Colorado press group's board leader resigns following 'recent stories'

The news behind the news in Colorado this week

The board president of the Colorado Press Association, Brian Porter, resigned his position this week after the news editor found himself the subject of news coverage.

His departure came a little more than a week after Erik Maulbetsch penned a story at the progressive Colorado Times Recorder digital site. The piece illuminated for the many what was known by a few about Porter’s dual role as board president while also running a new conservative digital publication called the Rocky Mountain Voice, which is not a CPA member. Earlier this year, Porter left as publisher of three sister papers of the Denver Post on the Eastern Plains to take the job as editor and publisher of RMV.

While the CEO and board of the state’s Press Association were aware of Porter’s dual role prior to Maulbetsch’s story, it does not appear broader members of the CPA’s network were clued in on it — or about the details of the RMV site, judging by some of the reaction.

Following Maulbetsch’s March 18 story, at least two CPA member newspaper publishers — owners of the Ouray County Plaindealer and the Lake City Silver World, both on the Western Slope — sent the CPA a “letter of concern.”

While they wrote that they felt having Porter “serve as board president when he has taken on this new position is a conflict of interest for a membership charged with maintaining independence from special interests,” they also pointed to a procedural issue involving board members serving who are not currently working for a CPA member publication.

Last week’s edition of this newsletter reported on the situation and quoted Porter saying he understood there might be concerns at the CPA about his new role with Rocky Mountain Voice, which was founded by Republican activist Heidi Ganahl, who is the GOP’s most-recent candidate for governor. But Porter also indicated he didn’t see an issue with remaining in his largely administrative CPA board president role for the next six months of his term. He said he recalled the CPA’s CEO describing the issue to him as a “tempest in a teapot” and indicated he agreed with that assessment.

But that changed this week.

On March 27, CPA CEO Tim Regan-Porter (no relation to Brian) sent an email to members announcing Brian Porter’s resignation — and said the decision was Brian Porter’s. “Brian’s decision comes in light of recent stories about his new role at Rocky Mountain Voice, which he did not want to be a distraction from the association’s mission,” Regan-Porter wrote.

More from the message:

The board and staff are immensely grateful for Brian's dedication and invaluable contributions during his six months as president, as well as his enduring commitment to the association, the industry and his communities over the years. He has served all with the utmost dedication and integrity, and his positive impact has left an indelible mark on our association.

You can read more background here on the Rocky Mountain Voice, context about the new outlet in the broader Colorado news and information landscape, and how its founder and editor appear to have different views about its role as an independent outlet or as part of an effort to help Republicans get elected in this one-party Democratic state.

For her part, Ganahl had her own spin on Porter’s departure.

In an opinion column for Rocky Mountain Voice, she indicated she believes her editor’s resignation from the CPA is because of “Gov. Jared Polis and his cronies” who are “very mad that a real newsman is doing the job they refuse to do.” She framed the development as evidence that “the Colorado woke media is dying because they now exist to serve Polis and the far-left machine… no matter what.”

Ganahl accused the governor “and his media thugs” for Maulbetsch’s Times Recorder piece, referring to it as a “far-left hit piece machine” that’s aim was to “pressure Brian to step down.”

The Colorado Times Recorder’s founder, Jason Salzman, said in an email that Polis is not involved in funding the site’s work “or supporting it in any way that I know of — directly or indirectly — either now or ever.” (Because the outlet does not disclose its progressive donors we have to take his word for it.) He added that Ganahl hasn’t donated either, and described any accusation “that Polis was involved in the creation of the CPA/Brian Porter article” as “both not true and crazy.”

But lest anyone believe the Colorado Press Association is some liberal Death Star, Ganahl wrote that she understood “there are some fair, even conservative, people still in the association that pushed back,” and she urged them to “keep up the good fight.”

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Colorado journalism groups seek partners for ‘Voter Voices 2024’ project

The Colorado News Collaborative, a.k.a COLab, along with the Colorado Press Association, is looking for newsrooms interested in participating in a new statewide collaboration.

The initiative, called Voter Voices 2024, aims to ensure that election coverage by local outlets across the state meets the needs of Coloradans and reflects the diversity of their voices.

Participating newsrooms would survey Coloradans (in English and Spanish) about their top concerns while collecting contact information for further reporting, according to a project proposal.

