After mulling the absurdity of Curtis Wackerle, the Aspen Daily News reporter covering City Hall, writing a story about a news organization that is a direct competitor on his beat, I wrote the following email to Daily editor Troy Hooper, no stranger to the Aspen Post audience, and copied Daily owner Dave Danforth and publisher David Cook; and also copied were the three Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR) board members. As you will read, Hooper made up a lame excuse to explain away the conflict-of-interest and then went down in flames. 

To The Editor:
 
I want to lodge a formal protest about your reporter on the story concerning FAIR.
 
I actually welcome the coverage–FAIR is fair game–but the selection of Curtis Wackerle, who is in direct competition with the Post Time News reporter working with FAIR, raises the very real possibility of bias, unintended or not. Wackerle’s line of questions to me about the story confirms that he is incapable of writing a balanced report worthy of this complicated subject.
 
In Wackerle’s defense, no reporter should be put in the position of reporting on a direct competitor–in effect reporting on the very beat that he covers. My hope is that you will start over with another reporter whose career has been unaffected by our early success.
 
 
Michael Conniff
Editor-in-Chief
Post Time News

Hooper replies:

F.A.I.R. buys advertisements. I don’t view you, F.A.I.R. or any other advertiser as our competitor.

Nice try,

Troy
Troy Hooper
Editor
Aspen Daily News

Michael Conniff replies:

Your point about FAIR is well-taken.
 
Curtis and the Daily News, however, are in direct competition with Post Time News, which produces the news stories in question. Post Time News, a primary subject of Curtis’s story, is a news service producing news under contract to FAIR, which chooses to take out an ad and put the story in the paper, a decision we don’t participate in nor care much about.
 
These stories also appear under “Post Time News” on Aspen Post, where people can comment, as you know. As you may NOT know, Post Time News has been in existence for over two years as a distinct albeit modest newsgathering entity. Our credentials were in order long before FAIR existed, and that’s why FAIR came to us to do the reporting.
 
Nice try, Troy. Is that all you’ve got–or might you consider doing the right thing before this goes too far?
 
Best, Michael!

Troy Hooper replies:

Oh contraire. Post Time News does not gather news. It pukes twisted lies and rumors without bothering to substantiate the subject matter. Your lame attack on Curtis today/last night was full of errors and bold-faced lies. So to extend the argument of my initial premise: I don’t view Post Time News as competition either.

[Troy]

[Note: This post was reformatted for clarity by Mitch Mulhall]