Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Every year, the League of Conservation Voters rates Congressfolk on how they act on environmental legislation.

David Roberts, on Grist.org, has a good summation of the new LCV ratings:

The LCV scorecard has its critics, but it’s nonetheless become something of a gold standard when measuring how “green” a lawmaker is.

A couple of big stories emerge from this year’s scorecard.

The first speaks for itself:

* Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.): 67%

* Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY): 73%

* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): 0%

No, that’s not a typo. McCain scored a big fat zilch, mainly because missed every single vote LCV scored, including the big votes around the energy bill. … McCain was the only Senator to miss every LCV vote — he was outvoted by legislators who were out sick most of the year, even some who died this year.

If you’re dead silent, is it still straight talk?

Also, nine new Congressfolk — backed by enviros on the campaign trails — all have high LCV ratings now. They’re already delivering on the green issues.

The LCV press release features three new Western Congressfolk:

* Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, of California, scored 90 percent in 2007 (replacing Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, whose lifetime score was only 7 percent).

* Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, of Montana, scored 80 percent (replacing Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose lifetime score was only 5 percent).

* Democratic Rep. Harry Mitchell, of Arizona, scored 100 percent (replacing Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth, whose lifetime score was 7 percent).

It’s good evidence of how enviros can have an impact in politics — even if they can’t get their issues into the presidential candidates’ debates. Blame that on the shallow national TV journalists who frame the presidential race.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

… in the many stories about taking Idaho-Montana-Wyoming wolves off the endangered species list.

It’s worth a click to The New York Times for this intimate glance at wildness. (I’m providing two links trying to help you around the Times sign-on screen, but if it nabs you, sign-on is free.)

The wolf photo shows how the Times has more to offer than the lame — or at least incomplete — smear job it did yesterday on Sen. John McCain.

The Times is catching a lot of flak from the rightwing professional loudmouths and media critics. At least one respected newspaper in the Times chain refused to publish the smear. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer managing editor explains why he also refused to run it. The noise has obscured the Washington Post’s better — straighter — analysis of McCain’s ties to lobbyists.

When I look at the photo of the wolves circling the big, slow bison, I imagine the Times thought it was a wolf, but now it’s the bison.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

This is so journalistic:

The Albuquerque Tribune today reports its own death, beginning with:

The Albuquerque Tribune will publish its final edition Saturday, ending a buoyant and sometimes bare-knuckled presence as the city’s afternoon newspaper.

… The Trib’s daily circulation in January was about 9,600 … In 1988, the newspaper sold about 42,000 copies a day.

… The Tribune … won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 (and) was a finalist for journalism’s highest award in 1996 and consistently won state and national awards …

Same old story: Many dailies, including those in the West, suffer declining revenues and staff.

Same time the Trib takes its last breaths, for instance, a couple of states away, in the San Francisco Bay area, the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Tribune and several more papers have announced new cuts.

But meanwhile, we also see a countertrend — nonprofit journalism shops (like this website and magazine) carry on the mission of public service.

One of the notable new nonprofits is ProPublica. ProPublica (forgive the wonky name) promises to field:

… the largest news staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting, with roughly 25 fulltime reporters and editors. ProPublica will be supported entirely by philanthropy and will provide the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own web site and to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article.

ProPublica takes more shape today by hiring three veteran journalists — from The New York Times, the Washington Post and The Nation. Stay tuned for more good nonprofit news, we hope.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

If you’re interested in Wyoming, check out Wyofile.com … a web-based service for statewide news reporting and analysis.

Among Wyofile’s credentials, several of the writers have worked with High Country News over the years …

It’s a nonprofit operation — one way meaningful journalism may survive longterm.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

High Country News tries to lead the news coverage in the West, by digging up angles that are ignored by other journalists.

The latest examples:

The Associated Press sums up accidents and fatalities in the oil and gas industry, here, following my cover story, “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields.”

Excerpt from AP:

Last year, four workers involved in oil and gas drilling died in Wyoming … (and) nationwide, 35 such workers died … (also) four workers in Wyoming and 67 nationwide died doing drilling-support jobs such as welding.

