KRQE lands Brooks interview

KOAT is being denied interviews with senior APS administrators, link.  Apparently, KRQE is not.

Last night, KRQE broadcast an interview they had with APS Supt Winston Brooks in which he was given the opportunity to address a manifest inconsistency in his claims of parental support of APS.

Brooks claims 89% of parents approve of the quality of APS education, link, despite the fact that a full third of APS students are destined to drop out.

Brooks' claim is impossible on its face.

You can't have a test where 89% of students pass and a third fail.

I don't think KRQE pushed Brooks very hard, maybe they're afraid of being blackballed like KOAT.

Why will Brooks show up for KRQE, but not for KOAT?  It looks like he feels threatened by KOAT but not by KRQE.


It will be interesting to watch this play out. If "communications staffers" are allowing KRQE interviews but not KOAT, KOAT is being treated disparately.  It violates their civil rights.

They must have lawyers for this kind of thing, KRQE does.

At one point, APS School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel was KRQE's lawyer on First Amendment issues.  He may still be, it wouldn't surprise me in the least.  Perhaps that's why Brooks doesn't feel threatened by KRQE interviewers.

Winston Brooks is not going to show up in any venue where he will have to respond to hard follow up questions.  He will never have a press conference and play stump the chump, link, with reporters and other interest holders.

KRQE offers no link to the interview.

Is it Monica Armenta?

I still want to know who the "APS communications staffer" is, who decides who gets interviews and who doesn't; who is the press, and who isn't.

That is lot of power to be wielding anonymously.

Why won't KOAT identify the source, who are they protecting, why do they need to, what's the big secret?






photos Mark Bralley