A tale of two covers: Which one will prove more explosive?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Last summer, when I introduced myself to CNN anchor Jim Clancy at a party, I could not pass the opportunity to ask if he had any advice for a young journalist.

“Stay objective, kid,” he replied curtly. (He may or may not have called me “kid.”)
Sure, writing a food column or some of the Planet’s other lighter fare should have a bit of opinion in it. Otherwise, we Planet writers aim to do some good, in-depth, unbiased journalism - work that, at its best, can offer a different side of an issue that somehow affects Jackson Hole.

And if the paper seems to lean one direction on a given week, there’s a good chance a subsequent issue will fall the other way. (We still take flack for a guest opinion piece that aimed to debunk the “myth” of global warming.)

This week, with a pocket full of hot items that could not wait, Jake Nichols took on the unenviable task of writing TWO co-cover stories on some rather contentious issues.
Nichols’ piece on a Jackson Hole Housing Trust development (“The Buck Stops Where?” p.19) comes two weeks after he broke the story that the Trust would give the town six priority spots at the top of its waiting list in exchange for $1.8 million.
At the Teton Meadows Ranch meeting Monday night, Planning Commission Chairman Tony Wall told Housing Trust Director Anne Hayden Cresswell he thought the appearance of purchasable priority spot was “troubling.”

Cresswell countered that the money will be invested in new affordable housing units, creating homes for as many as 10 families.
Though there are those in the valley who liken subsidized housing to practices in “Soviet Russia,” as one gentleman described it to me, they are few and far between. Generally, the efforts of both the Trust and the county’s Housing Authority are appreciated and, in fact, many residents want to see more aggressive measures taken to build more affordable housing.

Nichols’ second cover piece (“The man who would change Islam…” p. 11), is a conversation with Dr. Tawfik Hamid, an ex-terrorist-turned-anti-radical, who has some rather interesting, and at times controversial, things to say.
But won’t it be exciting to watch which of those stories – one dealing with community workforce housing; the other on the scariest global threat since the Cold War – jars more community reaction. If I were a betting man, I’d wager we will hear more about affordable housing. Perhaps that prediction is loosely related to the old axiom that “All politics are local.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering what became of endearingly salty staff reporter Sam Petri, he is away on sabbatical. In Alaska. He may or may not come back.
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