I read “The News” today, oh boy…

Being a “blog” and not a news outlet, the Mex Files doesn’t so much report on the news, as comment on it.  And, though national in scope, the Mex Files is just one guy  living in the cultural boonies …  Mazatlan, Sinaloa.

That said, yesterday, the Mex Files received a tip from a “reliable source” that The [Mexico City] News — which changed ownership last week following a staff purge, went through another purge this weekend.  According to the source, Malcolm Beith, who’d stayed on as editor either left, or was pushed out, and the remaining staffers from the previous O’Farrill family-controlled News team were also pushed out (or quit, or went on strike).

It’s no secret that The News, under the O’Farill ownership took a pro-PAN editorial position, and I’ve noted that even the reportage was sometimes slanted… mostly in the direction of attacking the PRD-controlled Federal District government.  The new owners (Grupo Mac), which I know very little about other than they pubish a chain of not-very-good papers, are said to be overtly pro-PRI… and within PRI, poised to push Enrique Peña Neito (presently Goveror of the State of Mexico) as the PRI presidential candidate in 2012.

The second part of the rumor — if Mex Files was a news publication — would have to be double checked …  twice.  Not that I don’t think Mexican news organizations slant the news towards one or another political faction (and I also think U.S. papers do, but corporate capitalism is a given for any large business, and we just don’t think about it as bias).   But, the rationale — using a newspaper published for, and read by people who are unlikely to be Mexican voters, or even citizens to push a candidate from one party —  might be true (Mexican politics is weird), but I’d still want confirmation.

Whether my reliable source is completely accurate or not (and I have no reason to think the source wasn’t), I was bothered when Grupo Mac (after  launching  the new regime with a slashing editorial attacking the O’Farills  — not for their editorial policy, but for their personnel practices) promised immediate changes, but has hasn’t delivered.  Instead of building on what was good about the old News, athey reinforced what was bad.   The paper is practically nothing but  U.S. based wire service reports (even the sports page!)  and the editorials that have nothing to do with Mexico… one reason I question whether the paper is  a pro-Peña front organization.

There doesn’t seem to much in that  Mexican newspaper that’s “Hecho en Mexico”.

The Mex Files tries to fill in some of the gaps, but between trying to self-edit (a near impossibility to do well every day) and wanting to keep to the “mission statement” of the Mex Files, this can’t be a news magazine.

For that, there needs to be a different platform.    I hate talking so abstractly, but all I can say is that a news forum involving the Mex Files, but not the Mex Files will mean some changes at the Mex Files.

The first change being a few less posts for the time being, as I’m busy working on  whatchamacallit.