Beyond JonBenét

To this, Conant, advisor Henderson, interim mass communications and journalism school dean Stewart Hoover and CU spokeswoman Bobbi Barrow respond with the equivalent of a collective "Ha!" Because of declining ad sales, they say that the Press, which is only partly funded by the university, had suffered serious shortfalls and was in danger of going under. Consequently, Hoover phoned Conant to ask for advice and was thrilled when she suggested a compact that would not only keep the Press afloat, but would actually expand it. Last year, Henderson notes, the average Press was just sixteen pages long, but its August 31 salvo, the first produced with the Camera's help, clocks in at double that length. That, in turn, gives more students the chance to get their bylines in print.

Henderson doubts the Daily would have been able to offer nearly as much -- not that such a proposition would have had a legitimate chance, anyhow; at present, CU won't even let journalism students intern for the Daily because Henderson feels they wouldn't be receiving a sufficiently practical educational experience.

Conant, for her part, insists that the Camera-Press connection won't result in the softening of CU coverage: "This is all done through our marketing department. The news department doesn't have anything to do with it, and the newsroom is still doing its job -- reporting the news." Likewise, she scoffs at the suggestion that she's taking part in a stealth assault on the Daily. "That's ludicrous," she says.

Chancellor Byyny goes even further, declaring that the Daily's objections "seem like a form of paranoia" to him -- and some might feel that another grievance lends credence to this argument. Last month, a Daily employee wandering the CU campus noticed a Camera banner emblazoned with the phrase "Buffs Stampede" (see photo) and concluded from a conversation with the rep near it that the Camera would soon introduce a new section under that name. Well, the Daily already has a section called "Stadium Stampede" -- so on August 21, publisher Puls wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Conant. But according to her, the Camera has no plans to introduce anything called "Buffs Stampede." The phrase was just a slogan on a banner, and nothing more.

That hasn't placated the Daily; White says the banner still signifies copyright infringement. As for the robust friendship between the Camera and CU, she hopes it's subjected to legal scrutiny by Deputy Attorney General Lane, who reveals that his office is "conducting a preliminary review to determine what statutes might apply" to the Daily's grievances. Of which there are many.

Boulder, take two: If Lane's office moves forward with a full-scale investigation into the Camera's dealings with CU, it would become the second party to target the paper of late. Fleet and Priscilla White, once good friends of the Ramseys, filed a criminal libel complaint on August 3 arising from contentions made by a California woman who claimed to know the White family and some damaging information about them; she believed JonBenét (yeah, her again) died during a sex ritual of the sort the tipster allegedly recalled from her youth. The story, which the Boulder police looked into but quickly dropped, got front-page play in the Camera thanks to an article written by editor Barrie Hartman in which embattled Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter was quoted as saying that the woman's account seemed credible enough to check out. Hartman referred all questions about the case to Conant, who says, "We were very, very careful in writing that story and were certainly conscious of the sensitivity of it. We believe we practiced solid, credible journalism."

The Camera isn't the only media outlet to report on these assertions -- indeed, Westword did so extensively in a profile of Boulder attorney Lee Hill ("The Accidental Jurist," March 30). But the Camera was first and loudest, making it the likeliest target of a lawsuit. (Because of a potential conflict of interest arising from Hunter's comments, Boulder Assistant District Attorney Bill Wise asked Chief District Judge Roxanne Bailin to assign the matter to another district attorney in the state for possible prosecution; at press time, she had not yet acted.) Whereas this may not prove injurious to the Camera in the long run given the many questions surrounding criminal libel statutes as a whole (Nevada's was ruled unconstitutional in 1998, and Utah's is presently under fire), it's certainly embarrassing. Like so many things in this case.

Boulder, take three: The news is better for reporter Brian Hansen, who was arrested for failing to leave a federal closure area during a 1999 protest in Vail he was covering for the Daily ("A Failure to Communicate," July 13). On August 30, federal magistrate James Robb signed a motion to dismiss the charges against him; the motion had been filed the week before by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wallace. That means that Hansen is now officially off the hook.

For Hansen, who recently left the Daily to become assistant bureau chief for the Washington D.C.-based Environment News Service, this ruling comes as a significant relief. Earlier in August, he'd been offered a "diversion contract" that would have stricken a conviction from his record if he behaved himself during a six-month probationary period, but he turned it down because he would have had to admit to committing an offense. Now he feels his stubbornness has paid off: "I'm very happy and relieved that the federal government has finally seen the light," he says. But, he adds, "I remain outraged that the government attempted to criminalize me for simply doing my job as a member of the press, and I'm strongly considering filing a civil-rights lawsuit against U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace and the U.S. Department of Justice."