New Mexico Independent

The New Mexico Independent is a two-month old news site. See: http://www.newmexicoindependent.com. The Independent appears to be a work in progress, far more than one would expect from an operation for which Albuquerque is the sixth subsidiary (which may not be quite the right word) of the Washington, D.C. based Center for Independent Media. (http://newjournalist.org) Employees are called "fellows." They operate within a lengthy code of ethics, much longer than any human can remember. Upon first reading, a couple of month ago, my memory is that the word, "progressive," appeared often in he ethics code, or somewhere on the main site. Tonight's rereading didn't find the word. "Progressive," in case no one knows, is leftist code for a bunch of things, but mainly that capitalists are bad guys and government folks are good guys.
That the Independent is a work in progress comes from Trip Jennings, site news editor and former Albuquerque Journal political writer. Jennings spoke to the Albuquerque Press Women at lunch today. About 25 attended. The Independent is "trying to marry traditional newspapers with this new online world of blogs," Jennings said.
At newjournalist.org, I did not find any indication of the source of the money, an omission that is, at best, unfortunate. Had, say, Robert Murdoch, owner of lots of things including Fox News and, now, the Wall Street Journal, been behind the new effort, my conservation twitchyness wonders, I suspect there would be loud proclamations. Jennings wasn't worried about the money, which, he said, is handled through D.C. Further, he said, there is a thick wall between the investors and his concern, the editorial side.
As an additional journalistic voice in the market, the Independent is to be welcomed. However, it would be nice to know about the money. That's because money, nearly always, is not impartial.
For all the proclamations, the Independent is not immune to old sloppiness. Unsubstantiated use of "more" and "many" are my hot buttons. On the Independent's site, as I write, there is a gas price story saying "more New Mexicans" are choosing to ride scooters, the Vespas of my childhood. But how many more? Two more? 12 more? 27? The story doesn't say.