The Fourth Estate

On Thursday, December 21, 2007, there was a tragic avalanche in bounds at the Snowmass ski area which killed a young elite skier. While the run was closed, there was some dispute over whether or not the two skiers caught in the avalanche knew they were skiing a closed run.

This post is not about the accident but rather about my reactions and thoughts on the press coverage.

In the days since the avalanche, there have been articles and letters to the editor in both of the local papers. Save for a single eloquent letter by the surviving skier, there has been what I thought was the inevitable fingerpointing but which I now think is inevitable only in that some reporters have minimal self-control when it comes to the inclination to stir up controversy.

Front page articles in both of papers today brought home once again how much bias and slant exists in reporting, even when those reporting work mightily to avoid it and especially when they don't.

As I read the Aspen Times front page article regarding the circumstances leading up to the avalanche, I was very impressed with the evenhanded response of the Aspen Skiing Company which is in the difficult position of supporting its hard-working employees while also appropriately expressing its condolences to the family and friends of the deceased skier. The SkiCo representative stood by the fact that the run was closed while being willing to entertain the possibility that the skiers might not have known they were on a closed run. My impression was of a classy response to a tragic outcome.

I then turned to the Aspen Daily News which was reporting the same story and same information from Aspen Skiing Company on its front page. I was appalled by the differences between the two articles. Little of the evenhandedness I had read in the Aspen Times article came across in the Aspen Daily News article. The Aspen Daily News reporter seemed to be bent on perpetuating the us versus them fingerpointing that had characterized articles in both papers after the accident.

In the Aspen Daily News article, the SkiCo representative came across as arrogant and unwielding. In the Aspen Times article, the SkiCo representative came across as accommodating and concerned.

I have always liked and defended the Aspen Daily News' irreverent style. The Aspen Times can be stuffy while the Aspen Daily News' motto is "If you don't want it printed, don't let it happen."

But this is one case where I won't be stepping up to defend the Daily.