š”ļø Kansas AG's office wanted a Colorado reporter's notes. Then this happened.
Your week in the news behind the news in Colorado
āIt would have revealed anonymous sourcesā
Before Justin Wingerter moved to Colorado in 2019 to report on politics for the Denver Post he was a journalist in Kansas where he covered a wrongful conviction of a man named Floyd Bledsoe.
The stranger-than-fiction saga gripped him, and he wrote a book about the case called Four Shots In Oskie: Murder and Innocence in Middle America. The book came out this spring.
But this week, the reporter found himself entangled, albeit briefly, in his own legal drama involving the Kansas courts and prosecutors. Last Friday, he learned the stateās attorney generalās office appeared ready to serve him with a broad subpoena commanding Wingerter to turn over information he gathered while reporting his book. (Bledsoe, the subject of his book, is suing law enforcement authorities in federal court, some of whom are represented by the Kansas AGās office.)
This notable state government request of a journalistās news gathering material specifically asked for āany and all notes, audio recordings, video recordings, memoranda, reports, correspondence, and any other materials which were prepared and/or maintained by you which relate in any way to the authorship of the book āFour Shots in Oskieā or any news article related to the claims in this lawsuit.ā
Such a subpoena would have included āleaked documents and confidential conversations,ā Wingerter told me Tuesday. āIt would have revealed anonymous sources. As a result, I could not comply with this unconstitutional subpoena.ā
But then a strange thing happened.
From the Kansas Reflector, which, like Colorado Newsline, is in the States Newsroom network of nonprofit news sites:
After Kansas Reflector published this story, the attorney generalās office filed a notice with the court to withdraw the subpoena. A spokesman for Attorney General Derek Schmidt blamed an assistant for issuing the subpoena without his knowledge or approval.
Good lord. Blamed an assistant! There must be a āWhatās the Matter With Kansasā joke in here somewhere. Anyway, more from the Reflector:
Wingerter, now a reporter for the Denver Post, is represented by attorneys with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Based on interviews, court documents and confidential police reports, his book explains how powerful individuals in the small town of ⦠Oskaloosa carried out an injustice against Bledsoe. Wingerter said he discovered the subpoena because he periodically checks for new filings in the federal lawsuit.
āI was looking at another case, thought I would take a quick look at the Bledsoe case, see if anythingās new, and, āOh, a subpoenaās been filed. Thatās interesting. Whoās going to be subpoenaed this time? Oh, thatās my name,āā Wingerter said. Federal courts have determinedĀ the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects newsgatherers from being forced to reveal news sources and confidential information. Kansas law also makes it clear that a journalist canāt be compelled to turn over information.
Wingerter said over email Tuesday he was confident that the U.S. Constitution and case law were on his side throughout the brief ordeal, and heās glad the Kansas attorney general withdrew the summons. āI won,ā he said. āMore importantly, the First Amendment won. The government lost.ā
The journalist credited lawyer Sarah Matthews at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for instrumental support. āShe was ready to fight back and win as soon as the subpoena was served,ā Wingerter said. āIn the end, that wasnāt necessary, but her prep work was crucial.ā
The Sunflower State SNAFU has another Colorado link to source protection. This is from a KCUR radio report on the short-lived subpoena threat:
āThe Kansas shield law is a state law that governs state privileges,ā said Bernie Rhodes, a Kansas City media attorney not involved in the case. āIt does not create a federal privilege.ā
Rhodes said, however, that the federal circuit that includes Kansas has embraced a so-called common law reporterās privilege. That grants journalists a qualified privilege under the First Amendment against revealing news sources and confidential information.
That could be the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers multiple states in the West. The embrace he references could be a judgeās 2005 opinion in a case out of Colorado involving a subpoena for news-gathering materials from reporters Marianne Goodland, then at the Silver & Gold Record, and Julie Poppen, then at The Rocky Mountain News.
Read the judgeās opinion in favor of the reporters from that Colorado case here.


šæĀ This weekās newsletter is proudly supported in part byĀ Grasslands, Denverās Indigenous-owned PR, marketing, and ad agency that is thankful for the tireless work reporters do to bring our communities the stories that matter. Founded by veteran Denver Post journalist Ricardo Baca, Grasslands ā the recipient of a 2020 Denver Business Journal Small Business Award ā is a Journalism-Minded Agencyā¢Ā working with brands in highly regulated industries, including cannabis, technology, and real estate. Operating from its new offices in Denverās Art District on Santa Fe, the firmās 20-person team of communications professionals is focused on a single mission: āWe tell stories, build brands and amplify value.ā EmailĀ hello@mygrasslands.comĀ to see how Grasslands can supercharge your brandās marketing program (and read some of ourĀ cannabis journalist Q&As here).Ā Ā šæ
APPLY: The #newsCOneeds grant applications are open
This week, the Colorado Media Project opened its grant applications for locally owned newsrooms looking for a chance to earn a $5,000 matching grant through the #newsCOneeds program.
Last year, 24 newsrooms got a much-needed boost to their bottom lines (and morale) from the initiative during the pandemic.
