Being a faithful subscriber to the High
Country News, I read your Oct. 2 article about
The Horse Fly. It contains many inaccuracies.
For example, the article talks about Taos Pueblo’s proposed
casino at the Kachina Lodge near downtown. It quotes Bill Whaley,
proprietor of The Horse Fly, as saying:
“The Taos News wouldn’t touch the story,
because it was deemed politically incorrect to call the Pueblo to
task.” We did touch the story. My publisher took a rough count for
the year of 1999. We had 20 stories on the casino project —
many on page 1, three editorials, two editorial cartoons, more than
a dozen guest opinion pieces — both pro and con. In fact, our
coverage caused us to lose a significant amount of advertising from
the Pueblo.
Also, contrary to what your article states,
we covered the local Democratic chairman’s subdivision
violations, even though he had sued us for libel (we ultimately won
the suit and collected a settlement from the chairman).
You should check your source’s statements before you print
them. The good thing about “traditional” community newspapers is
that we make a big effort to print both sides of the story.
Robin Martin
Owner,
The Taos News
Nambé, New Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The other side of the story.
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