The Message

For the folks at Channel 7, the perennial also-ran among Denver news purveyors with old-school network affiliations, the bang Channel 4 got out of Maass's cops scoop must have been exceptionally galling. At the same time Maass was confronting crossing guards, Channel 7 was devoting huge chunks of airtime to the scandal at the Air Force Academy. Protestations aside, the station didn't break this story -- Westword reporter Julie Jargon was out with the basic information two weeks earlier -- but its presentation was strong, and it deserves kudos for bringing the subject to the halls of Congress. On top of that, the station recently imported anchor Mike Landess, who's just as smooth and slick today as he was when he was helping to generate huge audiences for Channel 9 in the '80s and beyond. Nonetheless, Channel 7 didn't receive any tangible ratings boost in February, and its overall May numbers were numbingly mediocre. At this point, it seems that nothing short of having Landess and weatherman Marty Coniglio dress up as Chippendales dancers will get most Denverites to tune in.

Like John Ferrugia, his counterpart at Channel 7, Maass received the original tip that led to the unraveling of the Air Force Academy mess. "We responded very quickly to it and tried to talk to those people, but for whatever reason, it didn't happen for us," he says. "It was well done by Channel 7. They've done a terrifically thorough job with it." On the other hand, Maass has a theory about why many of his reports resonated with viewers in ways that perhaps the academy exposé didn't. "The Air Force story started in Colorado Springs, but it's really a big, national story," he says. "And we've been doing stories that are very local, that have a lot of impact for people here and are literally happening in their back yards. These stories hit home with people because they're about real issues. It's not testing your kitchen counter for bacteria."

Maass, who's been at Channel 4 for nineteen years, says he appreciates how often his stories have been featured on the promos with which the station has blanketed the airwaves, but he's even happier about what he sees as a renewed commitment to the investigative process. Whereas some stations have cut back on long-term projects, he's got his own team of helpers (producer Carisa Scott and photographer Bob Pearce), the freedom to work at his own pace and the sense that the boss is behind him.

"Walt is a huge supporter of what we do," Maass says. "He believes in it from a marketing standpoint, and that's a significant departure from the way things were done before he got here -- and hopefully it's paying dividends. But he also believes in it from a journalism standpoint. For people who are journalism purists, it's great, because it goes back to the roots of what we should be all about, which is breaking important news stories."

Channel 9 may have come to the same realization; in March, the station hired a new investigator, Chip Yost, to supplement Woodward and fellow longtimer Ward Lucas. Signs also point to a speeding-up of the search for a new anchor to team with Arakawa. A May column by the Post's Joanne Ostrow said that Sardella might keep his chair through the end of the year, which, if it happens, could drive him over the edge permanently. Luckily for him, insiders say that possible successors are being paraded through the station to test with Arakawa, including Steve Daniels, a former Dateline correspondent who's currently an anchor with WTVD in Raleigh, North Carolina.

If Daniels gets the nod, he'll know the competition well, since he once did weekends at Channel 4. This background could add even more spice to a TV-news scrap that may finally get out of the middle rounds. Let the slugfest begin.

Weekly vs. Weekly: "Fact or Fiction?," the May 22 edition of this column, made mention of complaints levied against the Boulder Weekly by the Salt Lake Weekly earlier this year. In January, the Boulder publication purchased the rights to print a Salt Lake Weekly story about the Sierra Club by writer Shane McCammon, but a few weeks later, it ran a version of the piece under the byline of reporter Ron Bain instead. A note at the bottom of the article dismissed McCammon as a mere contributor even though he was much more than that; the last several paragraphs reprinted his writing word for word.

After the Westword item on this brouhaha was published, Bain called to clarify his actions, stressing that he in no way wanted to take credit for work he hadn't done. Instead, he reveals, that credit was foisted upon him.