For the past few months, Iāve had the opportunity to talk to some of the participants and learn about what worked for them during the unique year-end fundraising drive and how it benefited these outlets in different ways. They included for-profit rural newspapers, an urban city newsletter, public radio stations, and a small newspaper chain, among others. The state-based program is something that could likely be replicated elsewhere.
Hereās an excerpt from a post I wrote for the CMP website rounding up the impact of the campaign and some of what I heard from those who participated:
The 2020 #newsCOneeds matching challenge began with a goal of raising $250,000 among the 25 selected Colorado outlets in a single month. Participating news organizations included small, locally-owned rural and urban newspapers, local public radio stations, statewide digital outlets, nonprofit newsrooms, a public benefit corporation, a big city alt-weekly, a one-person startup, and more. In the end, #newsCOneeds 2020 doubled that, helping to raise more than $578,000 from 5,277 individuals for nonprofit and locally-owned newsrooms across Colorado.
Newsroom leaders say the money helped hire freelancers, pay for more news gathering, update websites, purchase necessary equipment, keep journalists reporting on COVID-19 in their communities, and cover operating costs ā for months in some cases.Ā
Since 2018, Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter, has supported the #newsCOneeds matching challenge āas a statewide campaign to help Colorado newsrooms spotlight the positive impacts they are making in their communities, and to build trust in and support for local public-service journalism.ā
This yearās campaign begins Nov. 30, which is #GivingNewsDay. Selected newsrooms will have until Dec. 31 to raise $5,000 from individual contributors in order to claim the match. Find out if your Colorado news organization is eligible for the opportunity to become a 2021 cohort grantee, and apply here. Eligible outlets must be members of the Colorado Press Association or partners in the Colorado News Collaborative. (TIP: The deadline to apply to CPA or COLab is Aug. 20. So get on that.)
More from CMP about the program:
In addition to receiving grant support, participating Colorado newsrooms work with the Colorado News Collaborative and News Revenue Hub to co-create messaging, graphics, and collateral for the public awareness campaign. They also receive one-on-one coaching support to achieve their year-end fundraising, membership, or subscription goals.
If youāre interested in learning more, CMP will hold a live Zoom information session Thursday, Aug. 12 from 10 to 11 in the morning Mountain Time. Register for that here.
Another new Hunter S. Thompson film focuses on Colorado
As the life and times of public figures of bygone eras get a second look through a more critical lens of awareness, the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson is far from canceled.
The complicated character of American letters ā and the most famous former resident of Woody Creek, Colorado ā is about to get another cinematic send up.
Last year, Thompson was the subject of the documentary Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb co-directed by Daniel Joseph Watkins and Ajax Phillips, about Thompsonās psychedelic-era run for Pitkin County Sheriff. This time, Fear and Loathing in Aspen, produced by Bobby Kennedy III and also tracking the sheriffās campaign, is an indie film dramatization based on true events. Actor Jay Bulger plays the pioneer of Gonzo journalism.
This latest movie, filmed in Silverton, had been on the shelf since the pandemic put the kibosh on the South by Southwest film festival where it was scheduled to premier, the Aspen Times reported last week, adding, āKennedy and producers have declined or not responded to interview requests from The Aspen Times since the SXSW cancelation.ā
John Wenzel has a write-up about the new treatment in The Denver Post:
The late author of āFear and Loathing in Las Vegasā (among many other books) has been portrayed by Bill Murray, Johnny Depp and Lee Cummings on screen, where the actors have struck compelling but cartoonish figures obsessed with drugs and guns as much as literary pursuits.
Thompsonās lifeĀ inspired and often encouraged that. But when he died by suicide at the age of 67 on Feb. 20, 2005, his persona seemed reduced to a handful of tropes. Crumpled hat, sunglasses and omnipresent cigarette holder. Unpredictable, violent personality. Woody Creekās unofficial mayor and gadfly, who babbled in unending streams, often indecipherably.
Those stereotypes canāt possibly provide full pictures of Thompsonās life, said Bobby Kennedy III, who first met Thompson as a child when visiting Thompsonās 42-acre Owl Farm compound outside Aspen with his father, political scion Robert Kennedy Jr. (son of Robert F. Kennedy).
Wenzel interviewed Kennedy for the piece, reporting the producer is āhoping his new film, āFear and Loathing in Aspen,ā adds more real-life depth to Thompsonās persona and politics, which feel prescient in Thompsonās calls to demilitarize police, eradicate Americaās racial and class disparities, and clean up the environment.ā
Find out what else Kennedy told him here.
Watch: Colorado newspaper editors discuss their new āright-to-be-forgottenā policies
Last week, Denver Post Editor Lee Ann Colacioppo and Aspen Times Editor David Krause appeared for a Zoom panel discussion about new policies their newsrooms have adopted to more thoughtfully cover crime in the digital age.
COLabās Susan Greene moderated.
Based on an informal survey Greene said she conducted among Colorado newsrooms, she believes that while āmanyā news outlets in the state have unpublished peopleās names and amended online stories, āmost donāt have written policies on when theyāll do so and very few have sort of indicated publicly what those policies are.ā
Greene probed Colacioppo and Krause about their own policies and dug into broader reforms in criminal justice reporting.
