05
We started 2005 with an ambitious package: “THINK BIG” (1/20). We searched out big ideas for our region, including consolidating Spokane and Spokane Valley’s governments, renovating the Fox Theater, building a downtown science center, attracting a new art house theater and independent record store downtown, and getting high-speed rail. So we’ve made a little progress. When news broke of then-Mayor JIM WEST’s unsavory browsing history from his City Hall office, we analyzed the Spokesman-Review’s tactics in breaking the story, editorialized that West should leave office (5/12) and published a Q&A with him about the recall effort (6/23). By the end of the year, West was out and Dennis Hession was in. HURRICANE KATRINA made landfall and the controversial WASL TEST’s downfall had begun (12/1). By the time snow fell, Coeur d’Alene had been rocked by the brutal JOSEPH DUNCAN murder case and rescue of SHASTA GROENE, the 8-year-old girl he kidnapped after killing her family (7/7). Then there were the stories we’re still grappling with: expansion of the URBAN GROWTH AREA (6/23), how to revitalize RIVERFRONT PARK (6/23) and the industrialization of AGRICULTURE (8/4). We took note that women held three major positions in Coeur d’Alene — mayor, city administrator and police chief — and in a story called “COEUR D’ALENE’S ANGELS” posed them for a photo like Charlie’s Angels, declaring that “most people like the results” (12/15). In the arts, we wrote about the Civic Theatre’s down-to-earth new artistic director YVONNE JOHNSON (2/10) and pointed readers toward record stores in town, urging them to “BUY LOCAL” (11/24). A story called “To Live and Shoot in Spokane” explored the local filmmaking scene and the very exciting news that parts of End Game, a new film starring CUBA GOODING JR., were being shot at Gonzaga (3/10). We devoted 16 pages to the visit of Broadway’s The Lion King (10/27) and followed a day in the life of the city, from a birth at Sacred Heart to 1 am at Dempsey’s (8/11). “Bills are flying, and a few guys lose their shirts,” Leah Sottile wrote from the now-closed drag-show hot spot. “The last note hits, she collects more bills and blows the crowd a kiss. They freak. Anywhere else, she might be a guy in a dress; here, she’s fabulous.” — HEIDI GROOVER
48 20TH ANNIVERSARY OCTOBER 24, 2013
The late Jim West
Former Spokesman editor Steven Smith CHRIS BOVEY PHOTO
PUBLISHED 11/17/05
WEST V. SMITH The Jim West saga had many storylines and here we cast him opposite Spokesman-Review editor Steven Smith BY TED S. McGREGOR JR.
I
n the fight for his political life, Jim West has settled on a simple strategy: deflect attention away from himself onto someone or something even less popular than he is these days. Hello, Spokesman-Review. While recent polling suggests the strategy may not be working well enough to save his job from voters angry over allegations and revelations printed by the daily newspaper, he has succeeded in turning the recall election into something more than just a referendum on him. The Review’s reporting is on the ballot, too. Ever since the first stories appeared about the mayor’s secret life, Steve Smith has been the face of the newspaper’s efforts, appearing on national TV and in local forums defending their unusual reporting tactics. West has taken the cue, and along with trumpeting his two-year record, he is blaming Smith for orchestrating an overzealous witch-hunt. “[Smith] has launched a full-scale attack on the Spokane community and its trusted institutions,” West wrote in a somewhat futile letter aimed to raise funds to help him keep his job, “but to what purpose? Are Steven Smith and the SpokesmanReview the ultimate authority in Spokane or is it the people? The choice is ours.” Smith says voters should not be confused by the mayor’s strategy. “The mayor has done a very good job of taking what some would call a moral and ethical problem and politicizing it,” says Smith. “In the end, the recall is about the mayor. It’s not about us.” He’s probably right, but we’re suckers for a tidy storyline, so we’ll take the mayor’s bait and frame this debate on his terms. Who is making the more convincing case, Steve Smith or Jim West? To answer that question, let’s start by meeting our contestants.
WHO IS STEVE SMITH?
It was a tough time to be hired as editor of the Spokesman-Review. Morale was low as layoffs were underway back in 2002; Smith replaced Chris Peck, who was blamed for failing to push for tougher coverage of the River Park Square debacle, a creation of the newspaper’s owners, the Cowles family. Smith says it wasn’t part of his job description, but he took it upon himself
to attempt to repair the paper’s damaged credibility. Taking on Mayor West certainly fits the bill. “We had to recover whatever credibility we could from River Park Square, which was in many ways a failure of our newsroom leadership — not our rank and file, but our leadership — to do our job aggressively and well,” says Smith. “The message [from] this project and other work we’ve done this year is that we’re not going to recognize sacred cows, and we’re going to go where the story takes us.” A native of Portland and Eugene, Smith had a long career already behind him, having worked for chains like KnightRidder and Gannett at nine papers in eight cities. In Colorado Springs, he oversaw a redesign that changed the paper’s identity from the Gazette to, simply, the G. A few weeks after the redesign, Smith was quietly gone. The Independent, Colorado Springs’ weekly, reported in January 2000 that many employees felt the newspaper was weakened under Smith, with dropping circulation (in one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions) and veteran reporters replaced by recent grads. Next stop, Salem – where Smith took the reins of the Statesman-Journal, a Gannett-owned paper. After some trepidation over the stories flowing out of Colorado Springs, the staff came to embrace his nose for news, says reporter Alan Gustafson. “He was aggressive in terms of pursuing in-depth project reporting,” says Gustafson. “He was very interested in pursuing stories about the methamphetamine problem in Salem. I think he has a real good sense of hard-hitting news, and he goes after it hard.” “[Smith] was always a strong supporter of aggressive state government coverage,” adds reporter Peter Wong. “I don’t think he ever really second-guessed us, in terms of what we chose to cover or not cover.” Wong says he got the sense that Smith left because he felt too constrained by Gannett’s notorious sense of thrift — and he’s right. Smith says he is very happy to be in Spokane, with local owners invested in the community. No former Review staffers would talk on the record for our story, but the general grumblings (these are former staffers, after all) are that in Spokane, Smith has brought in his own team and fostered a with-him-or-against-him dynamic.