BDC editor quits. Maybe now someone will look at what Hartman did to the Whites!

Boulder Daily Camera Editor Abruptly Quits.

http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/news_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2421_2215496,00.html


http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_2215537,00.html

Interesting. She just up and quit. They are looking for her replacement as we speak.

There are many fine reporters at the Boulder Daily Camera. In fact it was the Boulder Daily Camera that gave us our one and only mention of the petition in a newspaper. For that I am grateful.

After reading the public Krebs file I think the first thing the new editor should do is apologize to Fleet White and his family for having the likes of Barrie Hartman on their staff. Let's revisit what Mr. Hartman said to Alex Hunter.

Page 8 of Linda Wickmans notes:

"Barrie Hartman asked if the newspaper could blast the BPD if they don't pursue this...Alex replied, yes, and commented that this a grand jury type of case."

First it's odd that Hartman asks Hunter for permission to "blast the BPD." Since when does an honest newsperson have to ask permission from a public official...

Continue on with Hunter's phone logs.
Monday 3/27/00 3:12 pm.

Jann Scott.He was talking with Barrie Hartman and Lee Hill about the alleged sex ring that the Whites are involved in. Is this true?"

Since when does a newspaper editor like Hartman start flinging unsubstantiated accusations to another media person like this? I am sure Jann Scott thought this story was true coming from the likes of Barry Hartman. After all Hartman was the Opinion Editor at the Camera. Who would think Hartman would start saying this type of crap unless it was true. At least Scott called Hunter to ask him about it. Who knows what Hunter told him.

It's one thing to meet with Lee Hill for a story. It's quit another for a supposedly respected newspaper editor to help try and destroy an innocent man based on false accusations. Hartman never gave up either. Never apologized for being wrong.

With the public file finally being read by numerous people I can only hope the first thing the new editor of the Boulder Daily Camera will do is apologize to the Whites. That's a start. The Camera needs to regain some credibility after letting the likes of Hartman run amuck, unchecked, doing his best to perpetuate an untruth.

Let's hope the Camera does the right thing.

Tricia

PS. Perhaps the new editor would like to cover the Lee Hill story.

 

Found this at C.S. I knew there was one other piece of this story I was missing.

http://www.cybersleuths.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004508#000017

Thanks to Candy for finding this shinning example of unbiased journalism in Special Prosecutor Howard's report on the criminal libel complaint.

"Mr. Hartman recalls that he paid for Mr. Hill's airplane ticket to CA so that Mr. Hill could gain further information from Ms Krebs."

Excuse me??? When does an OPINION EDITOR pay for a defense attorney's airline ticket. Did the Boulder Daily Camera pick up the cost of the ticket? As RiverRat likes to say....WTF?????

Sorry this one really sends me over the top. I need to read the whole report to see if I can find a time frame when this happened.

One can only hope the new editor of the BDC will cleanse the paper with a full discloser of what happened with Mr. Hartman.

 

Voyager I have no idea why the editor resigned. It could be a thousand different reasons.

What I do know is Hartman was allowed to carry on like he did as a representative of the BDC. To me that reflects horribly on the BDC. The whole paper gets painted with that brush. It's too bad because like I have said before the paper has fantastic reporters. Many more good people than ones like Hartman.

I had always thought reporters in the media were really heroes. I know that sounds so naive now but it's true. I never thought for a second anyone with the power of the media behind them would taint a story like Hartman did. He abused his power by getting involved. That is the worst thing a reporter/editor can do. You have to stand back. Let the events unfold. Don't become part of the events like Hartman did. Barrie Hartman pushed the story along, paid for Hill to go interview Krebs, met with Hunter and asked permission to blast the Boulder Police. All the wrong things to do when you are a journalist. Not to mention Hartman's parting editorial/lovefest concerning the Ramseys. I need to dig that story up.

I don't know where Hartman is now. Wherever he is I hope he has been forthright with his new employer in telling them what he did to an innocent family.

The media was the last chance for the lies to be stopped in the Krebs case. If it had stayed in Hunters office, if it had stayed in the Boulder Police Department, then none of this would have happened.

Hartman's story, along with Hunters comments, gave this fiasco credibility. To me that's a crime.

 

Mr. Hartman writes opinions for the Denver Post. Seems just a couple of times a month Mr. Hartman writes a little ditty for the post.

