Bison, grizzlies, and Old Faithful are among the features that draw people to visit and live in the region around Yellowstone National Park. A new journalism site has launched to help people better understand this place where many live and play
Veteran environmental journalist Todd Wilkinson of Bozeman is the spearhead behind Mountain Journal, a web-based site focusing on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
“We live in a region in which there is antagonism toward the media, where we had a congressional candidate that body slammed a journalist for asking a tough question,” said Wilkinson. “We have people carrying forward an anti-science agenda and advancing and carrying forward alternative facts. “
He said not long ago he had breakfast with Theodore Roosevelt IV, investment banker in New York and the great grandson of Teddy Roosevelt — a conservative.
“And even Ted Roosevelt said we don’t have anybody out there aggressively fact checking the alternative facts and holding people to account," Wilkinson said. “There is no peer review process for refuting disinformation out there and so right now in Greater Yellowstone there are a lot of issues out there that are rooted in deep mythology out there in which alternative facts just don’t hold up to scrutiny and so with Mountain Journal we’re going to subject some of these myths to rigorous scrutiny.”
Wilkson added that Mountain Journal would provide some lighter fare, celebrating the arts and culture of our region.