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Frequently asked questions

Do you really live in Salida?

Indeed I do, and have since 1978 when we (Martha and I and our two daughters) moved to Salida from Kremmling because I got hired as managing editor of the Mountain Mail, a small daily newspaper. We've moved once since then, to a bigger house in 1989. We live close to downtown, about three blocks from the post office and library.

Who's this Ananias Ziegler character?

He's fictional, of course. Ananias is listed in some dictionaries as a synonym for liar, and comes from Acts 5:1-6, where an early Christian named Ananias was struck dead for lying. The Ziegler comes from Ron Ziegler, President Richard Nixon's press secretary, who once announced, after various deceits were revealed, that his previous statements were inoperative.

I fabricated him one fall morning in 1979 when I was walking to work at the Salida paper. There was a recall movement starting against two county commissioners. I had a column to write that day. I knew what the commissioners would say, that it was a tiny minority listening to disgruntled former county employees, because that's the kind of thing that politicians under attack always say. But I thought the column would be funnier if I had them employ a P.R. guy to say it, and then I thought up a name for him -- something that covered prevarication from A to Z, and was obviously fictional, since who would name a child Ananias?

Have you ever been sued for libel?

Yes, and it's related to the above. One of the commissioners, John Lane, sued for $1.75 million in January of 1980, naming me, Arkansas Valley Publishing Co. (the corporate entity of the Mountain Mail) and Merle Baranczyk, the publisher. Lane charged that my columns (including several Ziegler interviews) and Merle's editorials had held him up to public contempt, ridicule and humiliation. Later that year, after he had been recalled from office, Lane raised the amount to $2.25 million.

The suit was dismissed as groundless (we were commenting on the public acts of a public figure, and therefore protected by the First Amendment) by the District Court. Lane appealed that dismissal to the Colorado Court of Appeals, the Colorado Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The dismissal was upheld at every step, but took four years to finally get the damn thing totally thrown out. We had good attorneys, Tom Kelley and Paul Cooper.

How did you become a columnist for the Post?

Most of the tale is here. Since that column appeared in 2006, a few things have changed. The Post went to a smaller page, which meant less room for op-eds. And the overall page count was shrinking, in line with dismal industry trends. So I got an unwelcome phone call from Dan Haley, the editorial page editor, in the fall of 2007. I would henceforth appear on every Sunday and on an odd weekday (i.e., the first, third, and fifth if there was one). Initially that was Wednesday. It moved briefly to Tuesday after the Rocky folded on Feb. 27, 2009, and the Post had an op-ed page on Tuesdays. Currently it's Thursday.

Are you syndicated?

Don't I wish. However, some of the pieces I write for High Country News are distributed through its Writers on the Range syndicate.

Do you do other writing?

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