They're also disgusted by pack journalism, but aren't we all? Trust me, it is not special to be one of 200 reporters lining up for a number to enter a courtroom. It is not deeply rewarding to sit for hours on a hard bench breathing stale air, trying to stay awake for the one sentence that will make a decent lead.
Pack journalism is merely the natural result of competition, as Danforth puts it. Inarguably, not liking the messenger doesn't change the value of the story, which we measure by asking the "so-what" question. Do people care whether Kobe Bryant has to stand trial for rape?
My guess is that yes, they do, and they can find out by flipping on the television, turning on their computers or picking up the other in-town daily. I doubt a single person in Aspen waited until they could pick up their free copy of the Daily News to find out what happened in the Eagle County Courthouse on Thursday.
Which is the larger point for Rick "Quixote" Carroll. As editor of a small independent newspaper, he was rebelling against the corporate, homogenized media we all love to hate.
"Call me a hopeless romantic," he said, "but ... one reason we did it is because we could."
And because Carroll wants to focus on more important stories that have greater relevance to his readers' lives.
Danforth couldn't agree more with that point, which is why he promises his high-minded minions a visit to "news purgatory." He says he plans to assign staffers to deeply important stories requiring lots of unsexy digging and untitillating legwork in order to satisfy their apparent hunger for more meaningful journalism.
Meanwhile, this local decision probably doesn't portend any ramifications for journalism, except to suggest a small flicker of the idealism that once stoked reporters' bellies. For me, the notion that one editor in one small town should decide that he can put out a quality newspaper without the day's fix of voyeurism and sex - inviting the nuclear winter of journalism's peer review - makes me want to hoist a toast.