As of this morning, the Three Sonorans is no longer on the Citizen site, a decision reportedly made by its editor and director Mark Evans.
By email, the Range asked Evans for comment. His reply: “I’m not interested in talking to you Mari.” We asked why, but haven’t heard back.
However, Evans had plenty to say to TucsonSentinel.com, telling Dylan Smith that closing down Three Sonorans was about a “reckless disregard for the truth,” and had something to do with Morales being part of the recall effort of Tucson Unified School District governing board member Michael Hicks (as of yesterday, made nationally famous via The Daily Show):
“This decision wasn’t taken lightly. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks after (Morales) took out recall petitions on (TUSD Governing Board member Michael) Hicks,” Evans said.
But Evans said Morales could continue to write about TUSD if he declared his conflict of interest.
Evans said he moved to shut down the blog because of a “constant reckless disregard for the truth.”
Morales “won’t call sources he criticizes to give them an opportunity to defend themselves or at least explain their position, even after I’ve asked him to do so,” Evans said.
Evans was also quoted by writer Jeff Biggers in an AlterNet piece posted today about the Three Sonorans’ closure that you can read here:
In what appears to be more of a personal act of retribution than editorial concern, Citizen editor Mark Evans wrote in an email that The Three Sonorans’ liability outweighed its benefit when the Tucson Weekly “posted an article last night that included verbatim email communications I had with David over his Patterson post.” Evans added for good measure: “In the end, it’s better for both of us. He won’t have anyone to answer to but himself and his readers and I won’t have to worry about getting angry phone calls from pissed off people at my mother’s funeral.”
Biggers points out that the Three Sonorans, while a progressive blog and certainly an activist voice for those in the Latino community, took jabs at everyone. Morales called out fellow progressives, the Pima County Democratic Party, Raul Grijalva and his supporters, and many in the Tucson Latino community. And he’s offered compliments to those same groups when he felt it was deserved.
At Weekly World Central, it wasn’t unusual for us to discuss the latest posts in Three Sonorans, which makes us wonder — especially since most of Morales’ posts about Patterson have proven to be true, with similar facts outlined in the recent House Ethics Committee report — why Evans’ chose to end the blog now.
In the past, the blogger made factual mistakes that didn’t win him friends among journalists, who complained the blog was posting erroneous information. Although Morales has improved over time, grumbles continued when Three Sonorans wrote that Giffords’ intern and Jan. 8 hero, Daniel Hernandez, was left out of the book Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, when that wasn’t true. Another grumble came when Morales called Ron Barber as a racist.
Those mistakes and controversies didn’t make Evans’ job at tucsoncitizen.com easier, although dealing with complaints is a thankless job every editor deals with — even when you’re in the middle of a family crisis.
However, the Three Sonorans brought up many of issues in the context of racism. It’s not an easy subject for many people to understand, but for many in Tucson and Arizona’s Latino community, it’s reality, and it shouldn’t always be treated with civility.
The Three Sonorans’ “firing” puts tucsoncitizen.com in an interesting position as being the so-called “Voice of Tucson” and a site for citizen journalism. The site Evans supervises is the byproduct of the newspaper business gone wrong when Gannett closed the afternoon daily three years ago. Prior to the dead-tree Citizen‘s closure, it operated through an agreement between Gannett and Lee Enterprises, which owns the Arizona Daily Star. That agreement ended in 2009, but a U.S. Justice Department and state Attorney General’s office investigation pressured the company to create a new agreement which reportedly ends in 2015 — perhaps tucsoncitizen.com’s expiration date.
We’re waiting to hear back from Morales on what he plans to do next, but this afternoon, he posted this note on Facebook, responding to Evans’ complaint that Morales never asked the other side questions:
The types of questions I would ask to get both sides, but never got response… I wonder why
by DA Morales on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 2:35pm ·When Evans says I would not contact people for their side it’s not true. First of all, the Daily Star (not bloggers but official “journalists”) doesn’t even do this when they when they write about the MAS director or teachers when they bash them, but here’s an example of the direct and tough questions I ask when I do ask for comments, specific Yes/No questions with no room for vague answers you usually get in the news.
Email:
From David Morales 12/27/11
to dpcampaign, Mark Evans
Dear Rep. Patterson,
Was there ever, at anytime, a warrant against you within the last few days? This is the only assertion that I have made. What do you feel is slanderous?
Another question. Who had legal rights to Ruby on Sunday night after 8pm? Did you violate any court order that night? Did you leave the state when Jeneiene had a court ordered right to have Ruby on Sunday night? Why did you not answer her phone calls and let her know you were leaving the state that night, leaving Ruby’s packed clothes behind?
Thank you,
~David Morales
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2012.
