Other attacks on Foul Ball's accuracy leave Bouton unmoved. "They said Ball Four wasn't true, and now it's considered not only true, but prophetic," he points out. "So I'm used to the not-true talk. Usually it lasts for a year, and then it winds down when too many people realize it is true."
Perhaps, but in his December 12 commentary, Moyers backed away from a number of his previous statements. He says he was wrong "to describe the book as an investigative report when indeed it is Jim Bouton's diary," and strikes a description of Foul Ball as being about "greed, corruption and abusive power," acknowledging that it's "a far more complex story than those strong words warrant." However, he expressed regret that Singleton and other critics, none of whom were mentioned by name, declined an opportunity to "come on this broadcast and give us their version," since "equal time seems to me to be fair play."
Chin music: Author Jim Bouton isn't averse to pitching
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"I don't think anything else could be accomplished by sparring on the air with him," Singleton responds. "The main thing is that the facts had to be corrected," and because PBS put the letter from his lawyers and other information online, he feels people have the tools they need to determine who's being square. Now he's ready to move on. "These things go by in a hurry," he says. "A week from now, we'll be worrying about something else."
Moyers may have other ideas. In his December 8 letter to Singleton, he floats the prospect of launching an investigative piece about Wahconah Park. And on the December 12 Now, he said, "In this story, there are chapters still being written."
Sneak peak: It's no secret that the Rocky Mountain News is dedicated to fighting the Denver Post on every story, but one effective, if dubious, method the paper used until recently was kept under wraps. Sources at the two papers say the Rocky systematically got early looks at subjects the Post had earmarked for the next day's edition thanks to the assistance of one or more sister publications around the country.
Here's how it worked. The Rocky and the Post are members of the New York Times News Service, which makes articles available to subscriber papers nationwide. Furthermore, e-mails Laurence "Lad" Paul, the service's executive editor, the Post "is one of our thirteen partner news organizations, filing its top stories to our clients to augment the material from the New York Times." Each afternoon, the Post submits a roster of brief story descriptions known as a budget to the service, which then alerts other papers of the articles' impending availability. The Rocky doesn't get the list directly, since it would give the tabloid an unfair advantage over a direct rival; after all, the Post isn't told in advance what's in the Rocky's hopper. So the Rocky, which is owned by E.W. Scripps, had other Scripps papers that subscribe to the news service forward the budget, thereby giving reporters the opportunity to chase stories they weren't already researching.
Numerous Rocky articles had their origins in this approach. Indeed, a source allows that the Rocky once cobbled together an article prompted by a Post budget item that the Post didn't wind up running.
Paul declines to talk about this situation, writing that "we have good business relationships with both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.... These relationships are valuable to us. We intend for them to continue indefinitely." Rocky editor/publisher/ president John Temple is similarly reticent to tackle the topic, saying only that "we don't discuss the inner workings of the newspaper ... But I don't need budgets from anyone to beat the Post on a regular basis. I think that's pretty obvious."
Maybe not, since the Rocky apparently went to quite a bit of trouble to preview the Post. These moves displeased Greg Moore, the Post's editor. "I was really upset about it," he confirms, "and I'm glad there's been an end put to it. I feel confident the particular means of our budgets getting over to the Rocky has been stopped." While some might insist that all's fair in a newspaper war, Moore says, "I don't think there's any way to put a positive spin on this. Competition is a good thing, but I don't think you need to do that. It shouldn't have happened."
Clearly, the secret's out.
