"Real Men Get Their Facts Straight," Martin Cizmar, Ellis Conklin and Kristen Hinman, June 30
Get Real
What was your June 30 cover story about? Do you have a personal grudge toward Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore? The only arguments you made against the two are that their numbers are off and their advertisements' message doesn't get the point across.
I agree that numbers-fixing is a serious problem when compiling data, and I also agree the ads are ridiculous. What I didn't understand was why Ashton and Demi became the villain in an article about human trafficking and prostitution.
You brought up good points about the bias toward women who work as prostitutes, the lack of productive funding toward prostitution prevention and recovery, the fact that a lot of funding comes from religious groups that could likely have twisted intentions. Your point about powerful people controlling numbers to benefit their own ambitions was equally good.
All these topics are worth discussion, but you jammed them all into an article that, beginning, middle and end, bashed Ashton and Demi's PR skills. They would be a great example in a statistic-corruption article, but the main point? No, no.
You don't need Ashton to "sell" this paper. Sex sells, and you could have written an article about the horrors of prostitution/child prostitution in Colorado. That would sell! Or you could have written about a bunch of dumb celebrities. That would sell, too!
The way I read this, Westword, you have a personal resentment toward Ashton Kutcher and you let that take control of your article. And in the end, your article came off as bashing people who donate money to the cause of child prostitution, which is weird. Maybe you can collect your thoughts and write another article about a) how dumb Ashton is, b) how bad numbers-fixing is, or c) the seriousness of child prostitution and what little is being done for post-prostitution.
Rachel Livingston
Denver
"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," Jef Otte, July 7
Petty Offenses
Spot on, Jef! Once the release of Tom Petty's VERY American Nutjob hits the airwaves, the Teabaggers will undoubtedly pick it up as their anthem and will show all the Bible-clenching "Americans" how truly patriotic they are.
Scott Cardwell
Boulder
"Jack's Back," Off Limits, June 30
First of all, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were not that great. Just because somebody is poor, lazy, thinks they are entitled to everything and is a rebel just for the sake of being a rebel doesn't make them a "great artist" or a "genius." In fact, those folks are usually called "posers." Second, an artist's personal morals or lifestyle do, in fact, influence their art and their legacy a long after they are gone.
Also, acting like Ginsberg's lame-ass poetry or Kerouac's corny-ass remedial literature is so much deeper than some Hollywood gimmick like Transformers is faulty, seeing as the "beatniks" were the original hipster, follower, self-righteous, brain-washed Marxist, Hollywood dick-riders.
John Smith
Posted at westword.com
Too bad Coppola is doing the On the Road movie; he's been lame for years. A young, hungry director would be ideal, and might even be true to the locations and the spirit of the beatifics.
Jimi Bernath
Englewood
Arghh. These people are a-holes, and what they do is vandalism, which is a crime. Just because it's a pic of a white guy we all know does not mean it's not vandalism. This is a quality-of-life crime, which shows a disregard for other people's property.
Kenneth Drew
Brooklyn, New York
