Rocky Mountain PBS joins legal fray over Trump's attack on public media

The news behind the news in Colorado

Jul 04, 2025

The Buell Public Media Center in Denver where Rocky Mountain PBS is headquartered

Last month, three Colorado radio stations made news when they joined a lawsuit with NPR against Republican President Donald Trump over his executive order that aims to cut funding for NPR and PBS.

Those local stations are Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT tribal radio. The move was as bold as it is potentially risky, and it once again put Colorado at the forefront of a major media movement.

Now, on the public television side, Rocky Mountain PBS has engaged in the legal wrangling.

The large Colorado-based public media broadcaster “actively participated” in two amicus briefs in support of NPR and the Colorado radio stations in the big lawsuit, according to RMPM President and CEO Amanda Mountain.

The broadcaster’s executive committee of its board approved the participation, she said in an email.

Colorado Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor, is leading one of the briefs. The legal document includes nearly two dozen other state attorneys general as supporters.

The brief argues in part that public broadcast stations large and small “play a vital role” in relaying national and local emergency alerts, particularly in areas where they might be the only outlet to do so.

Also from the brief:

At bottom, it is up to Congress, with its exclusive power of the purse, to decide whether and how to fund public media. If the Executive Branch disagrees, the lawful course is to ask Congress to rescind appropriations, as it has now belatedly asked. But the Executive Branch’s actions challenged here, unilaterally terminating appropriations, are unlawful.

An amicus brief, also known as a “friend-of-the-court” brief, is a legal document filed in a case by those who are not parties to the lawsuit but have a strong interest in the outcome.

“Public radio and television connect millions of people in Colorado and across the country to critical information they might not otherwise be able to access,” Weiser said in a statement. “Cuts to public broadcasting won’t just rob us of programming many of us cherish, they will create real danger by reducing our ability to get critical emergency notifications to the public, especially to people in rural and tribal communities.”

Weiser, who once served on the board of Rocky Mountain PBS, added: “I am proud to stand with my fellow attorneys general to urge the courts to block yet another reckless, illegal action by the Trump administration.”

Another amicus brief in the NPR lawsuit that counts Rocky Mountain Public Media’s support was filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

That brief, which includes more than two-dozen other NPR members from across the country, argues that the government “cannot control the content of NPR’s work, nor can it punish stations for broadcasting stories it does not like.”

As the lawsuit winds its way through the courts, Trump is also asking members of Congress to vote to defund public media.

Members of the Republican-controlled House narrowly approved that bill last month.

Grace Brajkovich of the Gazette reported what could happen in Colorado if Congress passes the federal legislation.

From the June 23 story headlined “Trump bill could cut $4.5 million from Colorado public media”:

If Trump’s NPR and PBS Act passes, CPR and Rocky Mountain PBS could lose 10% of their annual budgets, with CPR losing $1.5 million, and Rocky Mountain PBS losing $3 million annually.
KRCC, Colorado Springs’ National Public Radio member talk and news network, operates under CPR. If this bill passes, KRCC could lose $168,000 annually, approximately 10% of their budget of $1.65 million, said CPR President Stewart Vanderwilt.
At this time, it is unclear how these funding cuts could impact programming.

The story goes on to explain how the law, if passed, would particularly impact smaller, rural public radio stations across the state. While larger, more urban outlets might be able to make up the loss through listener support, it could be harder in smaller, far-flung communities.

“We are a very rural area and our audience doesn’t have a lot of money to donate — without CPB, we would have to make drastic cuts,” Alamosa’s KRZA Station Manager Gerald Rodriguez told the Gazette.

Steve Zansberg, who represents the Colorado stations in the lawsuit, said it will go forward regardless of whether Congress votes to rescind funding it has previously appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for NPR and PBS.

“If the rescission vote happens,” he said, “it will not moot this case.”

🤠 Howdy! I’m Skyler McKinley. You may remember me from your television sets on slow news days, my work at the Denver Press Club, or the historic little saloon I own in Routt County, Colorado. Well, I reckon I’m still doing all that stuff, but I’m doing a new thing, too: I get a real kick out of connecting public policy makers, stakeholders, and reporters like you. Some folks say that I’m “the lobbyist who loves the media.” Sure enough: If you’ve got a story on a pressing matter of public concern, let me know. I just may be able to help! I’m at skyler@wzstrategies.com or 303-720-9200. And as for that story above, here’s my promise to you: I will never moot any case.🤠

*What’s a WZ? It’s an in-joke about license plates.*

Upcoming event: ‘Free Press Under Fire: Navigating a World of Disinformation’

Five folks working in Colorado’s media industry will convene on the campus of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs on July 15 for a public discussion about the role of the press in a healthy democracy.

