American Notes COLORADO

Sometimes the medium gets in the way of the message. Last week the Colorado chapter of Greenpeace unveiled an antinuclear billboard blitz near the idle Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant outside Denver -- and ran afoul of another environmental group: Citizens Against Billboards on Highway 93.

Greenpeace's six-month campaign features a series of garish Day-Glo-red posters. The signs on the northbound side of the highway depict a worker in a protective suit and gas mask, and the southbound versions show an exploding nuclear bomb. Until Greenpeace slapped its posters on the billboards, they had been blank for two years as a result of a successful boycott against local merchants who advertised on them. "It's not clear whether Greenpeace should be labeled environmental nitwits or environmental traitors," groused Tom Lustig, an attorney for the anti-billboard group. Countered Jason Salzman, a Greenpeace staff member: "If we don't stop the arms race, we'll be in no position to worry about billboards."