Show Them the Money

Consider the matter of Tina Griego, who's written some of the best long-form pieces that have appeared in the News during the past several years. (She's also married to Westword columnist Harrison Fletcher.) Early this month, Griego accepted an offer at the Post to become a columnist -- she'll be supplementing, rather than supplanting, Diane Carman and Chuck Green -- and when she broke the word to Temple, he held himself in check. Granted, he neglected to present her with a sheet cake, and he didn't allow her to clean out her desk or say goodbye to co-workers; when her chat with him was over, she was directed to the exit. But throughout the conversation itself, Griego says, "he was extremely gracious."

He became less so later. Specifically, Griego's final effort for the News -- "Feudin' and Fightin'," a sprawling look at north Denver Democrats published on November 5 -- ran without her byline. Instead, it was credited generically to "News Staff."

Typically, Temple failed to respond to a request to comment on this topic. (What must I do to get a call back, Mr. Temple? Plead? Beg? Apply for a job as a business reporter?) For her part, Griego herself is, to use her phrase, extremely gracious. "It was a really difficult decision to leave," she allows. "And since they've treated me very well at the Rocky Mountain News, that made it all the more difficult. I couldn't say, 'I hate this place,' or, 'You've just run me into the ground,' because that was never the case. I can understand that they were hurt, and I was thankful that they didn't pull the story. A lot of people spent a lot of time talking to me about it, and I would have hated to see that happen."

Griego says the impending joint operating agreement that will link the Post and the News even as it eliminates the Rocky's Sunday issue -- her primary platform since coming to the paper in January 1998 -- played practically no role in her choice. Rather, she was mainly motivated by the arrival at the Post of managing editor for news Larry Burrough, whose mistake-riddled internal e-mail about mistakes at the paper was quoted in this space last week. (The errors haven't stopped, either. A November 10 notice about a memorial service for the late Eugenia Rawls pointed out not one, but two, gaffes in her obituary the previous day. Oh yeah: Rawls's husband, Donald Seawell, used to publish the Post.) Burrough gave Griego her start in journalism at the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and when he visited Denver to interview at the paper prior to the JOA announcement, Griego told him she'd love to work for him again. "It was simply the right job for the right editor at the right time," she says.

At this point, many of the details about Griego's column -- such as what days it will be printed and in which section -- are unresolved; all she knows is that she won't debut until after the first of the year. But she stresses that the column will be local, with special attention being paid to what she refers to as "communities that maybe are not being covered as much as they should, including the Hispanic community" -- a goal that ties into the Post's oft-expressed desire to increase diversity in the paper itself and behind the scenes. (As Griego says, "I am Hispanic.") Just as important, her writing will be founded on reporting, not rumination.

Does that mean she's supposed to be the anti-Chuck Green? Griego refuses to take the bait -- which no doubt bodes well for her future.

They come and they go: As recently reported here ("Lighting a Fire," November 2), Alice DJs Greg Thunder and Bo Reynolds got into an on-air fight while debating a move from their afternoon time slot to the morning-drive shift previously occupied by Jamie White and Danny Bonaduce. At the time, station general manager Joe Schwartz swore that this was a spontaneous eruption, not a bid for publicity -- and he made the same claim about the plan to have listeners' votes resolve the controversy, with the results to be announced on Election Day, November 7. But that didn't prevent the duo from engaging in colorful sloganeering, with Reynolds's motto being "Vote Bo for Status Quo!" and Thunder countering with "Screw Bo, Move the Show!" Nor was the final tally a shocker: The pro-move faction emerged victorious, allowing Schwartz to send Greg and Bo to mornings just as he'd wanted to do all along.

Then again, at least there was a winner -- unlike another election that comes to mind.