Beyond JonBenét

The Daily took umbrage at this turn of events, too, and no wonder: Back in the early '90s, the Daily negotiated with the Press to create a similar operating agreement that never came to fruition. Nonetheless, publisher Russell Puls shot off an August 10 letter to Ken Lane, Colorado's deputy attorney general for policy and governmental affairs, formally complaining about what appeared to him to be "a case of collusion between the University of Colorado and the Boulder Daily Camera/Scripps-Howard to damage the financial well-being of our newspaper and the other independent newspapers catering to this demographic." In the discourse that followed, he noted that the alliance hadn't been put out for open bid; that the sale of advertising for the Press would enrich the Camera at the expense of its competitors; and that the increase in circulation was a "blatant attempt" to "control the student market" that would have no tangible benefit for student journalists. Puls also hinted that CU might be engaging in retaliation for the Daily's Buechner reporting. "After speaking with our attorney," he wrote, "we have to wonder if there is a conspiracy between certain members of the University and the Boulder Daily Camera to damage the business of the Colorado Daily."

To this, Conant, advisor Henderson, interim mass communications and journalism school dean Stewart Hoover and CU spokeswoman Bobbi Barrow respond with the equivalent of a collective "Ha!" Because of declining ad sales, they say that the Press, which is only partly funded by the university, had suffered serious shortfalls and was in danger of going under. Consequently, Hoover phoned Conant to ask for advice and was thrilled when she suggested a compact that would not only keep the Press afloat, but would actually expand it. Last year, Henderson notes, the average Press was just sixteen pages long, but its August 31 salvo, the first produced with the Camera's help, clocks in at double that length. That, in turn, gives more students the chance to get their bylines in print.

Henderson doubts the Daily would have been able to offer nearly as much -- not that such a proposition would have had a legitimate chance, anyhow; at present, CU won't even let journalism students intern for the Daily because Henderson feels they wouldn't be receiving a sufficiently practical educational experience.

Conant, for her part, insists that the Camera-Press connection won't result in the softening of CU coverage: "This is all done through our marketing department. The news department doesn't have anything to do with it, and the newsroom is still doing its job -- reporting the news." Likewise, she scoffs at the suggestion that she's taking part in a stealth assault on the Daily. "That's ludicrous," she says.

Chancellor Byyny goes even further, declaring that the Daily's objections "seem like a form of paranoia" to him -- and some might feel that another grievance lends credence to this argument. Last month, a Daily employee wandering the CU campus noticed a Camera banner emblazoned with the phrase "Buffs Stampede" (see photo) and concluded from a conversation with the rep near it that the Camera would soon introduce a new section under that name. Well, the Daily already has a section called "Stadium Stampede" -- so on August 21, publisher Puls wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Conant. But according to her, the Camera has no plans to introduce anything called "Buffs Stampede." The phrase was just a slogan on a banner, and nothing more.

That hasn't placated the Daily; White says the banner still signifies copyright infringement. As for the robust friendship between the Camera and CU, she hopes it's subjected to legal scrutiny by Deputy Attorney General Lane, who reveals that his office is "conducting a preliminary review to determine what statutes might apply" to the Daily's grievances. Of which there are many.

Boulder, take two: If Lane's office moves forward with a full-scale investigation into the Camera's dealings with CU, it would become the second party to target the paper of late. Fleet and Priscilla White, once good friends of the Ramseys, filed a criminal libel complaint on August 3 arising from contentions made by a California woman who claimed to know the White family and some damaging information about them; she believed JonBenét (yeah, her again) died during a sex ritual of the sort the tipster allegedly recalled from her youth. The story, which the Boulder police looked into but quickly dropped, got front-page play in the Camera thanks to an article written by editor Barrie Hartman in which embattled Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter was quoted as saying that the woman's account seemed credible enough to check out. Hartman referred all questions about the case to Conant, who says, "We were very, very careful in writing that story and were certainly conscious of the sensitivity of it. We believe we practiced solid, credible journalism."