I haven't contacted David, but I have contacted a few other magazine editors and generally speaking, they don't want to touch this subject with a 20' pole. In their minds, if they jump on board they may as well discuss religion too.
What I see is lazy journalism.
To cover this thoroughly, here are the issues that need to be discussed -
Mining rights
The climate change debate
Government action or inaction
History of racing at Bonneville
Allegations of salt removal and sale by mining concerns, both past and present
Conclusions drawn by previous studies
Imagine you're a writer - you can put together 2 stories in a week with little more than a press release and a few phone calls.
OR
You can research the paper trail, collect anecdotal evidence, make dozens of calls, and at the end of the day, create a balanced 6000 word article that your editor will want cut to two pages with pictures.
I love the Petersen publications, but they lack the investigative journalism chops to do anything more than a tech write-up, an editorial, an interview or an obituary.
The story is simply beyond the scope of most automotive writers, and most of what one needs to know to do the story right falls outside of the interests of most automotive writers.
The one writer who I think could pull it off would be Brian Donovan.
