An Inflection Point for NM’s Largest Newspaper

A Rio Rancho municipal court judge on Thursday, Oct. 3, ordered Albuquerque Journal Executive Editor Patrick Ethridge released from the Sandoval County Detention Center, where the 47-year-old newspaperman had been jailed for eight days on a petty misdemeanor shoplifting charge he picked up at a Rio Rancho Walmart in August. 

That’s a wild sentence to write, especially for a guy like me, who spent more than a decade as the Journal’s criminal justice system reporter from 2003 to 2013.  

Ethridge’s release came just as I was sitting down with Albuquerque-based criminal defense lawyer Kelly Golightley and UNM journalism professor Gwyneth Doland to talk about this case — and what it means for a paper that calls itself “New Mexico’s leading news source” — for this week’s episode of New Mexico in Focus. 

Not long after we finished recording, a story appeared on the Journal website reporting that Ethridge had resigned. (Publisher Bill Lang’s statement indicated that this wasn’t exactly a voluntary departure, but that is another story.) 

This is a prurient story that brings with it a significant amount of schadenfreude for the many New Mexicans who have long been frustrated with the newspaper’s hardcore, right-wing position on crime — including, specifically, retail theft — in our state. You can find plenty of that on social media and on various blogsites. 

I’m grateful to Gwyneth and Kelly for a more nuanced conversation, which included a dive into what’s been happening at the Journal over the course of the last several years, whether it serves its community the way a newspaper should and why our legal system would think 10 days behind bars is going to do anything whatsoever to address crime, which is of course a serious issue.  

I hope you’ll watch the two segments I hosted with Gwyneth and Kelly. I just did — that being part of my job — and was left with what I think was most important about our conversation: Who is ultimately accountable for the newspaper’s failures? 

The answer? Bill Lang, whose family has owned it for generations and who hired Ethridge last year. Not long after Ethridge arrived in New Mexico, I interviewed him for our show. Judge for yourself, but it was pretty clear to me then that this was a rickety choice to run the news side of the Journal. 

His departure presents an opportunity for Lang. By all accounts, Ethridge was neither very popular at the paper, nor very involved in the journalism it’s been producing the last year-plus. Lang could replace him with someone who actually wants to do the job. 

Or, he could do what’s been done at 7777 Jefferson Street NE for as long as anyone can remember: He can play it safe. 

At the end of our conversation for this week’s show, Gwyneth said something that is going to stay with me about Lang’s conundrum: 

“To me it seems like, if this is my family paper, if this is my name on the masthead, if this is my legacy I’m looking at, for me the decision is: Either I have to invest in this thing, hire someone who is really experienced, really talented, really ready to go and ready to take this paper in the direction it needs to go — or, let it go, let someone else take it over. Not some hedge fund that’s gonna chop it up for parts — it’s already basically there, right? But give it to someone else. Either do it or let someone else do it.” 

I agree — because our state deserves a “leading news source” that is willing to lead. 

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer