Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 13, 2007 14:34:15 GMT -5
Navajo Times endures shutdown, gains independence
Tom Arviso Jr., publisher of the Navajo Times, is seen, Friday,
Feb. 16, 2007, in Flagstaff, Ariz. Arviso was a sports reporter in the
late 80s when the then Navajo tribally-owned newspaper was closed by the
tribal government. The Navajo Times, then called the Navajo Times Today,
survived the shutdown, which spurred discussion of a free press in
Indian Country.
By FELICIA FONSECA | Associated Press
February 23, 2007
freenewmexican.com/news/57449.html
<http://freenewmexican.com/news/57449.html>
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Bill Donovan laughs when he describes the four
times he was fired from the Navajo Times for writing stories critical of
tribal government. The joking stops when he tells of the day 20 years
ago when the newspaper was shut down.
On Feb. 19, 1987, under then-Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr., the tribe
closed the only daily newspaper in Indian Country at the time, citing an
audit of the paper that MacDonald said revealed debts to the IRS and
mismanagement.
The newspaper, like most tribal newspapers today, was owned and
controlled by the tribe. There was no freedom of the press, and staff
members constantly struggled with interference by tribal government.
"There has always been this fight within the paper because technically,
the chairman of the tribe is the publisher of the newspaper," said
Donovan, a freelance writer. "There's a feeling that you have to be at
least somewhat supportive of the administration."
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The Navajo Times, then called the Navajo Times Today, survived the
shutdown, which spurred discussion of a free press in Indian Country.
The Navajo Nation Council has since granted the newspaper its
independence _ a unique feat for newspapers in Indian Country, said Mike
Kellogg, president of the Native American Journalists Association.
"Government leaders are becoming more aware of what a free press does
for citizens. It keeps them better informed, it allows them to ask
tougher questions and it allows them not to risk being fired if they ask
the tough questions," said Kellogg, business manager for the Navajo
Times Today when it closed.
MacDonald beat out incumbent Chairman Peterson Zah in the 1986 election.
Then-publisher Mark Trahant wrote an editorial endorsing Zah, and staff
members suspect that and other stories critical of MacDonald's
administration led to the paper's demise.
"We thought management would be changed, but MacDonald went to an
extreme," said Tom Arviso Jr., a former sports writer for the paper and
now its editor. "You have to understand what tribal politics is about.
It gets personal."
While covering MacDonald's campaign, Betty Reid said she often was
criticized for simply being on the newspaper's staff. Tribal members
called her a "gossip teller," since there's no word for reporter in the
Navajo language.
The tribal newspaper was Reid's first job, and she vowed it would be her
last at a tribally funded newspaper after the shutdown.
"That was the first time freedom of the press took center stage in my
mind," said Reid, who now works for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.
The 78-year-old MacDonald, now living in Tuba City, Ariz., denies he
retaliated against the Navajo Times.
"So if they did support Zah editorially, I didn't think it made any
difference," MacDonald said. "I won, so why should I take revenge?"
MacDonald said the audit, conducted shortly after he took office, showed
the newspaper owed the IRS thousands of dollars _ which Trahant
acknowledged _ and that advertising money and funds appropriated by the
tribe were used for travel, golfing and expensive dinners.
"Immediately we wanted to put a stop to it," MacDonald said, explaining
there needed to be a move toward profitability.
The Navajo Times started as an education newsletter in 1961 and became a
weekly two years later. The paper had lost nearly $1 million after
switching from a weekly to a daily in 1984, but Trahant said the Times
was losing less money each year.
Trahant met with MacDonald and suggested ways to turn a profit, such as
a management buyout and creation of a tribal media company. MacDonald
didn't bite.
"It was easy for them to look at the negative numbers and say this
shouldn't be happening," said Trahant, now editorial page editor of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
MacDonald reopened the Navajo Times as a weekly in June 1987 with plans
to have it become independent of the tribe by the end of his term to
"eliminate the suspicion that there is control somewhere," he said.
