Hear Jordan Smith Scream at the Austin Chronicle. This is News?

Most people who take the time to read my blog are those who are informed, sick to death of the status quo, curious, want honest law enforcement, good government and meaningful citizen participation in politics. Based on my logs, according to my webmaster, my readers come from a motley amalgam of citizens from the home internet providers as well as county government, federal government, state government, people from across the country checking up on Chief Wiles, local tv stations and yes, even the loathesome El Paso Times. My readers are either insider government people or they are the average citizen who has been baptized by fire by a corrupt district attorney's office and a rogue police department with indifferent city council overseers. My readers come here to verify what they know in their hearts but what they can't get in the press and, more importantly, they come here to congregate. YOU are not greenhorns.

One question posed over and over and over again is WHY are things the way they are? How come the egregious condition we find ourselves in is not being bellowed about from the highest mountain top? Where is our watchdog, the press? How did things get so bad?

My answer has and will always be these words, A Sell Out Press. For those of you who pine for better and who long for justice, consider the following. Remember when you read articles by the printed press, the name Ms. Jordan Smith and the Austin Chronicle.

In April when it was reported that EPPD Chief Richard Wiles was seeking the position of police chief in Austin, TX, I did several things. Firstly, I wrote a blog on chief Wiles documenting the scandals that have plagued his police department. I wrote about things that have either been the subject of news reports or court proceedings. In fact, I furnished to my readers an actual video of Chief Wiles testifying before El Paso City Council where he tells you in his own words what he thinks of the role of judges. It is on the front page of my website if you care to see. I also contacted the "Austin American Statesman" and offered the documentation but they never called back. The "Austin Chronicle" was also contacted on more than three occasions regarding this. They too never called back. On April 9, 2007, 4 days after my first blog on the subject, Ms. Jordan Smith wrote an article published in the Austin Chronicle. Here is what she had to say with an accompanying analysis. You should also know that I called Smith today and left her a message saying that I was going to write an article on her and if she wanted to weigh in she could call me back. This was a courtesy she never afforded me. I have yet to hear from her.

Smith's title for her ariticle was "Smack Talking About the Police Chief Finalists." Why did she use the pejorative "smack" in her article? What is smack?

Get a load of Smith's very first line, "The news that Austin has announced a list of nine finalists for the chief of police job has traveled pretty quickly to the burgs from where the nine chiefettes hail." What, pray tell, is a "chiefette?" Is this a female chief? A feminine, male Chief? Or a physically diminuitive chief? Or did Smith mean a chief from a smaller community? I don't believe that El Paso is smaller than Austin. What does she mean by chiefette? I guess we're supposed to think that she is witty and cute.

Smith's next line is "Case in point: It took less than 24 hours for the news that El Paso Chief Richard Wiles had made the Austin cut to travel all the way out West-..." How fast or how slowly does Smith think we should get the news "all the way out West?" Does Smith realize that the internet works in real time? Why is Smith so mad that we are so well in informed in El Paso and with such rapidity? Or are we not worthy as a community to know the news? Is information only for her and her friends in central Texas? Does she know that El Paso is in the same state as Austin and that we do know how to read the English written word "all the way out West?"

The next phrase she pens is "and if he were to get the job here, good riddance, says Theresa Caballero, a Democratic contender for El Paso district attorney. Caballero is the estranged daughter of the city's former Mayor Raymond Caballero, and reportedly, she's long been a real thorn in the side of the El Paso City Council." Question: Where did Smith get this information? Who is she quoting? Who or what is her source? If she had a source why not name it? Or did she make it up? Question: If a man has five children in a family unit and he has no contact with any of these five children, who is the estranged one? And if this former mayor is a "former mayor" because after only one, two year term, he was rejected in his bid for reelection in a Landslide by El Paso voters and then he high tailed it out of the city with the parting shot to El Paso saying that we were a "half a loaf town," who indeed is the estranged one? Where is Smith getting her information? Could it be from the estranged father/estranged mayor or members of the newspaper here who are currently being sued for defamation, i.e. El Paso Times reporter David Crowder and Times editor Dionicio Flores? And why is Smith so personal? I have never met her. Why the vitriol? One can hear her screaming from the written word. What is her agenda?

Smith next writes, "As such, maybe it isn't surprising that Caballero on April 5 posted a lengthy missive on her blog ranting about what a shoddy chief Wiles has been." Strong word "rant." What was a rant in my blog? Could well documented facts now be termed "rants" by the "printed press?" Why didn't Smith call me? Why didn't Smith interview me? Why didn't Smith include my own written words? Why dismiss facts as "rants?" I am available. What is Smith afraid of?

Smith then says, "Among her various accusations are that Wiles has some fairly serious ethical problems and that he has done little to curb his officers' fondness for excessive force." It is very telling about Smith's character and professionalism that she cavalierly dismisses documented case after documented case of rape and murder and aggravated perjury and maimings in a euphamisim as "fondness for excessive force." What would the DSM IV have to say about her and this line?

Smith's next phrase is a doozey and says a lot about her journalistic ethics and the standards at the Austin Chronicle. She actually wrote, "While at this point we have no idea whether there is any real substance to any of Caballero's rather hysterical accusations,..."--Why doesn't Smith know what I say is true? We don't expect her to read Spanish so forget her picking up the El Diario of El Paso where what I have documented is reported on a weekly basis, she can just get on that internet and go to the El Paso Times and read about the police shootings and deaths, one as recently as the week she wrote her article. Does Smith not investigate, and if not, why not?

But Ms. Smith saves her best words for last which show her contempt for public comment and public curiousity and the public having the power of information not coming from her limp pen and that is "...we're pretty sure it won't take long for the hysterical among us to pick up her thread and run with it--more likely, straight to the dais during citizens communication."

Could this be a new low for the printed press. Analyze how Smith really wasn't interested in the issues. See how she would rather launch a personal attack against me than address the information about Chief Wiles as a police chief. By her own admission she failed to substantiate the number of human beings killed by El Paso Police under Chief Wiles' leadership. Or do these human beings not count because they were from "all the way out West?"

For an Austin newspaper to employ someone like Jordan Smith who obviously lacks wordly experience and can't fathom that 600 miles away in the same state is not half away around the world, is very telling. The Austin Chronicle may want to send Ms. Smith to take a geography lesson and journalistic ethics at the University of Texas which even we in the hinterland know is right around the corner from her.

But in the end Austin didn't hire Chief Wiles. Perhaps Austinites are more discerning than Ms. Smith thought and could not understand her for her hysteria.