Lordy, Lordy! Is the Brownsville Herald Reporting Actual Stories Now?

Emma Perez-Trevino, Brownsville Herald reporter

It is no secret that the Brownsville Herald has not covered the major local stories of the last decade.   Some speculated that, with the parent company of the local newspaper in bankruptcy, that The Herald chose its targets carefully, fearfully, with a sharp eye on its sinking bottom line and the potential loss of even more advertising revenue.  


Others opined that Herald Publisher, Daniel Cavazos, had simply yielded to machiavellian influence, to behind-the-scene controllers of the City of Brownsville.


In any event, the Brownsville Herald failed to chronicle the nearly orchestrated theft of $200,000,000 worth of taxpayer assets by UTB President Juliet Garcia on behalf of the University of Texas system.  The Herald certainly did not cover the long-developing story of con artist Carlos Quintanilla's work to elect a BISD board that would vote to drop the $14,200,000 suit against Ted Parker's Healthsmart.  The story involved local operatives Pat Lehmann, Juan Montoya and Ben Neece setting up a P.A.C. with the unwitting Mary S. Rey as president, to defeat Zayas, Cortez and Powers, but to elect Cata, Lucy and Enrique.  Even the side con Quintanilla tried to work, with Fly Frontera, a 4 day old company, seeking a $2,500,000 subsidy from the city, with Brownsville on the hook for tickets NOT SOLD, an upside-down deal, that had everyone scratching their heads, was discreetly missed by the local paper.


After a lengthy conversation with former County/District Attorney Brian Janis about a year ago, he pointed out the second story window of his office toward the Cameron County Courthouse: "It's totally corrupt over there."  Yet, until very recently,  the Brownsville Herald ignored much of the story.  When I mentioned some of this to Steve Clark, a business reporter for The Herald and a banjo player, in a conversation at the Crescent Moon, he seemed to get hurt feelings.  No one wants to be associated with a laughingstock.

In the last year, Freedom Communications, Inc., the parent company of the Brownsville Herald, turned a huge financial corner by selling off the television station portion of its assets for $385,000,000.  That one transaction made the company debt free.  

Would the financial freedom of the parent company translate into journalistic freedom, a longer leash for Brownsville Herald reporters?  Recent coverage seems to indicate so.  Emma Perez-Trevino's daily chronicling of the Ray Marchan trial, with Abel Limas' naming of names of local judges brought into play in the huge bribery scheme unveiled, supports this view.  Even the mention of Armando Villalobos' weeklong, all expenses paid sojourn into Israel and his free World Series tickets via Joe Rivera, is a departure from the old ways.  

It almost feels like Brownsville has a newspaper.