I'm tipping my glass of brandy to toast Holger Jensen.
Anybody who has the dubious experience of watching a political hatchet job up close, knows more or less what happened to Jensen, long the Rocky Mountain News' international columnist from South Africa.
Initial answers to inquiries about Jensen's recent absence from the pages of the Rocky simply stated that he was 'on vacation'. Then 'the vacation' was extended. Indefinitely. Finally a public notification came, buried deep within another dull column by News publisher John Temple. "Holger Jensen has resigned his position as International Editor to pursue other interests." Simultaneously, all Jensen's columns on the paper's website had been deleted.
Stalin couldn't have done it better.
Sources close to the paper challenge Temple's prosaic explanation and suggest the obvious: Jensen was fired. Among the reasons citied are:
a. his column attributing quotes to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that turned out to be inaccurate;
b. the fact that he happened to have timed a fishing trip which coincided with the events of September 11 and did not get in touch with the paper for 2 or 3 days;
c. word that Temple's wife apparently has not appreciated Jensen's finer, more subtle qualities and has been on something of a personal campaign to purge him for some time;
d. Other personal reasons were suggested
All this is cynical stuff. The man got nailed for maintaining his integrity in his international reporting, most specifically about the crisis in the Middle East.
Whatever 'errors' he might have committed personally or professionally, Jensen, is, by any standard, one of the best international reporters in the United States. He gave the Rocky Mountain News - and the state of Colorado - an understanding of international affairs it was otherwise generally lacking. With his columns, Denver was almost the cosmopolitan city it longs to be. Without him, it's back to hick town again. With the exception of Robert Fisk, I can think of no journalist associated with the mainstream media who knows his subject as well - and has consistently reported on the world with such honesty and integrity as Jensen. This applies not only to his Middle East reporting, unique for its unwillingness to go soft on Israel, but for every issue he's covered over the last 12 years. Whether it concerned the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, the tragedy in Rwanda, the growing gap between the world's rich and poor, Jensen has called them as he sees them.
My mind wanders back to a forum in the fall of 1990. It was on the future of the Soviet Union. Gary Hart participated, as did Tom Rowe, I believe, then Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, along with Jensen. They were all interesting, but Jensen came to the point: the country would collapse within a year. History suggests Jensen had a pretty good point.
How he has managed to accumulate such a fine discerning eye for current events that emerge with lightening speed - and stay on top of them all - I'll never know. His reporting at the News - a newspaper that as one of its own reporters put it 'has no bottom' - certainly went against the tide of editorialists like Vince Carroll, or of nationally syndicated columnists like former cocaine addict and Scripps Howard heir Michael Howard, and the dean of the conservative political cavemen, George Will. At times - not knowing or caring to know the paper's internal dynamics - I'd think, 'well, it's smart to have Jensen on board.' The paper can claim balance - and in the process, keep folks like me who consistently think about canceling my subscription - from bolting.
Nor do I know the details of what specific pressures he has been under because of his Middle East reporting, his unflinching criticism of Sharon, his sharply critical analysis of Arafat, his most recent reporting on both the Israeli military offensive and Palestinian suicide bombing. How many delegations visited the paper calling for Jensen's head? The letters to the editor and those on his email website give some indication. You can be sure that the pressure from the outside, especially from some of Israel's more enthusiastic and uncritical supporters of which this town has its fair share, has been unrelenting and that tonight - or whenever it is that they learn the news - they'll be dancing in the streets. Their gain is Denver's loss.
You must remember something about him: Jensen is no leftist and never has been. If you read his columns carefully one learns he has no particular aversion to the US (or any other) government using force when necessary to keep order. His critique of US policy in the Middle East [Israel and Palestine] seems to result from his logic that the current policy with its heavy reliance on Israel does not make long-term sense. One of the few national political figures who has emerged with more or less the same ideas in recent times is Zbigniew Brerzinski, Carter's former National Security Advisor. But left, right or center, Jensen knew his international affairs and dished his views out 3 times a week, year in and year out, with amazing consistency and skill. Long ago I gave up my subscription to The Nation more out of boredom then political differences. But I've never been bored with Jensen and even when I disagreed with where he was taking an article, I almost always genuinely learned something.
I have a certain picture of Jensen in my mind. Not particularly modest, as irascible personally as his columns are politically, a loner of sorts, the last person in the world who would want a solidarity movement built in his support. But let's do exactly that. I want Holger back. I miss his reporting already. The world is painful enough without at least getting small doses of the truth now and then. He provided us that and more. It's our turn to give back to him.
Rob Prince/Denver Colorado/May 5, 2002
Please contact the Rocky Mountain News, advertisers, and institutional subscribers to register your protest at Mr. Jensen's dismissal.
Rocky Mountain News http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Mailing address, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses for the Rocky Mountain News executives and staff at http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/aboutus/contactus.shtml
Also contact the Rocky Mountain News' parent company, E. W. Scripps http://www.scripps.com/
The corporate communication page, including mailing address, phone numbers, and e-mail is at http://www.scripps.com/corporateoverview/contactus/index.shtml Principle executives, names and bios without direct contact information can also be found at http://www.scripps.com/corporateoverview/leaders/index.shtml
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