This issue marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of this
newspaper.
Although the Wood River Valley has changed, this newspaper’s
commitment to excellent news coverage and to providing a forum where ideas may collide has
not. Our commitment was outlined in the newspaper’s first editorial. We begin the
celebration of our 25th year by reprinting it here.
Our policy in brief
Nov. 27, 1974
The Idaho Mountain Express will be a newspaper unlike any
previously published in the Wood River Valley. Although the staff of the Express have
all worked together elsewhere, all agree that there would be no point in mere repetition.
The Express will follow a course of its own, and its staff will endeavor to publish
a newspaper uniquely suited to the needs and interests of the people in the Wood River
community.
One of these needs is to give people a chance to see themselves. Our
community is different from most, and the people here know it. We have ranchers and ski
bums in nearly equal numbers, with most of the occupational gradations in-between also
represented. People here seem more independent than our urban-dwelling cousins, and of
course it takes independence to find happiness amidst the low wages and uncertain working
conditions which often prevail.
All this makes for a dynamic community, one with more than its share of
problems, but also with much more than its share of excitement and interest. The Express
will aim to provide a reflection of this excitement and interest. It will be an
unashamed booster of the good things which make living here different from living anywhere
else.
Another major area of concern at the Express will be the quality
of the environment, both in the Wood River Valley and throughout Idaho. The Thanksgiving
season is a good time to give extra thought to this. We should be thankful that we have a
natural environment which still offers extraordinary quality. We benefit from this in two
ways: We have the sheer joy of living here, and we have the raw material for our
recreation-based economy. The Express will take aggressive stands to protect these
assets in the months and years to come.
In the best of times it is hard for the majority of our permanent
residents to make their livings. Most accept this cheerfully, seeing it as the price they
pay for the area's other benefits. The Express will do what it can to oppose
increases in the economic hardships which people of average resources must experience to
live here. Many have a fatalistic belief that the Wood River Valley is doomed to become
the exclusive playground of the rich. At the Express we do not share that belief,
and we will search actively for ways to prevent that from happening.
Finally, we hope that the Express will be accepted by the
community as a public forum. Those who work on newspapers get a chance forcefully to
express their views. However, they know, or should know, that they are not infallible. The
best function of a newspaper is to provide a rallying point for public debate. If ideas
flow in from all directions, then there is some hope that the truth can be discovered
among them.