“We’re really trying to get as many newsrooms on board as we can,” says Tina Griego, managing editor at COLab. “The greater the participation, the greater our understanding of what Coloradans say they want candidates focused on — and how what they prioritize might differ by location, political affiliation, gender, race.”

Interested newsrooms can sign up here.

“We have never tried something like this in our state and I think that so many newsrooms, large, small, tiny, have expressed interest is a testament to how many understand that covering the horse race isn’t enough,” Griego says. “Punditry isn’t enough. We have to get better at listening.”

How Colorado journalist Alan Prendergast reports on the ‘closed societies’ of prisons

Denver-based journalist and author Alan Prendergast, currently teaching Crime Reporting at Colorado College, wrote a cover story for Westword earlier this year titled “A Man Apart: Is Jimmy Sabatino America’s Loneliest Prisoner?”

The longform piece offers a look into a “prison within a prison” at the ADX supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, a place that houses “more than 300 terrorists, gang leaders, drug lords and other high-risk prisoners in profound isolation.”

Two of them live in The Suites — a “little joke, the kind of gallows humor you can’t avoid in a place you can’t leave” — where they aren’t even allowed to speak to each other. Here’s Prendergast’s description of their living quarters:

They are each entombed behind double doors in a seven-by-twelve-foot cell in the most silent corner of the supermax. The bed is a concrete slab covered by a thin foam mattress, the view a patch of sky visible from a high, narrow window. Meals are delivered through a slot in the door. There’s a stainless-steel toilet-and-sink combo, a concrete desk and stool, a shower on a timer to prevent flooding. There’s no one to talk to, but no privacy, either. The men are under scrutiny 24 hours a day, by cameras and listening devices in the cells, by other monitoring equipment during the hour a day they are allowed to exercise alone in a small outdoor cage. FBI agents read their mail and listen in on their phone calls.

Prendergast introduces readers to James Sabatino, 47, who is serving a 20-year stint for nonviolent financial crimes and yet might be “the most locked-down, buried-in-oblivion prisoner in the entire federal system.” The fellow is locked down indeed, “prohibited from communicating with anyone on the entire planet, inside or outside of prison, except for two people: his 75-year-old stepmother, with whom he can have fifteen-minute monitored phone conversations twice a month, and his attorney.”

You should read the story about Sabatino and how he appreciates the restrictions since he believes they have saved lives. (There’s also a nugget in the story about how he managed to “punk one of the nation’s most powerful newspapers” with one of his scams.)

This week, Amanda Ulrich at the Sunday Longread got the story behind the story. She interviewed Prendergast about how he was able to penetrate a supermax cone of silence to do journalism.

An excerpt:

Especially with this story, and writing about someone who is only allowed to talk to two people in the world, it seems like a whole new level of difficulty in terms of journalistic access. 

Yes, it’s challenging. I think a lot of good stories don’t get told because of that. I did have access to ADX [the US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado] when they first opened, and of course that went away after 9/11. I think we’ve missed out on a lot of things that are probably important for people to know — how the inmates are treated, and how they’re dealing with mental health issues with this degree of isolation. And, of course, there are obviously some pretty notorious criminals in there. But there are always ways to tell a story if the front door doesn’t work. That’s part of what I’ve learned from years of doing this kind of thing. This story about Jimmy was irresistible because, on one hand, he’s such a character, and on the other he’s actually voluntarily chosen this degree of isolation. That makes for a fascinating psychological profile to try to figure it out.

…

As you write in this piece, Jimmy seems to like the attention. Do you think there’s a chance that he’ll ever read this story?

That’s a good question — it depends sometimes on who the warden is. I’ve written stories about people in ADX who were told they couldn’t read it, and that the publication was intercepted being mailed into the prison because of some security concern, which is usually bogus. So I have no idea under the current regime how they feel about allowing those kinds of details about ADX to be presented to a prisoner, who clearly already knows them firsthand. 

But Jimmy’s lawyer also can’t tell me what he communicates with Jimmy. And I can’t get any response from Jimmy, so he’s not allowed to write me a fan letter, or a criticism for that matter. Someday, perhaps when he’s not under the same restrictions, maybe I’ll hear something. It’s a little eerie: The idea that your source may never see the story. 