Good riddance three sonorans…
What horrible, inciteful trash you posted.
Ditto, Celador! He was the most racist person I’ve read!
He tried to blame Americans for everything and promoted hate and hoped some nut would act on his version of facts. Were lucky nobody acted on his behalf.
Shame on Tucson Citizen for taking so long to delete him!
I liked and even agreed with most of his posts and will miss his voice, though I suspect we’ve heard far from the last of him. If nothing else, D.A. Morales served as a stick in the eye to every last redneck moron who can only howl “racist” when their own hate and ignorance are exposed for all to see. Takes one to know one, after all!
I posted yesterday, but it is no longer here. It is important that people who read Three Sonorans know what a hypocrite Abie Morales is. He always talked about banned books and the suppression of freedom of speech, but he himself would block people who didn’t support him from posting on his blog. That is what a blog is all about, talking with your dissenters and believers. Censoring those who you don’t like and who aren’t vile or obscene is a violation of the 1st amendment and the Citizen.com was right to drop you for violating other peoples rights.
Red Star notes that currently there aren’t any advertisements at Tucsoncitizen.com (unless one counts lazy link feeds to shabby gtm Gannett products such as USATODAY).
Though occasionally there have been some outside local advertisers, the advertisers flock away after a week or a month, or so. Yet the site lives on as a place for hobbyists, busybodies and UA sports obsessives. And, apparently Mark B. Evans.
What is the true purpose of it, for Gannett?
Maybe the Weekly will add him as a columnist; or maybe not.
A loss of a good political gossip blog. However, he was too militant he never conceded a point, never debated just berated, I don’t think he’d see the other side of the story if it bit him on his butt.
Three Sonorans had a lot of people hating on it, and still doing so, and will continue to do because they can’t stand to hear the truth, and the truth is what many people say, not just a specific group which loves to oppress. Three Sonorans is a gift to the community and a vision into another way of experiencing life in these United States.
How do black people feel in the country,? (?hicks?)
well ask Malcolm or Martin, ask Huey, ask Baldwin, ask Parks, ask Parks’ grandmother, ask the kid in your local prison, black he more than likely to be, could ask Trayvon Martin and those in his community. (You could also ask Barack Obama but he’d lie to you for a buck.)
Abie Morales is an unpaid journalist of the highest standing, one who told the truth so much they tried to shut him down. He is a freedom fighter in a land which abhors freedom and makes you pay for everything. I hope he feels the love
David should be given the highest respect for what he has done. For while when most of us see injustice and racism in our schools, communities, and politics, we frown at the news and say that somebody should do something to stop it, or somebody should stand up to it and say something about theses injustices, we rarely do ourselves. But not David Morales and the Three Sonorans. He has done what we all should be doing, and that is become involved and informed about issues concerning our families, our community, and our state. Haters will say he was one sided and issue orientated, but often times David’s posts were the only place a person could turn to get information on local issues. And as far as him being a racist, what would you do if you lived in a community where people from your ethnic group were in the majority, and also had a very strong connection to the land which dates back centuries, and then after all this you were told that you and your history are irrelevant. Probably the same thing that a lot of us did and that was hope somebody like David would stand up for you as well, and report on the injustices that you felt were being brought upon you. Thank you for all the hard work David and respectfully Si Se Puede……
Quoting “Logical Thinker”: “That is what a blog is all about, talking with your dissenters and believers. Censoring those who you don’t like and who aren’t vile or obscene is a violation of the 1st amendment and the Citizen.com was right to drop you for violating other peoples rights.”
This is a common misconception — the First Amendment is a restriction on the State, not on an individual or private entity. No rights are violated when someone doesn’t let you post on their blog. Also, while some blogs CAN be “all about” engaging with commenters, that’s hardly a requirement. Blogs can be about anything someone wants them to be about, and giving a platform to the vast internet via blog comments is not some cardinal rule of the internets.
“I’m not interested in talking to you Mari.”
It’s either stunningly dumb or savvy/cynical…
a dispatch from the hamster cage submitted by Gannett’s Anthony Gimino:
“1,500 posts later: Here is what fans like to read about the Arizona Wildcats”
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wildcatreport/201…
where there is no advertising other than for lame Gannett products, so again one wonders what is really going on with that site…
Well, I never really paid much attention to Three Sonorans before but now, since they’ve been blacklisted, I’ve put them on my favorites to read everyday! Thanks for bringing the blog to my attention! That’s what censorship usually accomplishes!
Does anyone in Arizona believe in free speech. Brewer and Pearce have been allowed to make hateful statements. Let all sides speak freely and let the people decide whether they want to read it or not. We are all adults. Don’t read anything that offends you or you don’t agree with. Better yet, do just that. You may learn a few things.