From an announcement:

A free and independent press is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy. Yet today, public trust in the media has plummeted to historic lows. Press conferences often devolve into partisan clashes, with more focus on personal attacks than public discourse.
Join a distinguished panel of media professionals for a candid conversation about the state of the press in an age of disinformation and digital disruption. Together, we'll examine the impact of misinformation on public trust, and the role of journalists in restoring credibility.
Most importantly, we’ll explore ways to promote civic engagement, encourage respectful dialogue, and strengthen the democratic ideals that depend on a free press.

On the panel will be Gazette Executive Editor Vince Bzdek, former Denver Post Editor Greg Moore, Rocky Mountain PBS CEO Amanda Mountain, Colorado Sun reporter and editor Jesse Paul, and KOAA News5 investigative journalist Alasyn Zimmerman.

The event is at 5:30 p.m., July 15 at the Ent Center for the Arts in Colorado Springs.

Get your tickets here.

Denver ICE uses social media to challenge a CBS Colorado story

As local news outlets seek to localize how Trump’s mass deportation program is playing out in communities, Denver’s ICE agency is taking note.

This week, following a CBS Colorado story headlined “Colorado grandfather detained by ICE while walking his dog,” the agency criticized the outlet on Twitter/X.

“Why do some journalists seem misinformed? In their rush to publish a story they only listen to one side and fail to do basic fact checking,” the account, ICE Denver, posted on July 1. The account called the story’s subject “a CRIMINAL alien” and stated he had a criminal record.

Here’s how CBS Colorado handled it in part by updating its story (emphasis mine):

CBS News Colorado reached out to ICE for comment on Monday. A spokesperson said they need up to two days to answer the requests for comment on this case. On Tuesday, after the story aired, ICE posted on X, “Noa, a CRIMINAL alien has a rap sheet including over 2 dozen arrests for theft, assault & battery, damaging property & shoplifting. For his crimes he has served at least 4 years in prison. He received an order of removal from an immigration judge in 1990 and was removed to Mexico today.”

By Friday, the ICE Denver post had more than a quarter million views on Twitter/X. Its post was a “quote tweet” of one of CBS Colorado’s own posts on the platform publicizing its story. The news outlet later deleted its post, but in a follow-up news clip the station showed images of the Denver ICE response, including its criticism of the outlet, on the screen.

According to the CBS report, the man’s family said he “had a deportation order when he first arrived, but it was dismissed in the 1990s. They were told by his lawyer at the time that he was no longer at risk of deportation.”

In recent months, the ICE Denver account hasn’t typically engaged on social media this way with local news outlets. While it has re-posted local news stories, the feed is usually a running scroll of mug shots and photos of people in law enforcement custody along with commentary. “Got em!” read one post. Often, the account will identify a person by name and their alleged criminal history.

The Denver ICE post about CBS Colorado led to roughly 300 comments, the vast majority of them deriding journalists and the press. One purported user that seemed to reflect the view of others indicated he believed journalists “lie intentionally” while another indicated he believed they “hate facts and only love narratives.” One account tagged the author of the CBS story and attacked her personally.

The local ICE agency using social media to challenge CBS Colorado’s reporting reflects the way Trump and his administration have responded to media as far back as the 2016 presidential campaign. The response to this particular post is another window into anti-press sentiment that some journalists and outlets can face online.

The development is also worth spotlighting given the potential for something like it to happen again. Families of those picked up by ICE might highlight a human-interest angle to local reporters while law enforcement could put forward documentation of an alleged criminal history — before or after a story publishes.

In the case of CBS Colorado, ICE accused the station of not giving the agency enough time to respond to an inquiry — and then put them on blast when the story went live.

I reached out Wednesday to CBS Colorado News Director Kristine Strain and some others at the station to see if they had anything to say about what happened in this instance, but haven’t yet heard back.

One CBS Colorado journalist, however, did respond directly on social media to the ICE Denver account.

“We work hard under tight deadlines. Collaboration and transparency from all sides—including government agencies—are key to ensuring the public gets the full picture,” she said. “Journalism is not about taking sides; it’s about seeking the truth.”

This week’s newsletter is supported in part by the Regional Air Quality Council, the Front Range’s lead air quality planning organization. The RAQC collaborates with state governments, organizations, and individuals to improve air quality and protect Colorado’s health and environment through planning, policy development, and program implementation. The RAQC’s current priority is ground-level ozone, the Front Range’s most pressing air quality issue. For more information, please visit RAQC.org.

To learn more about ground-level ozone, what individuals can do to protect their health, and how to help improve our summer air quality, please visit SimpleStepsBetterAir.org. You can also sign up for timely text or email alerts to know when it matters most.

Colorado journalist’s documentary ‘The Holly’ wins a national Emmy award

Colorado journalist Julian Rubinstein’s documentary “The Holly” took home a national Emmy Award this week for “Outstanding Regional Documentary.”

