillo Globe-Snooze’s editorial Sunday sided with the good-ole-boy power structure again. See http://www.amarillo.com/stories/022606/opi_4059313.shtml
This time Amarillo’s power elite, represented by the Amarillo National Bank’s puppet commissioner, Jim Simms, wants representation of “people who ‘know how to get things done’” on a downtown planning task force. That’s code, folks, for setting up a downtown planning effort to foster the interests of ANB and its friends.
Beth Duke, the executive director of Center City of Amarillo, and Alan Taylor, the city manager, want a group more representative of various ethnic, racial and neighborhood groups. That backs Mayor Debra McCartt’s push to include more people in discussions about the direction of the city and could dilute the power of the elite.
And, of course, making Amarillo more responsive to all the people instead of the few who have controlled things up to now challenges everything for which the Globe-Snooze stands. One can’t help but wonder if the AGN’s position arises from something more personal. Publisher Les Simpson pushed Duke out of the newspaper last year. Does he resent she landed on her feet and, at Center City, contributes more good to the overall community than the newspaper?
Amarillo needs another media voice — one that represents a progressive view of local and national public policy and one that presents local news without skewing content to make the Globe-Snooze’s friends look good and its enemies look bad. The right-wing rag pulled that stunt again in Saturday story on the GOP primary. See: http://www.amarillo.com/stories/022506/new_4069519.shtml
Amarillo’s other media voice now has a corporation and a name: The Amarillo Independent.
The Indy will be an alternative newsweekly offering readers “Real News, Honest Journalism.” It will cover what alternative weeklies like the Santa Fe Reporter or the Austin Chronicle do, but with the twist of some mainstream reporting.
The publisher has gotten an initial infusion of capital and seeks to raise more capital through loans or investors. Anyone who would like to support a progressive media voice in Amarillo should contact newsguygeorge@gmail.com
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