Commentary by PAT MURPHY
A dilemma befitting Joseph Hellers World War II "Catch-22"
novel is what the Idaho Mountain Express faces in relations thatve turned icy
with the new St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center.
In "Catch-22," a title thats become an idiom for paradox,
Heller created what Websters Dictionary describes as "a problematic situation
for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem."
Bear with me while I explain.
On Sept. 8, St. Lukes began requiring the Mountain Express to
submit questions about the new hospital in writing. Written replies would be delivered
within eight business hours, St. Lukes promised.
This presumes that questions about the hospital will occur at times
convenient to St. Lukes executive hours.
Two reasons were given by medical center CEO Jon Moses and Boise-based St.
Luke's vice president for corporate development Bill Bodnar.
First, Moses is far too busy building the new hospital to take calls from Mountain
Express reportersbut only Mountain Express reporters, mind you, not other
reporters.
Second, the Mountain Express "has occasionally not accurately
reported verbal responses we have made to reporters inquiries," according to a
policy directive FAXed to the Mountain Express by Moses.
And therein lies the Catch-22 rub.
When Mountain Express reporter Travis Purser called Moses and asked
for examples of inaccuracies so a correction could be published if justified, Moses
refused to cite inaccuracies, waving Purser off with the lame excuse the Mountain
Express wouldnt provide proper display for corrections even if he cited errors.
I called vice president Bodnar, who confirmed: (a) the policy applies only
to the Mountain Express; and (b) the corporate concern about so many questions,
whichsurprise!is precisely what readers expect of a local newspaper tracking a
major community project.
But Mountain Express publisher Pam Morris recalls her first, odd
encounter with Moses during a phone call he made to her a year ago that suggested other
motives.
"Your newspaper is nothing," she recalls Moses blurting out
belligerently. "No one reads it. Its a joke"as if Moses is a big
city sophisticate who believes hes doomed to a term in Hicksville.
The New York Times the Mountain Express is not. And St.
Lukes, thank you, isnt the Mayo Clinic, either.
But the Mountain Express and The New York Times try to do
what St. Lukes and the Mayo Clinic try to doserve the public with their best
with resources at their disposal.
As for Mountain Express readership, ample year-round advertising
should be adequate testament that advertisers get their moneys worth in reader
response.
Maybe the diligence of the Mountain Express grates on Moses, just
like politicians dont like being asked questions of their performance.
In an effort to reason with Moses, Mountain Express editor Ron
Soble last Thursday sent reporter Dana DuGan to talk to Moses.
Standing in the doorway of his office, Moses refused to talk with reporter
DuGan"absolutely not," he declaredor, he said, anyone from the Mountain
Express "as long as you have that editor and that woman as publisher."
If St. Lukes is trying to hinder Mountain Express coverage of
the hospital or punish the newspaper, itll fail. St. Lukes only harms itself.
The corporate attitude of St. Lukes and Moses will strike most
thinking residents of the Wood River Valley as officious and petty if not arrogant and
haughty.
Now that St. Lukes has tapped the community for $18 million in
donations, it now imposes conditions on accountability and access to its brass.
CEO Moses seems to consider the hospital a personal fiefdom, not a
community institution, which hell govern with personal pique and caprice as his mood
swings come and go.
Pat Murphy is the retired publisher of the Arizona Republic and a
former radio commentator.