And the Rocky Mountain News has a series of stories about Colorado’s light-handed taxes on the oil and gas industry, here, following my cover story, “Gold from the Gas Fields.”
These are more signs, HCN plays a vital role in public discourse in the West.

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

The Department of Interior recently proposed a new rule that would make it harder for journalists to report on actions affecting millions of acres of public land. Since 2000, Interior has been collecting fees for commercial movie-making in national parks and refuges, but it had exempted news-gathering.

Now, the Department wants to extend its permit and fee requirements to all commercial filming and recording — except for what it defines as “breaking” or “spot” news. This change will seriously limit a reporter’s ability to, say, take photographs to illustrate a news story, or record an interview with a park official.

About 20 journalism associations wrote to the Department last month to oppose the proposed rule. From the Society of Professional Journalists web site:

While the current proposal is not a drastic shift in policy, it attempts to compromise the work of journalists because it allows representatives from the National Park Service, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management to determine what is considered newsworthy, and who is considered a journalist. …

“Government agencies and bureaucrats should not be allowed to decide for the public what is and is not worthy of news coverage,” (SPJ President Clint) Brewer added. “What kind of message does it send that the First Amendment rights are being impeded on land owned by the public?”

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, responded to journalists’ concerns by scheduling a hearing for Dec. 12. In a press release, Rahall said, “An environment that allows an open and free press to flourish is essential in maintaining the democratic foundations of this country. Unfortunately, this Administration has gained a well-earned reputation for leaking, distorting, and stonewalling, which undermines the ability of the press to serve as a valuable check on the government. The news media’s concerns over this proposed rule deserve an open forum.”

In the meantime, you may want to let your own representative know that such restrictions on the press don’t serve the public.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Two tourists from Michigan were driving Highway 150 in Washington state, when suddenly it happened … and then, the NewsBiz clicked into warp drive, reporting it — via TV, newspapers, websites, you name it — to people as far away as Australia, and the Drudge Report. The original stories are here (with photos) and here.

Pretty funny for everyone — except the cow, which, by the way, was reported to be a “600-pound heifer named Michelle.”

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

The latest stats show that many big dailies are still losing readers. Compared to a year ago, for instance, The New York Times daily circulation is down 4.51%, while Sunday circulation has plunged 7.59%.

The Washington Post is also shrinking in circulation, as is the Wall Street Journal.

In the West, the Los Angeles Times Sunday edition is down 5.1%. The San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and Arizona Republic are also down, compared to a year ago.

It’s a bad trend. For previous posts about it, go here and here.

The declines show in other ways. The Spokesman-Review, a fine daily based in Spokane, just laid off at least 14 newsroom staffers, out of a newsroom total of 137. In the Spokesman-Review story about its cuts, publisher W. Stacey Cowles says “it’s heartbreaking.” Editor Steve Smith says the layoffs will trim the news budget from $9 million to $8 million a year, and that “the employees who are losing their jobs are top-flight professionals.”

Meanwhile, Dean Singleton, whose MediaNews Group owns the Denver Post and the Salt Lake Tribune and other dailies, isn’t helping his reputation. Singleton reportedly went ballistic over a modest pro-union move by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter — it seems Singleton ordered a front-page Denver Post editorial that blasted the governor as “a toady to labor bosses … a bag man for unions and special interests …” The alarmist editorial warned, “this may be the beginning of the end of Ritter as governor.”

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

Paonia residents and former HCN interns are keeping some pretty illustrious company these days. The latest issue of Time Magazine lists the planet’s “environmental heroes” — and along with folks like Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert Redford and Al Gore, it includes Chip Giller (fall ‘94 intern), the founder of green news site Grist.org, and HCN’s hometown scientist, Theo Colborn, who studies endocrine disruptors.

Founded in 1999 by Giller, a journalist who saw an opening for a digital newsletter on the environment, the Seattle-based Grist is a one-stop shop for news, reports and opinion — all delivered with a welcome satiric twist. The punny headlines can be clever (URSINE OF THE TIMES, for a piece on, yes, the polar bear) or groan-worthy (TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE, for a story on honeybee deaths), but the lightheartedness chips away at the sanctimony that too often coats environmentalism. “The strategy is to use irreverence and humor as a way to get through the jadedness that people have around these issues,” says Giller, who has grown Grist from a tiny e-mail newsletter to an influential and comprehensive site with 750,000 daily readers. “We’re a beacon in the smog.”

