{"id":44429,"date":"2024-03-08T18:10:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T01:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=44429"},"modified":"2024-03-08T18:10:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T01:10:04","slug":"spoken-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/spoken-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoken Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been a fan of Patrick Lohmann\u2019s journalism since I met him well over a decade ago. He did fine work at the Daily Lobo<\/em>, then at the Albuquerque Journal<\/em>, where our paths crossed briefly in the early 2010s. I was sad to see him leave New Mexico not long after, but watched with delight as he grew into a force at the Syracuse Post-Standard<\/em> in New York. (If you\u2019ve never checked out the series in which Patrick exposed a rogue, dangerous Alcoholics Anonymous group in that state<\/a>, I strongly encourage you to do so \u2014 it\u2019s wild.)\u00a0

I was glad to learn Patrick was coming home to help launch Source New Mexico<\/a>, a nonprofit, digital-first news organization that is part of the national States Newsroom<\/a> group. The press corps around here has taken too many hits in recent years, and we could never have enough reporters like Patrick, besides.\u00a0

If I was glad about his return, I was overjoyed by the news that Patrick had been accepted as part of ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network<\/a>. A talented\u00a0journalist with deep roots in our state would work with some of the nation\u2019s best editors, data nerds and others to spend a year trying to answer a single question in the aftermath of the Hermits Peak\/Calf Canyon Fire, New Mexico\u2019s largest ever wildfire: When the government makes a mistake, what will it do to make things right for those it harmed?\u00a0

The resulting series<\/a> has been predictably excellent. Sometimes sharing a byline with ProPublica\u2019s Byard Duncan and often presenting the reporting alongside powerful images captured by New Mexico-based photojournalist Adria Malcolm, Patrick\u2019s stories have burrowed deep into that question. The answers have been enlightening, if frustrating. There have been numerous revelations, many of them related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s failures to compensate survivors of Hermits Peak\/Calf Canyon \u2014 a pair of fires the government itself started via botched prescribed burns that merged into one \u2014 despite Congress allocating nearly $4 billion for relief.\u00a0

Aside from the careful, thorough journalism that underpins these stories, I have been most struck by Patrick\u2019s insistence on centering the struggles, joys and humanity of the Northern New Mexicans who have lost so much to this fire and the wreckage it has left behind. This approach was never more apparent than in a story published Feb. 23<\/a> under the headline: \u201cThey lost everything in New Mexico\u2019s biggest wildfire. Now they are sounding the alarm for others.\u201d\u00a0

Reading these survivors\u2019 stories \u2014 mostly in their own words and coupled with Adria\u2019s photographs \u2014 sharpened my understanding of this disaster\u2019s scope. Immediately, I wondered if there might be a way to convey what I felt to New Mexico in Focus viewers. There\u2019s something about watching people describe what happened to them, what they\u2019ve learned and what they hope for in the face of unimaginable devastation that resonates differently from reading stories like that. I don\u2019t mean to suggest print and digital journalism can\u2019t spur deep empathy; I spent two decades working in those mediums myself, and I\u2019m aware of the impact they can have.\u00a0

Still, I wanted our viewers to see survivors talk.\u00a0

I\u2019m grateful for Patrick\u2019s willingness to make that happen. He invited Kayt Peck and Yolanda Cruz to our studio for a two-part<\/a> conversation<\/a>. They agreed and made the drive south. We arranged our set with some of Adria\u2019s images.\u00a0 What emerged was a powerful discussion built on\u00a0the skills of a journalist who has always used his heart as much as his head to guide the work and direct, unpolished\u00a0truths from survivors who were clearly comfortable with their inquirer.\u00a0

I\u2019m probably not much of an authority on what makes \u201cgood TV,\u201d but for me, this was several cuts above the vast majority of what I see. And I\u2019m honored that it\u2019s on our show this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Jeff Proctor Executive Producer\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n