06/14/2026
On a different slant, why aren't more of us asking hard questions in Missoula? From a page follower today on contemplating the need for more investigative journalism in Missoula:
"There is none worth mentioning. As a result, being an elected or appointed official in Missoula is one of the easiest public sector gigs in America; years elapse before such are subjected to hard questions about actions and policies.
Some historical context; fired up with Woodward-Bernstein fervor, the Missoulian and Lee Enterprises embraced the recent rejection of the Anaconda “copper collar” (translation: anodyne company-town news) in the 1970’s, and aggressively pursued stories about public malfeasance and incompetence.
That largely ground to a halt by end of decade. Locally, the Missoulian published stories about the descent of City Councilor Lois Herbig’s daughter into prostitution and drugs in Washington DC. Which most anywhere else in the country would be considered a fair story, notably the question of a community leader’s ability to set local standards while confronted with the inability to manage their own family.
Not here; community outcry was swift, editorial management was chastised, and the number of aggressively reported stories plummeted. And after further swamping by the online-driven decline of local news (add on Lee’s inane decision to throw major resources into buying the major print outlets in declining St. Louis), such are now negligible; the directive seems to be to do absolutely nothing that would rattle a fragile subscription base. That the base is fragile because there is nothing controversial to read about seems rarely if ever to pe*****te the Lee executive suite.
Plus, factor in the extreme reluctance of local reporters to ask hard questions of people they see and socialize with at Griz games. Several times now I’ve heard reporters discuss covering local problems just too big to ignore, and a standard accompanying feature is how apologetic they were when they had to ask difficult questions of someone in authority.
Recent TV news restructuring in Missoula speaks for itself; what were brevity-focused local headline services are becoming brevity-focused statewide headline services.
Few and far between these days are celebrations of Lee throwing off the copper collar; it’s now simply been replaced by the hedge fund collar. Which restores the newsroom (these days more likely a videoconference) copper collar dictum of 'nothing controversial anytime, anyplace, anywhere.'
Overall, this is a pretty miserable period for Missoulians who believe you cannot run a real functioning democracy without a probing press. Worth noting though, that big money ignited the yellow journalism period that evolved into the respectable newspaper edifice of the 20th century. Maybe some millionaire-plus with righteous axes to grind will come to Missoula, be prepared to lose money for an extended period or break even-plus on a major media outlet, and hire aggressive reporters who only intend to live here a short period - and therefore will be unafraid to ask hard questions of those deserving them."