After covering this particular prison for so long, and the prison system in general, how have you seen access for journalists change over that time?

It’s a mixed bag. I think at the federal level it’s gotten worse, particularly with this ban at ADX. In a lot of other places, there’s been a tremendous reform movement that’s tried to offer more transparency. You never really get total transparency when you’re dealing with this kind of institution, but I think it’s encouraging to see that more of these state systems are recognizing that they need to reduce their prison populations, and to work harder on re-entry programs. And part of that means forging more links to the outside world, which includes the press.

I’m not overly optimistic, because at the same time all of these systems are facing staff shortages, which makes it harder to accommodate the press, among other things. But there’s recognition that they need to have more access, and that they need to make that world more in sync with the outside world. Most of the people in there are coming out sooner or later.

Read the whole interview at the link above.

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🔎 Sponsored | Spotlight: Colorado | Colorado Media Project 🔍

Colorado Media Project believes our democracy works best when the public has transparency into powerful institutions. That’s why accountability journalism is so important to our civic infrastructure. We chose to sponsor this section of Corey’s newsletter to showcase some of the important watchdog work Colorado journalists and their news organizations have been producing recently. Corey chose which ones to spotlight.

Recent Colorado accountability coverage

• Logan Davis, a writer for the progressive Colorado Times Recorder nonprofit newsroom, has produced an in-depth series about a church in Woodland Park, its relationship to local politics, and what he described as a “takeover” of the local school board.

• Sherrie Peif, a reporter for Complete Colorado, a news and commentary site of the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute, sued the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing for not coughing up public records; a judge ruled in her favor, she wrote, saying the agency “improperly withheld documents from me as part of an open records request by wrongfully claiming what’s known as ‘deliberative-process privilege,’ which is often just an excuse, concocted by the legislature, to withhold information.”

• Ben Markus spotlighted for Colorado Public Radio what some reformers say is the “perverse features of a money bond system” in Colorado “where an impoverished low-risk defendant can languish in jail awaiting trial, while another defendant with means can pay for release.”

• Amos Barshad explored for The Lever the influence of wealthy Coloradan Kent Thiry on our election laws. The former DaVita kidney dialysis company CEO is bankrolling a raft of ballot measures aimed at changing the way Coloradans vote. If approved, Barshad wrote, they would make it so “the only way candidates in Colorado could get on ballots would be by collecting signatures.” Some worry Thiry is “setting the stage to make it easier to run for governor himself in 2026.” Westword re-published the story on its cover earlier this month.

To submit a local accountability story for consideration in the future, send me an email. If you or your organization would like to sponsor a recurring newsletter section like this, hit me up.

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Kyle Clark: 9NEWS management and ownership allows for ‘accountability journalism’

News this week that NBC News had hired — then fired — Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor trickled down to Colorado.

• The background, from NPR’s David Folkenflik: “NBC’s journalists and anchors objected not because she was a conservative, or even a Trump ally, but because she had played an active role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race and had repeatedly and publicly trashed the press.”

The national network was willing to pay her $300,000 a year for two years, Politico reported. Why would a news organization pay that much to land a partisan pundit it could put on air?

On TV news in Denver this week, local 9NEWS “Next” anchor Kyle Clark explained to viewers two kinds of ways to practice journalism: “access journalism” and “accountability journalism.”

Broadly speaking, the difference, he (correctly) said, is that access journalism seeks to “win the favor of powerful elites” in hopes they’ll provide inside information, while accountability journalism seeks to “provide the public with information on what those powerful elites are doing — to hold them accountable.” Clark, who works for an NBC affiliate, said he personally questions the value of “cozying up to power” for access. He would rather find out what powerful elites don’t want you to know, and share that with the public.

“This program does accountability journalism, which is often time-consuming and expensive, and is very unpopular with powerful people,” he said, adding, “we are able to do accountability journalism here only because it has the support of 9NEWS leadership and our parent company Tegna.”

Watch the full clip here.

More Colorado media odds & ends

🐊 This newsletter is in out-of-the-office mode, meaning content might be lighter than usual and I might not be as quick to respond to emails, voicemails, or DMs.

