Flashes

This whole episode bodes ill for the future of journalism — not because Amparano made stuff up but because Republic editors thought she was any good.

The column was trite. It was rank sentimentality. It was melodramatic. It was pittle. It did nothing to expand the readers’ grasp of the forces shaping their community. It did nothing to promote an understanding of vital public issues. It memorialized our lowest common denominator.

Yet Republic Deputy Managing Editor John D’Anna was quoted in Tuesday’s Republic as saying “. . . the fact that we were getting something so new and different and [Amparano’s column] fit so well into our goals, yeah, it clouded my judgment.”

We can deduce from this that the Republic‘s goal is to nurture stereotypes and induce catatonia.

The Republic told Amparano — an erstwhile “star” — that management launched an exhaustive investigation to trace sources in her column because New Times was readying to do its own exposé on Amparano. The editor of New Times tells me this is not accurate.

And although three Republic reporters put together a convincing litany of Amparano’s transgressions and printed it on Tuesday, readers should keep in mind that the piece appeared in the Arizona Republic, which can hardly be considered unbiased here. Big grain-of-salt time.

Judging from the piece published Tuesday, the Republic left no stone undisturbed in its quest to determine if Amparano had wrought fiction. Management even hired a private investigator to chase purported sources.

If the Republic were so zealous about investigating matters of true public import — things like corruption at City Hall, the civic embarrassment known as Sheriff Joke Arpaio, local government’s fawning subsidization of private industry, the lack of cogent education or transportation policy — this state would be a much better place.

Several newsroom sources tell the Flash that Amparano provided a convenient example for new Managing Editor Julia Wallace, who is using Amparano to illustrate her resolve to buff up the Republic‘s tarnished image in national journalism circles.

“Don’t you know? Julia Wallace is a vanquishing journalism goddess,” one Republic cynic snipes.

“She thinks she’s building a new newspaper from the ground up,” says another scribe. “But she’s really building a shambles.”

(Wallace, who makes a living seeing that public figures are held accountable through the press, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Neither did Amparano.)

The Republic writer says Amparano was seen as a desperately needed addition to a locker room of all-male (non-editorial board) columnists.

“I think because they wanted a Hispanic female columnist so badly, they pushed her into that job, and she couldn’t do it. I was told that she got that position because we needed a female minority voice.”

A few months ago, the Republic began a daily survey of its pages to track the number of references to Latino surnames.

Indeed, the Republic is extremely sensitive about its reputation as a bastion of white maleness. But Latino political columnist Ruben Navarrette, who was widely despised by liberal Hispanic activists, recently quit. Reporter Rachel Ochoa has resigned to pursue other interests.

Making the matter more ticklish for the Republic is the fact that Amparano is the Region 7 representative of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Several Latino reporters from the Republic defended her in Tuesday’s story. NAHJ president Nancy Baca, assistant features editor at the Albuquerque Journal, was attempting to contact Amparano. Baca notes that Amparano has retained an attorney, and NAHJ is anxious to hear her side of the story.

Finally, it’s simply guffawable that the Republic characterizes l’affair Amparano as “perhaps the biggest embarrassment” since 1985, when Republic publisher Darrow “Duke” Tully was found to have fabricated a military career. That was a long time ago. Lest we forget, a quick run-down on recent entries to the Republic‘s hall of shame:

• Its continued shameless shillage for the Arizona Diamondbanks, a team in which the Republic‘s parent company is an investor. Republic honchos are joined at the frontal lobe with sports mogul Jerry Colangelo. Their rapturous waltz climaxed with the Republic‘s significant role in greasing the tracks for the $238 million taxpayer-subsidized Bank One Ballpark. No public vote, because voters are idiots.

• Its unbridled editorial support for taxpayer-subsidized sports stadiums (Rio Salado Crossing, Los Arcos Mall redevelopment), hotels (the downtown Marriott, to which the city of Phoenix bypassed voters by declaring an “emergency” and committing in excess of $90 million) and developer-friendly but taxpayer-funded civic projects such as the $100 million Tempe Town Lake.

• In 1994, the Republic wrote a damning investigative piece about the “murder” of a teenager by guards at Arizona Boys Ranch. The piece, compiled by seasoned Republic reporters, omitted exculpatory material and compressed quotes to distort their meanings. Neither of the two reporters on the piece were disciplined, though the Republic got sued over the story, a case it eventually won; neither reporter works for the Republic today.

• Reporter David Schwartz, who lost his job after posing as a prominent Phoenix attorney while trying to pick up chicks. When busted, Schwartz claimed he was working undercover.

• Reporter Al Ariav, who was taped in compromising positions with topless dancers employed by reputed mobsters. Ariav said of the women, “I thought they liked me.”

• The Republic‘s bald-faced suppression of the story that then-sitting governor J. Fife Symington III was a business partner of a Mexican produce czar who was unable to get a visa to enter the United States because the federal drug agents considered him a narcotics trafficker. This fact could have been confirmed with a single phone call to the State Department. Fascinating story, told by New Times. Nary a word about it appeared in the Republic.

Denial Is a River in Egypt

And speaking of the Fifester. His blunderbuss attorney, John Dowd, delivered a harsh assessment of baseball great Pete Rose. Rose wants his lifetime banishment from Major League Baseball lifted so he will be eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Dowd is quoted in USA Today‘s August 23 edition as saying that Rose should admit he gambled on baseball when he was managing the Cincinnati Reds. Dowd was hired by former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 to investigate Rose and his gambling activities.

Rose continues to deny he bet on baseball or the Reds. But those charges ultimately led to Rose’s agreement to a lifetime banishment from baseball 10 years ago, on August 23, 1989.