Ski Story Had Big Bare Spots

by Al Diamon

Going downhill – and not in a good way: On Dec. 14, the owner of the Saddleback ski area near Rangeley announced the property was being put up or sale for $12 million. The Maine media immediately issued forth a bunch of gushing articles that failed to explain what was going on, neglected to provide important background and avoided asking any hard questions.

The MaineToday Media newspapers assigned the story to outdoor writer Deirdre Fleming, even though this was more of a business item than one about sports. Fleming produced a lengthy piece that stressed all the Berry family had done to salvage and improve Saddleback in the nearly 10 years they’d owned it, without bothering to provide any financial context.

Fleming seems to have taken the Berrys at their word that they invested $40 million in the resort. But if that’s so, why are they selling it for a mere $12 million? Is it because it’s losing money? Do the Berrys need a tax write-off? What will potential new owners have to do to turn a profit? Why are the Berrys keeping 7,600 acres around the 400 acre resort? Do they plan to develop it? And how much did they pay for the whole place back in 2003?

There aren’t any answers in her story, even though a quick Google search could have turned up the original sale price as being about $8 million.

A more curious journalist might have checked county real estate records for a more exact figure, not to mention a current valuation.

Still, Fleming didn’t do the worst job. The Lewiston Sun Journal, which claims to cover the Rangeley area, offered up a feeble rewrite of her article with far less information. The Bangor Daily News merely reprinted the Sun Journal’s non-coverage. The Daily Bulldog website in Farmington waited an extra day to post a story, but covered none of the holes. Everybody seemed content to report only what the Berry family handed them – without question, enhancement or context.

Maybe the Boston Globe will get around to doing a little digging on this story, someday.

(Disclosure: My weekly political column runs on the Daily Bulldog site.)

Less coverage: Two developments last week mean keeping an eye on the Maine Legislature and state government in general is going to be more difficult in the future.

First, veteran reporter Mal Leary is closing his one-man shop, the Capitol News Service. As previously reported, Leary is set to become managing editor of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s new channel providing live coverage of the Legislature, as well as some committee meetings and press conferences. To make time for his new responsibilities, Leary will no longer be putting in endless hours covering the Appropriations Committee and other legislative backwaters that less committed reporters routinely ignored. He’s also one of the few journalists that Gov. Paul LePage will talk to.

Capitol News has been around, in one form or another, since the early 1970s. The new MPBN channel will be useful, but I doubt it’ll make up for that loss of institutional memory.

The second change involves the Maine People’s Resource Center’s invaluable “Citizen’s Guide” to the Legislature. Since at least 1987 (that’s the oldest one on my bookshelf), this handy book has been published every two years, providing insightful biographies of all 186 legislators, useful quotations, recent election records and campaign spending data. For 20 bucks, it was a bargain. For reporters covering the beat, it was a must-read.

But Mike Tipping, who’s been writing and editing the Guide in recent years, says cutbacks could be on the way. After I referenced the book in a recent political column, he e-mailed to say, “You may be sad to learn we’ll likely be making it online-only and cutting down on the bios this year.”

Al Diamon can be emailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.