Leeser & First Lady of El Paso Divorce

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and his spouse have divorced. This story might sound vaguely familiar to some of you. 

I know what you're thinking:

Why are you rehashing a story that ran last week LionStar? 

Is this click bait? 

Are you running out of things to talk about? 

I feel you. I don't blame you one bit if thats what you're thinking. 

Why wouldn't you? 

Well perhaps this little social experiment might help you understand a little better. 

Work with me here...

Just for funsies, I'd like you all to just jump into your favorite search engine and run a search on "Leeser, divorce". 

I'm gonna bet that your result looks a little something like this:

The result you'll find is a story from KTSM with the headline talking about the divorce.

Now, continue to indulge me...

Click on the link and see what happens.

Spoiler Alert: You'll see this when you click on it. 

So what gives?

Why is the story gone?

Well let me explain some things to you. First, David Candelaria is the head honcho at KTSM. Leeser and Candelaria are good buds. Leeser spends a lot of money at local TV stations with ads for his car dealership. 

Multiple sources at KTSM confirmed that the story wasn't liked and someone had it pulled. 

I've been around news circles for almost 20 years and this same kind of thing has allegedly happened at the El Paso Times, KINT, and KTSM previously whenever there were not-so-flattering coverage of Leeser. 

Is it illegal to allegedly lean on a station manager or media company because you spend a lot of advertising dollars there? 

No. Absolutely not. Its not illegal. 

But everyone reading this knows that if Leeser called to have that story killed, it just ain't right. And an elected official having the power to allegedly kill stories he doesn't like - well thats the shit that happens in corrupt dictatorships. 

Not in a solid, healthy democracy. 

If that is what happened. 

This is where the other media stations in town need to show a backbone and follow the story. No elected official should have that kind of power. And the next time, it could be your station or publication. Other media outlets should be calling the mayor and asking him one single question - did you communicate with KTSM management about the story?

One of three things is going to happen and all of them will be telling. He'll either tell the truth - whatever that is - tell a lie, or say nothing. 

But all the other stations in town should show solidarity and report on the story. The lesson to any elected official should be that they don't have the power to shape news coverage. For the good of journalism and democracy, no politician should have that power. 

The story here isn't that El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser got divorced. Who gives a shit? He's the mayor and as a result, he's in the public eye and gets scrutiny that other folks don't, but then again we don't have a large private detail of off duty cops in suits and SUV's traveling with us for protection either. The trappings of office so to speak. 

People get divorced all the time. But when you're wealthy and the mayor of this town and the divorce happens while you are mayor, yeah - its a news story. I don't really care why they even got divorced. Nor do I think anyone else cares much why they did either. 

The story is really about the snuff film that is the alleged killing of the story. Local media should be asking KTSM's corporate folks why their local station guy has a relationship with an elected official with allegedly the power to kill stories he doesn't like. 

No media outlet should be cool with that. 

Again, the divorce really isn't the story. The story now should revolve about why was that story pulled. Who's call was it? Why? Was there any involvement from the Mayor that led to the story being pulled. 

Now your friendly neighborhood LionStar doesn't answer to any elected official or powerfully rich businessman. There are no big powerful advertising dollars telling me what to do, what to write, or what not to say. 

So here are the divorce documents that the KTSM story was sourced on. It basically outlines a lot of money, a home, furniture, a piano, etc.