🆕 Jed Palmer is the new executive director of the Colorado Student Media Association, the organization recently announced, saying, “Jed has a long history with the CSMA and has over 20 years experience advising student journalism.” Until 2015, the organization, created in 1970, was originally called the Colorado High School Press Association.

📉 Despite “increasingly solid data” confirming a downward trend in crime, “there are few signs that Colorado’s falling crime rates have sunk in with politicians and the media,” Chase Woodruff reported for Colorado Newsline. That’s important, he pointed out, because “for decades, research has shown links between media coverage of crime and distorted perceptions of crime trends and risks.”

🤔 This week, a survey distributed to attendees of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic included this question at the end: “I most consume the news” with potential answers being online, printed news, radio, TV, social media, and other. (Remind me to ask them for the results.)

🇮🇱 Susan Greene, who left COLab earlier this year, has been racking up bylines as the Forward’s Israel-based correspondent.

⬆️ Linda Shapley, publisher of Colorado Community Media, “will step into the role of interim president” of the Colorado Press Association board, the organization announced this week. “Linda has appointed Lisa Schlichtman, faculty adviser of member Metropolitan State University’s The Metropolitan and a former CPA board president, to the board.”

💰 Because Denver in 2022 set aside 1% of cannabis tax revenue until 2025, totaling roughly $15 million, “to support — sometimes in the form of direct investments — minority and women-owned businesses,” Denver taxpayers “now own a small stake in a company that rates media outlets based on political bias,” reported Maia Luem for BusinessDen. That company is Ad Fontes Media, whose Colorado-based founder created the Media Bias Chart.

💨 Jess Hazel is leaving KRCC in the Springs for public radio in Portland.

☀️ Colorado Sun editor and co-founder Larry Ryckman appeared on Colorado Press Association CEO Tim Ragan-Porter’s Local News Matters podcast this week. On the show he discussed “the challenges and learnings from moving away from the page view business to focus on engaging content that resonates with readers, emphasizing the importance of loyalty and community in the digital age.”

🛡 An incident last week involving a small newspaper on the Western Slope made the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker with the headline “Colorado council member sends threatening note to local weekly over reporting.”

🚫 In the wake of the NBC News fiasco with Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and her hiring then firing, Colorado Times Recorder founder Jason Salzman had a warning. “Cable news outlets,” he wrote “shouldn’t hire Ken Buck either. He’s also been an election denier.” (Buck, a Republican, recently resigned as a member of Colorado’s congressional delegation.)

📺 Alex O’Brien at KOAA in Colorado Springs is now the “permanent” weekday evening meteorologist. “I have been on this shift since Mike Daniels retired,” she said, “and I will be remaining on the 5, 6, and 10 pm shows bringing the forecast to southern Colorado.”

🌊 Devin Farmiloe profiled writer and filmmaker Clifton Wiens who is a Ted Scripps fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism and is working on “an archival project that examines American religious and secular culture over the last one hundred years through the lens of the apocalyptic strain in both of these worlds, and how this apocalyptic impulse is particularly dangerous right now at this time in U.S. history.”

📵 “Denver school board members shouldn’t speak on behalf of the board or claim to exercise board authority when they post on social media according to a new policy the board unanimously adopted,” Ann Schimke reported for Chalkbeat Colorado. “The social media policy — a single sentence added to a broader policy on board member conduct — aligns with a March 15 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could give public officials more freedom to block critics or delete their comments.”

🚔 “From highlighting stories in the 90s that featured kids and their interests, to now being a member of the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office for over 20 years, Sgt. Ron Luton reflects on his time as a young journalist, and how that led him to become a law enforcement member,” Ashley Portillo reported for CBS Colorado.

🎒 KFF Health News ethnic media editor Paula Andalo “discussed how Colorado students are pushing for the ability to carry naloxone” on Radio Bilingüe’s Linea Abierta.

I’m Corey Hutchins, co-director of Colorado College’s Journalism Institute. For nearly a decade I’ve reported on the U.S. local media scene for Columbia Journalism Review, and I’ve been a journalist for longer at multiple news organizations. Colorado Media Project is underwriting this newsletter, and my “Inside the News” column appears at COLab, both of which I sometimes write about here. (If you’d like to underwrite or sponsor this newsletter hit me up.) Follow me on Threads, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.