My back aches just thinking about the contortions you’ve gone through in a one-week span in your “Journalism Matters” column.
The subject is the lawsuit filed by the billionaire Park Record owner against his multi-millionaire neighbor for having a rock wall that barely encroaches on his lot. This follows his previous lawsuit over the neighbor’s wandering dogs which was preceded by the dog owner’s appeal of a city approval of a Treasure Hill trophy house.
Last week you justified not covering your owner’s petty wall lawsuit, writing “The public impact here is all of zero.” You reasoned “an inch of wall isn’t worth our time or yours”: swiftcharge.net/opinion/journalism-matters-why-an-inch-of-rock-wall-isnt-worth-our-time-or-yours/
But this week in the very same column space, you dredge up an old news story from a British court writing that your owner’s neighbor “was notorious himself over a dozen years ago,” and then go on to explain why in detail. How is a business deal way back when on another continent relevant to the current property feud? To borrow your phrase, “The public impact here is all of zero”: swiftcharge.net/opinion/journalism-matters-oh-got-it-this-is-yellowstone/
As a reader, the rich guys feud is amusing. But as a journalist of some 50 years myself, I’m afraid I’m rapidly losing respect for the venerable old Park Record and its leadership.
Larry Warren
Park City