"Maybe this story is going to be a watershed for all of us," she continues, "but I've agonized over it more than anything I've done in my career. The other day in the newsroom, when this was breaking, I told someone, 'I don't ever want to make another Columbine decision the rest of my life.' But the next day, there was another one. And another. And another."
Susan Goldstein
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Not long ago, Post scribe Chuck Green announced that he was sick of writing about the JonBenét Ramsey murder, and while his resolve initially seemed weak (mere days after penning those words, he was back on the subject again), he may actually mean it this time. Last week, the dead girls' parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, undid many of the public-relations successes achieved during their recent press blitz ("The John and Patsy Show," March 23) by weaseling out of taking a lie-detector test. But rather than hammering at this development in his April 28 column, Green offered "An Expert at Filling This Space," a column that was either a badly failed attempt at humor or a tortured cry for help.
As nearly as I can tell, the piece is about those times when the ideas stop flowing -- and for Green, that time has clearly come. Consider the following:
"If you think it is difficult to read this stuff, you need to appreciate how hard it is to write it."
"At least you, dear reader, might understand how difficult it is for the writers at this newspaper to win a Pulitzer Prize, since it is a miracle that we can even type our stories on this nsfg syswion [sic]."
"OK, I'm back. I have another three miserable inches to write."
If this is the best you can come up with, Chuck, go ahead and blab about JonBenét again. Because those three inches really were miserable.
The latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, issued May 1 for the six-month period ending March 31, shows Green's paper growing more slowly than its rival. The News's numbers went up by almost 90,000 copies in both the daily and Sunday categories as opposed to the Post's 43,000 daily increase and 35,000 Sunday boost. In "Record Gains Reported in Post Circulation," its spin-happy article on the report, the Post attempted to belittle the News's accomplishment by noting that it's practically giving away its paper via bargain subscriptions, even though the Post intermittently engages in nearly identical practices. As for the News's counterpart piece, "News Outgains Post Again, Becomes State's Largest Newspaper," it contains a quote from industry analyst James Marsh -- "The News needs to demonstrate to investors that it can convert those numbers into profits" -- that suggests these gains have come at the cost of an ocean of red ink.
Meanwhile, there continue to be doubts about whether anyone is actually reading all these extra papers. Both circulation departments regularly charge each other with dumping copies, and reports from Boulder suggest that many students at the University of Colorado who signed up for cheap subscriptions don't even bother to pick the damn things up, creating an unsightly mess all over the campus.
Is it news or is it litter? You be the judge.
Have comments, tips or complaints about the media? E-mail "The Message" at Michael.Roberts@westword.com.