At one point, The Denver Post editor spoke about a longstanding problem of some local news outlets taking the āeasyā route of writing up crime stories: āPress releases come out, the police put it on Twitter, you just knock them out.ā (Narrator, wagging finger: Donāt do that.) But thatās ānot actually the world we live in,ā Colacioppo said. āThereās just so much more going on in a community.ā
Watch the hourlong discussion here:
More Colorado media odds & ends
š“ Programming note: This newsletter is on vacation mode, meaning it might hit your inbox with less frequency or with lighter content for a while.
š Congrats to the five emerging Colorado journalists selected for NPRās NextGenRadio program with Colorado Public Radio.
š„ Iām excited about the announcement of this $844,000 National Science Foundation grant project to study soil after wildfires that includes a partnership with Colorado Collegeās Journalism Institute.
šØ Dave Sachs is leaving Denverite, and Denver. āI love my job and the people of this city, but my partner got a unique opportunity in Barcelona,ā he says. āWe're moving there in mid-September with our portable little baby.ā
šØ Two cases are testing Coloradoās body camera laws, 9News reports.
š½ Former Denver Post politics reporter Nic Garcia has left the Dallas Morning News to join the Des Moines Register in Iowa as its politics editor. That makes him the second former Colorado politics reporter on the paperās staff ā and the second Nic(k) ā as he joins Nick Coltrain.
š¤¦āāļø The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition called out the Secretary of Stateās office, saying, āColoradans shouldnāt have to pay hundreds of dollars to see elected officialsā personal financial disclosures.ā
š„ The āPā in CPR stood for Paolo Zialcita one day this week on the site.
āļø Facebook will give $20,000 to The Colorado Sun. The lists of who get such grants āare always such a huge bummer,ā opined one Colorado journalist, noting how āwhat once were/should be huge influential news orgsā are now ābegging for the change between Zuckerbergās couch cushions.ā (Such is the state of the local news business these days.) Others weighed in on the grant size, too ā ānot even enough to pay one reporterā ā and Sun editor Larry Ryckman responded.
š» Colorado Public Radioās Ann Marie Awad, a community audio producer who hosts the On Something podcast, said sheās leaving the station for freelance land.
šø A Boulder Daily Camera newspaper subscriber lamented another price hike, adding, āSomehow I don't think thatās going toward a living wage for the staff.ā And there will be āthree times the content as compared to a few months ago, right?ā a local lawyer asked rhetorically.
šŗ Kelly Werthmann, who has ācovered every major story in Colorado in the last decade,ā is the new weekend anchor at CBS4.
ā°ļø Erica Meltzer of Chalkbeat gave respect to The Denver Post and Colorado Public Radio for āgrappling with Dick Lammās racism in their articles on his passing,ā in reference to the former Democratic Colorado governor who died last week. āMost obits left it out,ā she added. āItās uncomfortable but part of who he was.ā
š The Denver Press Club is hosting an āoutdoor cookout to celebrate a super summer returnā this Friday.
š° Alex Hager is joining KUNC where heāll ācover the Colorado River basin and water in the West.ā
šļø There are eight ā yes, eight ā job listings for newsroom positions at The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs and the digital Denver Gazette.
š Government Technology covered Coloradoās new media literacy law. āI donāt think we should shut down any information,ā a Democratic lawmaker who sponsored the bill told the magazine. āBut too many people are masquerading as real news and credible information and theyāre not.ā
š Rebecca Boyle, āan award-winning science journalist and author based in Colorado Springs,ā has been selected as a Knight Science Journalism Program fellow.
š¬ Asked about career highlights by Broadcasting + Cable, Walt DeHaven, the vice president and general manager of CBS4 in Denver who retired this week, āresponded that the biggest, most memorable stories are often tragedies, and not exactly highlights. He mentioned seeing the KCNC team coalesce amidst wildfires and mass shootings.ā
šŗ āTwo new broadcasters have joined the Colorado Springs airwaves,ā The Gazette in Colorado Springs reports. āMeanwhile, a local sports director has departed.ā
š£ Boulder journalist Sage Marshall has landed a dream job as news editor of Field & Stream magazine. āItās been a roller-coaster ride as a freelancer and the past couple of months have been especially challenging on a personal level,ā he says. āBut Iām excited to join a team of talented storytellers.ā
Iām Corey Hutchins, interim directorĀ of Colorado CollegeāsĀ Journalism Institute,Ā the Colorado-based contributor for Columbia Journalism ReviewāsĀ United States Project, andĀ a journalist for multiple news outlets. TheĀ Colorado Media Project, where I write case studies,Ā is underwriting this newsletter, and my āInside the Newsā column appears at COLab, both of which I sometimes write about here. (If you would like to join CMP and Grasslands in underwriting this newsletter, hit me up.) Follow meĀ onĀ Twitter, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletterĀ here,Ā or e-mail me at CoreyHutchinsĀ [at] gmail [dot] com.