Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
dailylobo.com
Once you have enjoyed your copy of the Daily Lobo:
it’s yours to keep OR recycle.
Monday, November 16, 2020 | Vo l u m e 1 2 5 | I s s u e 1 5
IN MEMORIAM HANNAH COLTON, 1991-2020 Journalism community mourns loss of brilliant news leader By Andrew Gunn @agunnwrites
The tight-knit journalism community in New Mexico lost a luminescent figure on Tuesday. Hannah Colton, the news director at KUNM and a pillar of the press corps in the state, died at the age of 29 on Nov. 10. The sense of loss was tremendous as the news of Colton’s passing was announced on KUNM on Wednesday night. “The KUNM community is heartbroken to say that news director Hannah Colton died earlier this week at age 29,” KUNM reporter and producer Marisa Demarco said. “She has been a brilliant news leader during the pandemic, guiding the team and editing stories about the virus, the calls to stop racist policing and the 2020 election.” An award-winning reporter and radio host with a sharp sense for news geared toward racial justice, equity and compassion, Colton was a staunch advocate for telling the stories of people who were too often overlooked in a society gripped by the vice of late capitalism and oppression. “She well-understood the urgency of this moment, and she gave it her whole heart, working
around the clock to cover equity and education, the dangers of the virus for people who are incarcerated, protests and the pandemic’s impacts on people without shelter,” Demarco said. “She was committed to this region and told me she wanted to stay here, doing this work — even though after this pandemic is over, she could have gone anywhere she wanted as a reporter or newsroom leader.” Colton covered public health during the age of the coronavirus, public education and local politics — among many other beats — for KUNM during a four-year career for the University of New Mexico’s public radio station. She took over as interim news director at KUNM in February 2020, and her passing leaves an immeasurable void in the sphere of New Mexico news. “She had such a way of going after people trying to effect change,” Justin Garcia, the former editorin-chief of the Daily Lobo, said. “It felt like she was just doing her own thing way better than what the rest of us were doing. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who was as fearless a journalist as she was.” Colton was born in 1991 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and began her radio career with KDLG in Bristol Bay, Alaska. She joined KUNM in
Courtesy Photo
KUNM news director Hannah Colton records in her studio. Photo courtesy of KUNM.
2016 as a substitute news host, with stints as a freelance reporter and host for KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio and National Native News before joining KUNM full time in 2018. She was also a volunteer editorial director for
Two Way Street, an independent, community-based street newspaper in Albuquerque. The ties between Colton and the Daily Lobo staff ran deep, as do all connections between journalists covering the same community
and reporting on difficult topics. Bonded by an invisible force, from covering protests and public meetings to community events and social movements, Colton’s
see Hannah Colton page 2
LETTER
Structural changes needed to prevent tragic deaths like KUNM news director Telling people to ‘reach for help’ doesn’t work
In the wake of KUNM news director Hannah Colton’s death, a common refrain by friends, loved ones and community members circulated: “Check on your friends, and reach out if you need help.” As two people who were very close to Hannah, we hear and appreciate the gesture. Creating communities of care and resilience is important. But checking on Hannah, asking that she reach out, did not solve the underlying
problems that led to her death. Hannah was a journalist who led a chronically understaffed and resource-deprived newsroom, no different than most other newsrooms and many nonprofits. Every day she confronted very real structural violences of a world organized around profit and white supremacy. We must confront and transform these systems that have shaped our world into a place that prioritizes
wealth accumulation over community wellness. Capitalism and white supremacy individualize collective problems, fueling the cultural mindset that each of us individually is solely responsible for our own wellbeing and the well-being of those close to us. They work to weaken and dissolve the collective obligations of care that we have to one another. A world organized around profits at the expense of people is a world full of preventable death and de-
spair. These systems are not based on human needs but on exploitation and extraction that grind humans down for the benefit of a ruling class. Capitalism objectifies human beings into “resources” requiring management, our labor optimized for profit, while white supremacy reinforces the resulting hierarchy as just and natural. Hannah rejected that worldview. She was a powerful advocate for her staff at KUNM, and she recognized
her obligation to collective well-being. When the COVID-19 pandemic reached New Mexico, Hannah was instrumental in a station-wide effort that pushed for everyone, including immunocompromised radio hosts, to be able to work from home. Reaching out to friends, building healthy relationships and weaving networks of support and kinship are all essential for surviving capi-
see
Letter page 2