But the Navajo Nation Council removed MacDonald from office during a
corruption scandal in 1989. Though he was convicted of federal
conspiracy charges, MacDonald later was pardoned by the tribal council
and former President Bill Clinton.
Arviso returned to the newspaper in 1988 with a goal to pay off past
debts and then break free from the tribe.
Instead, Arviso had bomb threats called in, his tires were slashed,
people threatened his life and he was suspended by former Navajo
President Albert Hale _ though that action lasted only a day.
A feeling of relief swept over Arviso in October 2003 when the tribal
council voted 66-1 to approve the newspaper's independence and create
the Navajo Times Publishing Co. Inc.
"It feels good now, the work we do, because we're doing it for
ourselves," Arviso said. "We realize when we're staying out late and
working those extra hours, we understand we're doing it now for the
people. It makes it so much more enjoyable."
Today, more than 300 tribal publications exist in the United States.
The most widely circulated include the Navajo Times, the Cherokee
Phoenix, Indian Country Today and the Native American Times, said Kim
Baca, interim executive director of the Native American Journalists
Association.
She said some 64 tribes have adopted provisions stipulating a free press
in their constitutions.
The Navajo Nation doesn't have a constitution, but the tribal council
passed a resolution in the late 1990s stating the government could not
interfere with the Navajo Times.
However, in approving independence, the Navajo Nation gave the
publishing company an initial investment of $500,000, making the
government the sole shareholder. The paper still must report to the
tribe on its audit each year.
Arviso is fine with that, as long as the Navajo Nation considers its
government to be for the people _ not for the president and not for
council delegates.
He hopes one day to buy the 500,000 shares from the tribe.
"I'd like to have my employees own stock," he said. "I'd like to be a
major investor, so that it truly is independent."
As for switching back to a daily, Arviso and other staffers say it's not
likely any time soon.
"We had our one shot and the tribe blew it," Donovan said.
Tom Arviso Jr., publisher of the Navajo Times, is seen, Friday,
Feb. 16, 2007, in Flagstaff, Ariz. Arviso was a sports reporter in the
late 80s when the then Navajo tribally-owned newspaper was closed by the
tribal government. The Navajo Times, then called the Navajo Times Today,
survived the shutdown, which spurred discussion of a free press in
Indian Country.
By FELICIA FONSECA | Associated Press
February 23, 2007
freenewmexican.com/news/57449.html
<http://freenewmexican.com/news/57449.html>
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) - Bill Donovan laughs when he describes the four
times he was fired from the Navajo Times for writing stories critical of
tribal government. The joking stops when he tells of the day 20 years
ago when the newspaper was shut down.
On Feb. 19, 1987, under then-Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr., the tribe
closed the only daily newspaper in Indian Country at the time, citing an
audit of the paper that MacDonald said revealed debts to the IRS and
mismanagement.
The newspaper, like most tribal newspapers today, was owned and
controlled by the tribe. There was no freedom of the press, and staff
members constantly struggled with interference by tribal government.
"There has always been this fight within the paper because technically,
the chairman of the tribe is the publisher of the newspaper," said
Donovan, a freelance writer. "There's a feeling that you have to be at
least somewhat supportive of the administration."
<http://www.burstnet.com/ads/ad14132a-map.cgi/SZ=300X250A/V=2.1S/BRC=306\
68/BCPG29747.53424.97071/> [Click Here]
<http://www.burstnet.com/ads/ad14132a-map.cgi/ns/v=2.1S/sz=300x250A/>
The Navajo Times, then called the Navajo Times Today, survived the
shutdown, which spurred discussion of a free press in Indian Country.
The Navajo Nation Council has since granted the newspaper its
independence _ a unique feat for newspapers in Indian Country, said Mike
Kellogg, president of the Native American Journalists Association.
"Government leaders are becoming more aware of what a free press does
for citizens. It keeps them better informed, it allows them to ask
tougher questions and it allows them not to risk being fired if they ask
the tough questions," said Kellogg, business manager for the Navajo
Times Today when it closed.
