Nathan Blumberg deserves every accolade available for his Autumn 1997 issue of "Treasure State Review". Blumberg is the Montana journalist's journalist.
The article "New Menu for News-Starved Montanas" featured in Blumberg's latest issue is typically brilliant. The corporate dailies in Montana are dropping the ball as far as news coverage is concerned. It's far beyound that. Montana is being wrecked because of the dire lack of good investigative journalism.
Of particular interest in the Fall issue is Blumberg's mention of the new alternative and progressive newspapers springing up in Montana. Among them are the "Butte Weekly"; "Billings Outpost";the "Great Times" of Great Falls; and the "Montana Independent" of Missoula.
Blumberg has hit the nail on the head about the "non-news" crises in Montana. The "tapioca" news coverage has resulted in a slowly unfolding catastrophic corruption scandal in Montana. If journalists had been doing their jobs as newsmen and newswomen they would have seen the Whitefish Bank scandal unfold years ago. If newsmen were doing their jobs the Canada to Montana smuggling operations would have been exposed. But as Blumberg argues corporate policy has dictated a "have a nice day" news that doesn't offend anybody.
The result is that most of Montana is about to be caught in a corruption scandal that promises to surpass anything of the old Copper King era. Oh ?? Well, just ask around Helena about the forensic audits of the Mountain Bank of Whitefish made by Main Justice in Washington. To be sure, take a little time to look in to a string of killings along the Hi-Line and Fort Peck Reservation.
Yep,H. L Mencken is long deceased. But the same kind of masterful reporting and writing that made Mencken a cultural icon -despite his personal politics- still survives in Nathan Blumberg. Thank you, Mr Blumberg.
Note: a complimentary copy of the August, 1997 issue of the "Treasure State Review" is available by written request from: Wood FIRE Ashes Press, Box 99, Big Fork, Montana 59911
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