At the Planet, some seismic activity

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-There is real change underfoot here at the Planet HQ. It might be a bit soon to know where exactly these changes will go, but it’s as evident as the cold January night.

For starters, you may have already noticed on the Planet masthead that Henry Sweets is the newest addition to the paper. He came on a few weeks ago as assistant to our acting editor, Grace Hammond. (Rich Anderson, the Planet’s founding editor, left in December for a great job at the Center for the Arts.)

Apparently the task of corralling Sam Petri and myself can be rather burdensome business. Henry is assimilating well, and with four full-time editorial staff, we’re all looking to do some good work; work to be proud of.

You’ll notice that this is the first issue with our mugs attached to some column spaces. That is part a movement within this paper to imbue it with more, shall we say, personality. As the valley’s alt weekly, the Planet is looking to partially revamp itself, lending more analysis, more quirky insight and, where appropriate, more snark and bite.

Totally rethinking the section that readers saw on the first non-advertisement pages of this paper, the “Planet Briefs,” which at its most uninteresting could be chock full of regurgitated press releases (e.g.,‘National Park announces PB&J Day’), Sam will have rein to recap the week in whatever fashion he sees fit.

The “Stars and Moons” feature will now become largely Henry’s domain, under its tentative new name “Props and Flops.” Call it rebranding. Let’s see what Hank – an insightful chap with his finger on many pulses – can do with it.

As for me, I’ll continue to keep up with the food news. Perhaps someday I’ll be inspired to make light of the social and metaphysical perils of having food caught in one’s moustache, all in an effort to entertain you, dear reader. And the county beat, which includes development issues and spills into Teton Valley, Idaho, will henceforth be covered in a more regular, tighter column format.
But, of course, this being a small newspaper, we’ll all continue to pitch in all over the place.

There will be a handful of new extras here and there, like a light feature that aims to recapture what some Planet staffer overheard at the Village or around town. At its best, it should help to contextualize Jackson Hole from the perspective of the ‘outsider,’ the visitor or stranger in this fantasyland the majority of us at one time were. Think of it as having a fish-out-of-water distant cousin come visit.

More changes are likely to come, but don’t fret: we’ll continue to publish the interesting, if not always groundbreaking, letters of “Cosmic” Josh Doolittle. Some things are best left the way they are.
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At the Planet, some seismic activity | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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Study: False statements preceded war By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 10 minutes ago A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat. "The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said. The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both. "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003." Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan. Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida. The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. "The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded. "Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said. ___ On the Net: Center For Public Integrity: http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx Fund For Independence in Journalism: http://www.tfij.org/
Outrageous Balls