The Brownsvillization of Harlingen, Texas...Along The Harsh Mexican Border...No Grace In Town...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Editor of The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - That day, Robert Leftwich was perhaps being too kind, too political. The question from us had been clear: Was he endorsing the actions of a juvenile-bent blogger he'd befriended and whose support he'd garnered without even asking?

"I have repeatedly asked him to tone it down," was Leftwich's diplomatic reply .

He's a city commissioner here, an elected official with ideas about how to move the struggling city forward, past the resident rancor that plays across the news media here as if some El Salvadoran incubator for rebels actually fighting in the streets. That's Mr. Leftwich and his family in the photo atop this story.

We come here uninvited but interested in defining all that silly noise moving across town. To a somewhat minor extent, the local newspaper - The Valley Morning Star - plays into the equation, largely by way of hilariously naive letters-to-the-editor in which the writers often chose the words of damnation against this or that elected official or burning issue in town. The local blogosphere is the problem these days, however.

Civility holds no ground there.

And it manifests itself clearly in that while the blogs raise hell against things coming and not coming from City Hall, and against elected officials such as Mr. Leftwich, and, worse yet, against each other, little room is left for civilized discourse. You won't see any elected official making comments to these low-rent bloggers. Why should they? Why leap headfirst into the garbage heap, seems to be the unspoken answer.

Times are tough here. Unemployment is sky-high, jobs are nowhere to be found, businesses are shutting their doors and a general malaise has now covered the community of some 70,000 resident as if a used Army blanket. It is a sad time for little Harlingen, and the blogs are not helping things.

In an ideal news media setting, the Blogs would fill-in where the newspaper fails the citizenry. They would go after hard news stories exposing both good and bad. They would be seen as positive, useful venues of information. Too bad that's not what Harlingen residents get.

What breaks with every new day is yet another string of accusations and posturings that go to informing Harlingen of whose blog is king of the soiled chicken coop. Lost in the primping are solutions to things that actually affect the community. It would be something if elected officials and city bureaucrats would pick up the phone and call a local blogger; that, or email a comment or reply to news that would go somewhere. That isn't - and hasn't - happened, except for a very rare occasion.

No, these are days for pulling inward here.

Elected officials know they hold higher ground by simply staying away, by ignoring these guys.

Still, it is about evolving, and perhaps the silly noise now playing here as news blogging will move into something better one of these days. They all have nowhere to go but up.

The strange part of this is that, as a Journalist, it always struck me that a good, timely, meaningful story brought way-more satisfaction to me as a reporter than those times when I only wanted to see and know that I'd beaten the competition.

Journalism is not anywhere near the taqueria business.

Yet, here, blog news comes with all the bells and whistles and alarms of a new taco concoction. And that's the bad side of all this. There is a difference between a professional service and that offerred by an amateur. There is.

Dumping on someone just to make you believe you're the best only reinforces your own weaknesses. In the fast-paced world of news, there is no Number One; there is only the dependable, the reliable, and those that are trying their damndest to get there. And so, we understand why this city's leaders shun these bloggers. What have they got to gain by playing their selfish game?

We won't say that we know Commissioner Leftwich well, but we've always found him forthcoming when we have asked him questions. His desire to speak is not the problem; he likely just knows that there is no point in talking with partisan fools. Sadly, that is a good move.

We say sadly because it is the city that is paying the price that comes with not having an honest news media...

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