It’s over between us

I’m sorry to hear your board of directors gave you “a ringing endorsement” of your current editorial direction. It is for just that reason I’m letting my subscription lapse. I’ve been bothered by the increasingly strident and anti-Republican tone of your periodical as well as the sophomoric stereotyping of your articles. The confirmation you intend […]

I love the subtitle of HCN, “The paper for people who care about the West.” I care about the West. I also care a great deal about the dialogue of people who care about the West. HCN is an important part of that dialogue, but I wish I could say I am comfortable with what […]

I am a longtime subscriber to HCN. The willingness to address the political causes of land-management decisions in the coverage of HCN was striking, with the selection of a new executive director. But I believe that it is important. Politics is the modus operandi of the corporations and their political allies who recognize only the […]

Regarding the note in “Dear Friends” about readers troubled by HCN’s tough coverage of the Bush administration’s policies across the West: Let ’em be troubled and angry! These are troubling, angry times. The Bush administration is carrying out an array of highly controversial policies across the West. I speak as one who’s been reporting on […]

I am writing in support of HCN’s coverage of the Bush administration’s attack on the environment. I suppose, at one point, wanting a healthy habitat for human beings was a nonpartisan issue. Unfortunately, it seems these days if you care about anything that could be vaguely termed “social equity” or “conservation,” you’re automatically a pinko-commie […]

Looking at the opinions and positions of the writers in HCN, it’s clear that many don’t have the same ambivalence that I have. I grew up in the country of southwestern Pennsylvania and enjoyed it immensely. Always a rebel, I was pro-McGovern and anti-Nixon, and gradually became a Reagan Republican, ever retaining my love for […]

I’d agree with recent criticisms that your paper has taken a turn toward political bandwagoning. It mirrors most of the endless stream of imploring letters from the Sierra Club/Wilderness Society/Audubon Society/Nature Conservancy/Public Land Trust/Trust to Save the Grand Canyon or Silvery Minnow or Spotted Perch, etc., that find their way to my door every week. […]

Please don’t label me as one of “our more conservative readers,” but I agree that the paper seems to be exhibiting more of that old-fashioned enviro bias and heading in a more polarizing direction than the HCN of old. By “polarizing” I mean spinning stories in terms of those archaic categories of conservative vs. liberal, […]

I was drawn to HCN a year or so ago, when I read somewhere that HCN was the paper for people who care about the West. My first exposure to the sacrificing of the West for the good of the nation was the Trinity atomic bomb explosion — I was in the fourth grade in […]

As a native of northwestern Colorado, I am a fan of High Country News. It has evolved from a tiny paper for people who care about the environment to a significant regional publication that contains news and opinions not found in nationally syndicated columns or major urban newspapers. I read it because I am a […]

As a newspaper publisher in the Western U.S. for 20 years, I make it a point not to cancel subscriptions out of anger. But, while I may yet be enlightened to a different perspective, I’ve found HCN, to which I subscribed in February, to be much more about ideology than news. Because it was too […]

HCN is on the right track. Collaboration works with people who understand the concept. The Bush administration does not collaborate, but stubbornly follows its own agenda to its sole benefit. The mainstream papers have fallen down on the job and don’t call Bush on it. Now is the time to expose the policies of the […]

As the president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, I have many responsibilities to attempt to prevent the types of water wars that ultimately tear communities apart. The fact is that in a small community like our San Luis Valley, nothing is possible if we are unable to present a united front in the […]

Congratulations to you, the staff, and the HCN board for your in-depth reporting on environmental and natural resource issues in the West. Ideally, we would also prefer emphasis on collaborative efforts to manage land, water, and wildlife. Unfortunately, at the behest of its right-wing constituents, the Bush administration is dismembering environmental protection and cloaking these […]

No excuse that the “staff feels that the doings in D.C. are the most critical right now” to justify a lack of objectivity and balance. Maybe you and the staff need a refresher course in Journalism 101. Either you’re journalists or advocates, and should declare where you stand politically. Jim Nielson Cody, Wyoming This article […]

Thank you for the invitation to “toss in my two cents.” I literally grew up with your newspaper in my home. My late father, Louis A. “Sam” Bibler, subscribed to HCN beginning in the 1970s, and was one of your most enthusiastic readers. I lament the changes in your paper since that time, and especially […]