MacDonald beat out incumbent Chairman Peterson Zah in the 1986 election.
Then-publisher Mark Trahant wrote an editorial endorsing Zah, and staff
members suspect that and other stories critical of MacDonald's
administration led to the paper's demise.
"We thought management would be changed, but MacDonald went to an
extreme," said Tom Arviso Jr., a former sports writer for the paper and
now its editor. "You have to understand what tribal politics is about.
It gets personal."
While covering MacDonald's campaign, Betty Reid said she often was
criticized for simply being on the newspaper's staff. Tribal members
called her a "gossip teller," since there's no word for reporter in the
Navajo language.
The tribal newspaper was Reid's first job, and she vowed it would be her
last at a tribally funded newspaper after the shutdown.
"That was the first time freedom of the press took center stage in my
mind," said Reid, who now works for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.
The 78-year-old MacDonald, now living in Tuba City, Ariz., denies he
retaliated against the Navajo Times.
"So if they did support Zah editorially, I didn't think it made any
difference," MacDonald said. "I won, so why should I take revenge?"
MacDonald said the audit, conducted shortly after he took office, showed
the newspaper owed the IRS thousands of dollars _ which Trahant
acknowledged _ and that advertising money and funds appropriated by the
tribe were used for travel, golfing and expensive dinners.
"Immediately we wanted to put a stop to it," MacDonald said, explaining
there needed to be a move toward profitability.
The Navajo Times started as an education newsletter in 1961 and became a
weekly two years later. The paper had lost nearly $1 million after
switching from a weekly to a daily in 1984, but Trahant said the Times
was losing less money each year.
Trahant met with MacDonald and suggested ways to turn a profit, such as
a management buyout and creation of a tribal media company. MacDonald
didn't bite.
"It was easy for them to look at the negative numbers and say this
shouldn't be happening," said Trahant, now editorial page editor of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
MacDonald reopened the Navajo Times as a weekly in June 1987 with plans
to have it become independent of the tribe by the end of his term to
"eliminate the suspicion that there is control somewhere," he said.
But the Navajo Nation Council removed MacDonald from office during a
corruption scandal in 1989. Though he was convicted of federal
conspiracy charges, MacDonald later was pardoned by the tribal council
and former President Bill Clinton.
Arviso returned to the newspaper in 1988 with a goal to pay off past
debts and then break free from the tribe.
Instead, Arviso had bomb threats called in, his tires were slashed,
people threatened his life and he was suspended by former Navajo
President Albert Hale _ though that action lasted only a day.
A feeling of relief swept over Arviso in October 2003 when the tribal
council voted 66-1 to approve the newspaper's independence and create
the Navajo Times Publishing Co. Inc.
"It feels good now, the work we do, because we're doing it for
ourselves," Arviso said. "We realize when we're staying out late and
working those extra hours, we understand we're doing it now for the
people. It makes it so much more enjoyable."
Today, more than 300 tribal publications exist in the United States.
The most widely circulated include the Navajo Times, the Cherokee
Phoenix, Indian Country Today and the Native American Times, said Kim
Baca, interim executive director of the Native American Journalists
Association.
She said some 64 tribes have adopted provisions stipulating a free press
in their constitutions.
The Navajo Nation doesn't have a constitution, but the tribal council
passed a resolution in the late 1990s stating the government could not
interfere with the Navajo Times.
However, in approving independence, the Navajo Nation gave the
publishing company an initial investment of $500,000, making the
government the sole shareholder. The paper still must report to the
tribe on its audit each year.
Arviso is fine with that, as long as the Navajo Nation considers its
government to be for the people _ not for the president and not for
council delegates.
He hopes one day to buy the 500,000 shares from the tribe.
"I'd like to have my employees own stock," he said. "I'd like to be a
major investor, so that it truly is independent."
As for switching back to a daily, Arviso and other staffers say it's not
likely any time soon.
"We had our one shot and the tribe blew it," Donovan said.