I fear what lies beyond 2010

A recent informal survey of ex-Los Angeles Times staffers, revealed that a slim majority expected the newspaper to fold. God, how I hope that will never happen. The Los Angeles Times has been doing amazing work in the last year-ish covering the drug war in Mexico. The latest story, reported and written by Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood, tells of how one mayor has started his own "intelligence squad" because the fear has cowed the general public, the media and even the church to become complicit with the drug warriors.

This is an amazing story filled with terrfiying details, powerful quotes:

San Pedro, a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico's industrial capital, boasts multinational corporate headquarters, Ferrari dealerships, pristine streets and parks, the top luxury hotels. At one typically orderly intersection rises a copy of Michelangelo's David larger than the original.

In an interview in a City Hall office decorated with paintings by Mexico's top contemporary artists, Fernandez dismissed comparisons between the intelligence units and death squads or Colombia-style paramilitaries, saying his units are "more like detectives," albeit answerable only to him. He refused to provide any details as to who serves on the squads or how they operate.

...

In some parts of the country, priests have used money from traffickers to pay for church repairs, special chapels or other community projects. One senior priest was quoted a couple of years ago praising the drug lords' propensity to tithe.

"They make us accomplices," said another outspoken bishop, Raul Vera of Saltillo. "A steeple built with drug money has blood gushing from its rafters."

The problem we as a society face is who else would do this reporting? Take these risks? Have the intelligence, skill, dedication and trustworthiness to interview these sources so effectively?

As a former daily news reporter, let me say again that what reporters do every day is NOT blogging, it's not commenting on someone else's work with opinions (like I'm doing now), it's digging, it's finding someone to say yes what you ask "Hey, can I ask you a couple questions about _________?" It's sifting through a multitude of interpretations of the same events or set of facts and finding the logic. It's writing all those facts down in a compelling way that that helps readers relate and understand.

Congrats, L.A. Times on more amazing work.

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No Merry Xmas blogging because I was sick. :(