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SALZMAN: Porn angle overblown

Unnecessary titillation in covering ex-city attorney's troubles

Published June 23, 2007 at midnight

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We know that former City Attorney Larry Manzanares had a stolen laptop in his home.

We know there were jury instructions and legal documents in it.

We know that the computer had lots of porn.

And we know that Manzanares apparently tried to delete some of the porn prior to turning over the laptop to authorities.

But most important, we should know that the stolen computer is Manzanares' legal problem at this point, not the porn.

America may be alternately porn-phobic or porn-obsessed, but downloading the stuff isn't illegal here, unless it's child porn or something.

Manzanares might face charges related to the porn at some point, and maybe he'll be accused of violating workplace rules, but that's not happened yet.

Still, that hasn't stopped the dailies from hyping the porn angle, with major headlines and stand-alone stories.

After Manzanares' arrest, we were treated to all kinds of gripping stuff, if you like reading about porn. There was the front-page piece in The Denver Post (June 15) about men of "power and prominence" who've been "caught downloading the dirty stuff onto their computers."

The day before, in reporting Manzanares' arrest, the Rocky Mountain News' major interior headline read, "Computer had 'massive' porn stash, affidavit says."

The next day we got this from the Rocky: "Cybersex habit can be tough to break, researchers say," informing us that the porn on Manzanares' computer "might reflect a deeper problem."

It makes you wonder. What if his stolen computer contained a big music collection? Like porn, there's nothing necessarily illegal about this. But would we have seen dark headlines like, "Computer had massive music stash"?

Unlike the Post, the Rocky has yet to report, explicitly, that Manzanares isn't charged with a sex crime.

"We focused on \[the porn] because it did go to motive, and because it helped to possibly explain how an accomplished and powerful judge and city official would take a risk that could destroy his career," Rocky Managing Editor Deb Goeken e-mailed me. "I don't feel we were unfair to him."

She's right that the porn aspect was newsworthy, and I'm not saying the dailies should have ignored it. But they went overboard, rushing into big time titillation and speculation. It's unfair to Manzanares.

Silence on Spencer. It was sad - and weird - on Tuesday to hear columnist Jim Spencer, who was laid off last week from the Post, telling listeners on KHOW to check out his Web site, , where he plans to continue publishing his excellent work.

But, he said, don't rush to his Web site now.

His layoff was so abrupt he didn't have time to get it running prior to his departure. But he promised it would be ready soon.

Fortunately, a lot of great journalists remain at the Post.

That's why it's hard for me to understand the Post's handling of Spencer's departure, and I'm not talking about the abruptness of it.

Spencer was not your average reporter or editor. Metro columnists are part of a newspaper's identity, as you know from looking at Spencer's mug three times a week for years.

Yet, we still haven't seen a word in the Post from Post editors about Spencer, though he wrote a goodbye column June 15, saying he was cut due to the balance sheet.

If I were in charge of the Post, I'd air out the reasons for the "involuntary separation" of one of my star writers, and the others who lost their jobs, with the hope of educating my readers about where journalism is going and how I'm dealing with it. (Michael Roberts' column in the current issue of Westword sheds some light on this complicated topic.)

But there was nothing from Post editors in their own newspaper. This silence might have been considered normal 10 years ago. But today, people want honest and open treatment from a newspaper. They want a conversation.

"It did not occur to me that I needed to explain that," Post Editor Greg Moore e-mailed me. "I have just been focused on doing all of this the right way for the people involved and for those who remain. Many talented and valuable people have left this round and again last year. Readers do expect a conversation and Jim's farewell column was a very public goodbye and readers who loved him have responded. I think that was appropriate."

Miracle news. You can sign up on the dailies' Web sites to receive "breaking news" updates from the Rocky and Post. It's a good way to get news from reliable sources during the day.

But June 13 I got "breaking news" in my inbox from the Rocky that the local archdiocese had wrapped up its investigation of an "alleged miracle" performed by a priest who died more than 200 years ago.

That's definitely breaking news, start-ling in fact, but how many people care?

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at .