Here is a classic from May of 2003......:sick:

Article Published: Sunday, May 04, 2003 - 12:00:00 AM MST
barrie hartman
It's time to support Ramseys

By Barrie Hartman, Special to the Denver Post
What will it take for John and Patsy Ramsey to ever get a break from the hometown folks? Three remarkable developments pointing to their innocence occurred recently in the 6 1/2-year investigation into the torturous Christmas night murder of their daughter, JonBenet. Yet all Boulder can muster is silence and criticism.
The first development came several weeks ago when Boulder police surprisingly closed their investigation without finding the killer (meaning they couldn't browbeat Patsy into confessing to a crime she didn't commit). Only silence in Boulder.

Then came another stunning development (and another communitywide yawn): District Attorney Mary Keenan announced that she was taking over the investigation, an action that is virtually unprecedented for a DA's office anywhere. In doing so, Keenan said she is all but removing the parents from beneath Police Chief Mark Beckner's rusting "umbrella of suspicion." For years, the only named people put under that umbrella were John and Patsy, even though there are clearly other suspects.

Keenan also made it known that she is sending the case in a new direction. Her team, which includes Colorado Springs detective Lou Smit, is now aggressively pursuing Smit's intruder theory: that it was probably a pedophile who got into the house and brutally strangled, clubbed and sexually assaulted JonBenet, not a mother upset with a daughter for wetting her bed (the police theory).

No excitement. No atta-girls. Just criticism that Keenan shouldn't be letting the Ramseys off the hook until it is proven that somebody else did it. Moreover, goes the criticism, how can Keenan prosecute the Ramseys if evidence turns up that nails them? In my book, people should be saying, "Hooray for Mary. What she's doing really takes guts." And, "Isn't it the job of honorable prosecutors to clear suspects when the evidence isn't there or points elsewhere?"

Funny that Chief Beckner was never criticized for doing the reverse, of trying everything he could (including manipulating the media into an anti-Ramsey frenzy) to make the parents look guilty long before and long after a grand jury couldn't find the evidence to indict them in 1999.

And what about the so-called evidence? After 76 months of intense police scrutiny, the only solid evidence against the parents is that they were in the house when JonBenet was slain. That's it! The foreign DNA found in JonBenet's panties is not theirs. Nothing in the Ramseys' family history suggests even a hint of violent behavior or abuse. JonBenet's pediatrician will tell you he saw only loving care. The consensus of six handwriting experts is that Patsy probably did not write the three-page ransom note (which would take some doing for anyone - let alone a distraught mother - after committing such a horribly gruesome murder).

Then came the third remarkable development and the third disappointing, "so-what" response from Boulder and elsewhere.

A fresh, unbiased pair of eyes examined in detail the Ramsey case - the eyes belonging to veteran Federal District Judge Julie Carnes of Georgia. In a libel suit, where the plaintiff (another suspect) had to prove that Patsy was the killer in order to collect damages, Judge Carnes issued a powerfully worded 93-page opinion defending the Ramseys' innocence and supporting Smit's intruder theory.

Instead of sighs of relief for the Ramseys, Boulderites reacted as if nothing had happened. After all, didn't the media report that the judge had not seen all the evidence? Believe me, Judge Carnes had seen enough, especially evidence offered by Smit, to clearly spot the injustice and stupidity of a police investigation that should have been refocused long ago.

And don't forget that Mary Keenan has seen all the evidence several times over. In a statement April 7, Keenan praised Carnes' opinion as "thoughtful and well-reasoned." She added, "I agree with the court's conclusion."

Isn't it interesting that it has taken the courage of two women to point the male-dominated investigation in a new direction? It's noteworthy, I think, that both are mothers. While each knows that mothers are capable of killing their children, they obviously can see that it requires a wild stretch of the imagination to conclude that a woman with no violent behavior in her background could have done what some perverted animal did to JonBenet - savagely strangle her, brutally clobber her on the head and, as Judge Carnes said in her report, jam the handle of a paint brush into her vagina.

Then, for an encore, sit down and calmly write what is perhaps the longest ransom note in the history of kidnappings.

Isn't it time, Mr. and Mrs. Boulder, to quit turning your backs on the Ramseys and to show a friendly face of compassion? At the very least, can't you be grateful that a new investigation with new leadership is under way? One that you can trust?


Barrie Hartman (barriehartman@aol.com) is a retired Boulder newspaper editor living in nearby Louisville. He has been a close observer of the Ramsey investigation since the murder occurred.