Local: Mayor keeps digging himself a bigger hole

For beginners, it looks like Laredo streets are still unpaved.

Today, El Alcalde, as BTB affectionately refers to our mayor, was a guest on Pro8News at noon. Once again, he attempted to justify the city's selling out to A&E and Al Roker productions, the rights to follow the Laredo PD around and base a nationally-televised reality show around their experiences. Well, the more he tries to explain it, the less sense it makes.

Today, the mayor kept repeating his take: once people get to really, really see the show, they will figure out that Laredo is one of the safest cities and come down for a visit. That would mean expecting a reality show to depict the actual reality of the Gateway City's comparably low crime statistics.

Naturally, A&E and Roker will have nothing of that. Pro8News' Noraida Negron commented to the Mayor that the promos of the upcoming show are instead using graphic pictures of shootings in other places to promote the show.

Exactly what is it that makes the mayor think that the same kind of people that will be drawn to the show by such violence will actually take the time to be objective, study and analyze the show meticulously enough to be able to see the underlying qualities that the LPD and Laredo have to offer?

They should have never agreed to sell these rights in the first place. What the mayor should do is admit they made a mistake, negotiate with Roker and A&E and have someone else (not him) be allowed to give a disclaimer of sorts at the very beginning of every episode.