The Brownsville Blogosphere's Landscape is Changing

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

The times, they are a changin'.

The Brownsville Blogosphere has been going through an evolution of sorts. It seems 2020 has seen changes everywhere.

Jerry McHale, publisher of the McHale Report, often times refers to Brownsville as the blogging capital of Texas. That's probably because the city's newspaper is a shell of the shell it used to be. The old Herald offices close to downtown sit abandoned and dormant. Their skeleton crew works out of an office in the VentureX Building off the expressway.

Because of the Herald's lack of local reporting, bloggers have usually reported on local stories and provided Brownsvillians with the goings-on around town.

But the bloggers aren't what they used to be.

Brownsville has starred to see a shift from blogs to video blogs, or vlogs, that are posted to Facebook and YouTube.

For years, the gold standard has been blogs by Brownsville blogging royalty - Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun, Jerry McHale's McHale Report, and Jim Barton's Brownsville Observer.

El Rrun Rrun is still going strong. Montoya takes his years of experience and puts out articles about Brownsville politics and reports on the machinations of the local political spider web. Several people take to the comments section to debate and discuss current events.

Jerry McHale has recently posted about taking his foot off the gas when writing about local issues. He's focusing on his prose and short stories rather than the battle that is Brownsville. Bottom line: The Blogfather is not breathing as much fire as he once did.

Jim Barton is semi-retired from blogging and is enjoying his recent marriage rather than worrying about politics. A visit to the Observer will show the last article Barton published was in October.

The Brownsville Beacon is not a full-time blog, and I've been taking some time off to deal with some pretty serious health issues. I never considered the Beacon as one of Brownsville's preeminent blogs. We're definitely a second, or third, tier blog.

I must have bothered Duardo Paz-Martinez, because when I first started my blog I messaged him on Facebook and asked if he had any advice. He was fairly dismissive, but not rude, and promptly blocked me on Facebook. I was never a fan of his blogging - let me rephrase - I've never been a fan of an out-of-towner taking shots at my Beloved Brownsville while living in McAllen. I never understood why he just didn't blog about McAllen. That said, I think he's stopped blogging - something he's done in the past. Is he blogging again? Has his blog ceased publication? Who knows?

The disbarred lawyer, Robert Wrightman, continues publishing his ramblings while attacking people who dare say anything about his articles. He decided to ridicule me and attack my personal life simply because I questioned his "sources" and his journalistic integrity. His blog is a strange conspiracy theory and assumption filled rant. He constantly says he's going to stop blogging. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Now on to the changing landscape. There are several people who have taken to social media to inform people of what's going on.

Erasmo Castro continues his assault on everyone who doesn't blindly agree with him, blocking people who dare ask him questions and always bringing up just how bad other local politicians are. His Facebook page has gone through several incarnations, and he started a video show while he was running for a spot on the school board. His co-host was Frank Olivo who has since stopped appearing on the show with Castro. Castro is continuing to stay in the public eye. There are those who say Castro continues broadcasting because he has plans to run for mayor.

Another person who has run several failing political campaigns who has taken to publishing a video show is Roman Perez. The Prince of Passive-Aggressiveness hosts Rio Politics. Guests on his show take a backseat to Roman, since he really doesn't allow his guests to say much, constantly interrupting them and reading watcher-submitted questions out loud and addressing them rather than paying attention to his guests. Roman also seems to want to remain in the public eye. The word around the campfire is he's planning another run for District 1 Commissioner.

Roman had a guest host but he has decided to branch out on his own. Manny Focil hosts another live video show.

A couple of "anonymous" Facebook pages also operate putting out Brownsville stories. A "Juan Garcia" publishes articles, mostly dealing with school district corruption. There are those who think Erasmo Castro, or one of his running mates, runs this page.

The Brownsville Times is a similar page. With some of the same content, there are those who believe Carlos Elizondo is behind the page. Several people refer to the author as "Charlie."

Other pages have come and gone. As city elections are coming up next year, I'm sure we'll see more and more video shows and Facebook pages publishing articles.

Blogs seem to be an antiquated method of informing the public. Our collective attention spans seem to want things quicker and shorter.

TL;DR? Probably.