Chances of honest cartel reporting ‘Slim’ to none
By David Codrea, October 24th 2014
JPFO writer contributor, © 2014.
“No newspaper dares to publish the truth about the drug lords in Tamaulipas,” Jason McGahan of The Daily Beast wrote in his setup for a story on the murder of the Twitter journalist known to her followers as Felina. “Those who break the silence on Twitter and Facebook are marked for death.”
It’s a terrifying, heart-breaking and infuriating story, one that shows the links the monsters who run the Mexican cartels will go to in order to terrorize reporters from exposing their atrocities. In the end, Felina, Dr. María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, who had waged a principled and courageous campaign to do just that, was identified and murdered.
María Rubio
Still, in the scheme of things, the ill-fated Felina was someone Dianne Feinstein would have dismissed as not a “real reporter.” Joe Biden would not have considered her part of “legitimate news media,” and the insufferable Juan Williams would have regarded her as “just a blogger.” That said, where are the “authorized journalists,” the ones with organizational resources, and presumably, with the power of the press and all of its “mightier than the sword” pretences?
The ones who aren’t hiding under their beds are busy acting as flacks for the government, both in Mexico and here in the U.S. As with their scandalous non-performance in the Fast and Furious “gunwalking” criminal government operation, if they’re not ignoring relevant stories, they’re spinning them to obfuscate official corruption and to demean those seeking the truth. And naturally, the one thing that fed-up ordinary Mexicans have demonstrated on occasion to be the only thing that can give the criminals pause -- armed citizens capable of defending themselves and driving jackal packs away -- is a concept “progressive” media recoils from.
They want governments to be the only ones with guns. That the same government south of the border is in bed with the cartels, and actually from where the brutal Los Zetas were incubated, and that our own government was cynically arming cartel thugs in its quest to justify even more “gun control” on our side of the border, does not alter that hive-minded bias one bit. As a matter of fact, deviate from that agenda, and worse, demonstrate how the official story falls apart with even a superficial examination, and watch the media lackeys get vicious, and replace open-minded investigative journalism with ad hominem dismissals and Alinsky Rule 5 ridicule.
Carlos Slim
If there’s anyone who should be able to stand up to the cartels, it’s Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire, from 2010 to 2013 ranked the richest person in the world. Slim owns a substantial piece of The New York Times, after having invested $250 million bailing the paper out in 2009. If ever there was someone positioned to encourage courageous journalism, to solicit/pressure government cooperation, and to bankroll the security needed to investigate and report on cartel terror, it’s this guy. And why wouldn’t someone who has much of his holdings in Mexico not want to do what he can to improve his native land, the lives of his people, and the climate for prosperity and growth?
Anybody see The Times break any original stories on Fast and Furious, as opposed to ignoring the story as much as they could and spinning for the administration when they couldn’t?
Anybody wonder why a couple of bloggers with no resources managed to bring more since-validated information to light than “the newspaper of record”?
And anybody see Slim using his influence and resources to press for investigations, in the media and by the U.S. and Mexican governments?
No?
Could his “long-standing business ties with wealthy Mexican businessmen suspected of involvement in Mexico's so-called ‘Cartel of the Southeast’” have anything to do with his reluctance to involve his power and influence in crossing them? And while the fear of Mexican journalists to inquire further into that may be understandable, is there a different motivation for Slim getting a pass on scrutiny from The Times?
No matter. If Slim can’t -- or won’t -- help his countrymen where they could really use it, in a safe homeland where mechanisms exist to expose and root out corruption and they don’t have to live in fear, he can at least help them export the misery to his neighbor to the north.
Mark Zuckerberg
He’s working with fellow billionaire, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to “fix” the U.S. immigration system, and make the issues he’s ignored, abetted, and profited from problems working Americans will be forced to pick up the tab for. We’ll also be the ones pressed for edicts more in line with Mexican gun laws, all the while as cartel dangers expand and intensify in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Fast and Furious guns will continue to be used by criminals on both sides of the border. And bold independents like Felina will continue living in terror, assuming they do live. But the chances of Mexico’s richest man, and the newspaper he holds much sway over, exposing the truth are, pun intended, Slim to none.
David Codrea is a field editor at GUNS Magazine, penning their monthly "Rights Watch" column. He provides regular reporting and commentary at Gun Rights Examiner and blogs at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. David Codrea's Archive page.