Way to go, Chip. You do us proud.

And we’re happy to see more recognition of Theo, who also appears in DiCaprio’s recent eco-pic The 11th Hour:

Colborn’s tireless research resulted in the groundbreaking 1996 book Our Stolen Future, and over the past decade she’s won over many of the skeptics. “Endocrine disruption has become a distinct discipline of its own,” says Colborn, who retired from the World Wildlife Fund in 2003 and returned to her Colorado home to found the Endocrine Disruption Exchange www.endocrinedisruption.com, a clearinghouse for research and information on the topic. “The evidence is now overwhelming that prenatal exposure can lead to irreversible disorders,” Colborn asserts. This would explain “the pandemic of endocrine-related diseases we’re seeing, especially in the northern hemisphere,” she says. “One out of three children born today will develop diabetes — and it’s one out of two if you’re a minority. Thyroid problems are everywhere.”

Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

Beware: If you click on this link to the Phoenix New Times, your personal information could be subpoenaed. Seriously.

Arizona has a reputation for wacky politics. But this one is a doozy: New Times editors, executives and reporters (including High Country News contributing editor John Dougherty) have been subpoenaed by a grand jury for, get this, publishing the address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio on the Web. Also sought in the subpoena is information about folks who have visited the New Times website. And then, because New Times allegedly revealed grand jury secrets, two of the paper’s executives were tossed in the can.

It’s a wild story that reveals the totally bizarre nature of Arizona politics, involves “America’s Toughest Sheriff” (known for his tent camps and making prisoners wear pink underwear) and would be pretty damned funny if it were made into a movie starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter.
You can read about it in the New York Times. But you really should read the New Times account.

UPDATE, 10/22: Following a barrage of public criticism, within Arizona and across the country, the case against New Times was dropped on Oct. 20.

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

Utne Magazine, a bimonthly that reprints the best of the alternative media, just nominated HCN for its 2007 Independent Press awards.

Last year we received Utne’s award for best local/regional coverage; this year we’re being considered in the in-depth/investigative reporting category. We’d like to think our stories are always “in-depth,” but we’re up against some pretty stiff competition: Mother Jones, the Village Voice, the Columbia Journalism Review. Tune in sometime in January for the results.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

The West’s biggest bully.

That was the headline High Country News ran atop my 2003 story about John Stokes, a hate-mongering radio talk-show host in Kalispell, Montana.

For years, Stokes has used the air waves to taunt and humiliate many enemies he sees on all sides, including enviros and lesbians and government officials at all levels.

His kind of anger can be found in crevices here and there around the West and nationally — always self-satisfying to those who practice it, and counterproductive to communities.

Finally, reports the Missoula Independent, Stokes may be going under.

The Independent begins its story with the headline:

The bitter end?

The reporter, Paul Peters, tried to get a comment from Stokes, and Stokes — or someone using an e-mail address containing “Stokes” and the radio station numbers — replied:

“How much you want to bet I’ll be your fornt (sic) page story tomorrow? You guys are such homosexual pussy men pukes. You never interviewed me at all fo (sic) this story.”

When I interviewed Stokes, he was riffing and chain-smoking and laughing. He wasn’t exactly unpleasant to me. He’s been super unpleasant to a lot of good folks, though, and I know they wouldn’t miss him at all.

My long story on Stokes and the politics is here, and the Independent’s update is here.

If Stokes goes under, the blessed silence will be louder than he ever was.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post weekly, got shotgunned on a city street three weeks ago. Like investigative journalists get treated in Mexico or Pakistan.

Apparently, Chauncey Bailey got murdered for digging too deeply into the enterprises of something called Your Black Muslim Bakery. A teenage handyman who works for the bakery has confessed to being the hitman. That’s according to LA Times columnist Patti Morrison. She says in this country, in 2007, there’s still a tendency to ignore the death of a black man in Oakland. She calls for other journalists to gather in Oakland to connect the rest of the dots, identify all those responsible for the hit, and expose just how rotten some of the Oakland system is.