Gossipmongers

Dishing dirt on the bigmouths of Denver.

A A A Comments By Michael Roberts Thursday, Dec 2 1999

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Finding the right voice and tone is even harder, as Kreck acknowledges. "Penny was a crackerjack reporter here, but there's a rhythm and a style to doing what she's doing now, and very few people can jump in and start doing it right off the bat. She's very different from Norm Clarke, who was kind of wacky and not always accurate but put an interesting spin on things -- and that's what she's got to do. It's just a matter of finding herself."

Parker's not there yet, but there are some good signs. Her November 18 account of a move to bring Chicago's popular "CowParade" sculpture concept to Denver and a November 23 item about a Colorado Ski Country USA press release that Utah ski-industry types viewed as a snub were both enjoyable and, by gossip standards, almost substantial. Substance, however, has never been a key requirement of gossip, and there's a good chance that if Parker moves too far in that direction, her supervisors might start wondering where the hell all the John Elway items went. And you readers who don't give a damn about ol' number 7? You can leave our town and never come back -- or at least stop reading Denver gossip columns. Because they're not meant for you, anyway.

J. Hadley Hooper

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Another rifle shot from the newspaper war: On November 28, the News ran a full-page ad headlined "Follow the News. The Post Certainly Does." The copy, which appears beneath a banner of the Post from November 3, claims that a quote attributed to recent Westword cover boy Douglas Bruce in a story by Post reporter Ricky Young was culled from a chat "hosted on our web site, RockyMountainNews.com." The ad continues, "Now, we're glad we could be of service -- especially since the Post obviously needs the help. But next time we hope they'll remember a quaint yet essential newspaper tradition. It's called crediting your sources."

Predictably, the truth is a little more complicated than this. Young says that when Bruce told him about the chat, he didn't mention the News's involvement -- and by using the address Bruce gave him, he was able to reach the cyber-room in question without using the News's site as a portal. For that reason, he knew nothing about any Rocky connection until well after his article was in print. Does that make the News's latest salvo less fair? Maybe -- but it doesn't make it any less funny. Keep the comedy coming, guys.

Have comments, tips or complaints about the media? E-mail "The Message" at Michael_Roberts@westword.com.