Mystery solved???<p>Conference focuses on news coverage of Western issues<p>BOISE, Idaho (AP) — East Coast-based news organizations have trouble covering Western issues such as public land use and endangered species because they don't understand the territory, journalists and political leaders said at a conference Dec. 6. <p>Just as a small-town police beat reporter from Montana or Idaho would struggle if he suddenly had to fly to New York City and file a story about gangland violence, a general-assignment journalist based in Atlanta or Washington, D.C., would likely have little knowledge about wolf recovery in Wyoming. <p>"There is a vastness left of the 100th meridian that you folks don't understand," former Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus told more than 1,000 participants at "Dateline: The West," sponsored by the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. <p>The symposium assessed the national media coverage of Western policy on land, water, endangered species and even its culture. <p>"There's a culture here that is different than Manhattan," said Andrus, Idaho's only four-term governor. <p>ABC anchorman Peter Jennings said that too often the national media look for stereotypical stories about the West and western issues. <p>"The West is complicated, fascinating and a great story. But it isn't always a story people want us to tell. It's a story about internal immigration; it's a story about water; it is the story of new cities," Jennings said. <p>Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson pointed to the recovery of grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park as one example of policy dictated by Easterners who don't understand the on-the-ground ramifications of their decisions. <p>"The grizzlies aren't just in Yellowstone anymore — they're all over the place," Simpson said. "You literally have to take your grandson fishing with a 9-milimeter Glock," he said.
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