YOUR AD HERE »

Get a grip, you tree hugging journalists

Lynn Burton

Those tree hugger journalists.Grabbing every tree they can get their hands on is such a daily part of their lives, they don’t even realize they are hugging when they are doing it on the job.A good example came this week in an article on employment as it relates to the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), written by New York Times reporter H. Josef Hebert.Mr. Hebert wrote, “But it is the issue of jobs that has resonated most clearly in Congress where the future of ANWR, as the refuge is called, will be decided.”Mr. Hebert, from what I can tell, is 100 percent wrong. Congress won’t decide the fate of the 19 million acre ANWR when it discusses drilling for oil. Congress is primarily discussing the fate of ANWR’s area 1002, which covers only about 8 percent of ANWR, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.To say that Congress is discussing “the future of ANWR” is like saying Congress would be discussing the future of all of Colorado if 8 percent of the state were being opened up to drilling.Hebert’s article wasn’t an entire waste, however. He did point out Secretary of State Gale Norton is telling everyone that drilling in ANWR would create “more than 700,000 jobs” across the country, but the figure is probably overstated. Way overstated.Hebert asked around, and found out the projected number of jobs created would range from a low of 50,000 (a number from environmentalists), to 222,480 in a study commissioned by the Energy Department. The “more than 700,000” number comes from a study by the Teamsters Union that used a figure of 735,000 jobs.Reporters have written other articles lately that make one question whether they are being politically correct, or out of touch.An Associated Press story by Mitch Stacy about H. Rap Brown’s murder conviction left out what some feel is a pretty basic point – how many, if any, black folks were on the jury, and a secondary question of “was the victim black or white?”H. Rap Brown, if you’ll remember, is the former Black Panther party member from the 1960s who got religion, converted to Islam, and changed his name to Al-Amin before he went out and murdered a black sheriff’s deputy in Georgia in 2000. That’s what his recent trial was all about.Television and radio news stories didn’t mention the jury’s makeup. The AP stories I read didn’t mention the jury’s racial make up.Being a regular white guy who has seen a black riot or two on TV, I determined there probably were some black folks on the jury, because none of Georgia’s cities went up in flames following the trial.It took Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker to clear things up. On Wednesday, she wrote a column that explained the jury had no white men. There were a total of nine blacks, two white women and one Latina.Thank you Cynthia Tucker. Get a clue, AP.-Here’s a final media note. If you care about community radio stations KDNK and KAJX, and their issues with the Denver-based Colorado National Public Radio, check out the Feb. 21 edition of Westword at westword.com.Michael Roberts did the most comprehensive article to date on Colorado Public Radio, and its attempt to expand throughout the state, sometimes on not so friendly terms with tiny local stations.A telling quote came from station manager Marty Durlin at community station KGNU in Boulder, when she said, “You always have to be on your guard. I expect them (Colorado Public Radio) to do anything and everything to get what they want.”Lynn Burton is a staff writer for the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. You can hear his voice on KDNK-FM radio on Wednesday morning.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.