Some cooperation between the Post and Channel 9 could conceivably benefit readers and viewers alike. But right now, news value is taking a back seat to self-promotion.
7. Danger Ranger: Glenn Guzzo's initial attempts to revive the "Rocky Mountain Ranger" -- a venerable Post tradition that calls for a writer to wander the region in search of offbeat stories -- were disastrous. But in novelist Ron Franscell, Guzzo found a strong writer with just the right tone to make the Ranger ride again.
Rich Barry
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So why hasn't Franscell's work for the Post been more dependably pleasurable? Maybe it's because the "Ranger" part of his handle is being taken too literally: Much of what he turns in has an Old West theme that's been beaten to death in these parts over the years. Perhaps Franscell is being asked to write more often than he should, thereby forcing him to crank out undistinguished articles about, say, a photograph Ansel Adams took in New Mexico, in order to meet his quota. Or possibly he should focus more on topics with contemporary resonance, like the fight over a battlefield near Meeker that inspired one of his finest recent columns. Whatever the case, Franscell is an asset who could be used far more effectively.
8. Voices in the wilderness: "Colorado Voices" is the moniker given to a group of supposedly representative locals who occasionally write columns for the Post's editorial section about issues that interest them. The concept is a worthy one: It's an attempt to democratize the paper even as it breaks down the artificial wall that separates highfalutin pundits from ordinary Joes and Janes.
Too bad it rarely works as intended. The chosen "Voices" are frequently mediocre scribes with little that's insightful to say compared with letter writers, who generally toss out far more provocative opinions that take up a lot less space. At their best, they're pithy -- and since, as Bill O'Reilly notes, pithy is good, giving correspondents' voices precedence over the officially sanctioned ones would be more democratic, not less.
9. Make some enemies: Can you remember the last time the Post printed an article that really, really pissed off Bill Owens, or Wellington Webb, or Diana DeGette, or Wayne Allard, or any political big shot? Neither can we. In its coverage of city hall, the legislature, the governor's mansion and so on, the Post shies away from challenging the most powerful figures in our community. The old maxim about newspapers comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable seems to have gone out of fashion at the paper.
Fortunately, Post business editor Al Lewis takes a different tack. He started kicking Qwest's Joe Nacchio before he was down, and he hasn't let up at any point during the embattled CEO's subsequent descent. That sort of bare-knuckled, pugnacious approach to journalism would go a long way toward revitalizing the Post.
10. Get hungry: Yeah, we know the Post won the city's newspaper war. But it hasn't won the city's newspaper quality war. Not only isn't it in the same class as the Los Angeles Times or the Chicago Tribune or the Wall Street Journal or even the Boston Globe, but it isn't even the best newspaper in Denver.
So when will Greg Moore know if the Post has made the leap to the next level of newspapers? First the Post has to kick the Rocky's ass, and lots of other asses as well. Until then, it's only talk.