From John Moore at the Denver Gazette:

“The Holly” is believed to be the first film produced and set in Denver to have ever won an Emmy Award, though such assertions are difficult to empirically confirm.

“This began as really an investigation of a gang shooting involving a community activist that just didn’t add up,” Rubinstein said in his acceptance speech in New York City alongside producers Dia Sokol Savage and donnie l. betts. “And it ended up with an eight-year investigation that also began as a book and then became the documentary. It basically uncovered what’s akin to a new COINTELPRO: the systematic and deliberate use of criminal organizations — including especially informants to take down community leaders — being done by elected officials, law enforcement, and developers, and finding a clear connection to gentrification and violence.”

Also in his acceptance speech, Rubinstein, the filmmaker and journalist-in-residence at Western Colorado University, thanked his team and others for risking their personal safety with the project. “We were slandered, we were sued, we’ve been threatened — I’m now in a protection program,” he said.

Colorado Press Association’s award nomination deadline is this week

Each year, the Colorado Press Association honors people or their newsrooms who “lead, innovate, and defend the essential work of journalism in Colorado,” the group said this week.

More Colorado media odds & ends

🪓 “After months of protest and increasing tensions over current ownership practices, I have been fired from my position [at] Boulder Weekly — only after they got the weekly paper out, of course,” said the paper’s former editor, Shay Castle, on LinkedIn this week. “We were warned last week there may be layoffs, but repeated requests to have a decision earlier in the week (you can imagine how hard it is to put out a paper in such circumstances) were denied. This is just typical of the way things were handled here. I'll have more to say when I collect my thoughts (and the stuff from my office).”

🚨 The nonprofit Pikes Peak Bulliten is holding an emergency fundraiser. “Vital grant funding has not arrived as anticipated and we have a budget shortfall until it does,” the paper stated. “We need to raise $25,000 to give us the runway to acquire the funds that will allow us not just to continue, but to grow and strengthen.”

⚖️ The Colorado Court of Appeals this week ruled in favor of a reporter and the string of Colorado Community Media newspapers in a defamation lawsuit brought by a plaintiff and the group Jeffco Kids First about a story involving furries and schools. The ruling, which overturned a lower-court’s decision, also means First Amendment attorney Steve Zansberg has not yet lost on an anti-SLAPP motion in Colorado when defending a media client since the law went into effect in 2019.

📡 Aspen Public Radio “is expanding with the addition of a Climate Desk, which will be dedicated to providing accurate, accessible, and community-focused coverage of environmental and climate-related issues impacting the Roaring Fork Valley, the Colorado River Valley, and the broader Western Slope of Colorado,” the station reported.

🎙 Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio sat for an interview with Jesse Proia at Out Front Magazine. “Fundamentally, I am paid to satiate my curiosity, and I am a curious person,” he said at one point.

💨 Denver Business Journal reporter Cassidy Ritter “has left the publication and will be freelancing,” Chris Roush wrote for TalkingBizNews. “Ritter covered real estate, restaurants and retail.”

🎂 The Estes Valley Voice digital newsroom celebrated its first birthday this week.

🍄 “While reporting on magic mushrooms, a journalist tries microdosing and shares his own struggles,” wrote Mark Armstrong for NiemanLab’s Storyboard about 5280 magazine journalist Robert Sanchez.

📺 Reporter Maggie Bryan has left KOAA News5 in the Springs to join Denver7.

👀 “Going forward, we are boosting more energy into the Enterprise’s digital presence,” Christy Fantz, editor of the Broomfield Enterprise, wrote this week. That’s a paper run by Prairie Mountain Media and controlled by the Alden Global Capital hedge fund that has been experiencing some … transformation lately.

🪦 Colorado journalist Tom Ross died after a bicycling accident in Steamboat Springs, his family told the Steamboat Pilot newspaper. “Such a big part of his identity was the newspaper, and he took so much pride in telling stories about people in our community who had interesting lives, but maybe weren’t in the spotlight,” said Austin Ross, Tom’s son. “I think being able to highlight those stories was his favorite part of work.”

📰 ProPublica, “the national nonprofit created to turbocharge investigative reporting around the country, has selected the Gazette and reporter Chris Osher as a partner for its Local Reporting Network,” the paper reported. Meanwhile, on July 12, the nonprofit Aspen Journalism digital outlet is hosting “The state of independent journalism with ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg,” as a free community event that will be a conversation with Curtis Wackerle, editor and executive director of Aspen Journalism.

👊 The University of Colorado Boulder’s communications school this week announced the 2025-26 class of Ted Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism.

I’m Corey Hutchins, manager of the Colorado College Journalism Institute, advisor to Colorado Media Project, and a board member of the state Society of Professional Journalists chapter. For nearly a decade I 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. (If you’d like to underwrite or sponsor this newsletter, hit me up.) Follow me on Bluesky, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.

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