Three major Colorado newsrooms say they are 'pro-democracy'

The news behind the news in Colorado

The general manager of a large Colorado TV news station, the editor of a leading statewide radio broadcaster, and an editor of a statewide powerhouse nonprofit digital news site all said this week they run “pro-democracy” newsrooms.

Their comments came Thursday evening during a discussion on a panel titled “State of the Local Media: Colorado Journalism in an Important Election Year” held at the Grasslands marketing and PR agency in downtown Denver.

“It’s a legitimate question, and I think the Sun envisions itself as a pro-democracy publication,” said Dana Coffield, senior editor and co-founder of the Colorado Sun.

“I think I would say the same,” said Tim Wieland, the general manager of CBS News Colorado.

“We’re pro-democracy,” said Kevin Dale, executive editor of Colorado Public Radio, who added that saying so didn’t mean the station was “anti” any particular candidate.

The panel was part of a journalism meetup hosted at the office of Grasslands, which sponsors this newsletter. The agency is run by former Denver Post cannabis editor Ricardo Baca who moderated the discussion where panelists, including me, also got to ask questions of others on it. More than 100 Colorado journalists had RSVP’d for the event in the hip, modern space in the Art District on Santa Fe that included beer, wine, THC-infused beverages, and other party favors.

Following the 2016 election of Republican Donald Trump as president, some journalism thought leaders have urged newsrooms to declare themselves as being pro-democracy.

“There are not two sides to democracy,” Stefanie Murray, who runs the Center for Cooperative Media, wrote last year.

Prominent NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen has been urging newsrooms to openly declare themselves as pro-democracy for years. “American news media knows how to cover two parties that are basically equal fighting for power,” Rosen has said. “But when one party propagates and perpetuates ignorance and calls into question basic facts, evidence, well then [how’s] the press supposed to deal with that?”

Here’s more of what Coffield, Wieland, and Dale said when I asked during the discussion to what extent they considered their newsrooms pro-democracy and how they might be grappling with that question this year:

• Coffield: While she said the Sun envisions itself as a pro-democracy outlet, “I don’t think that means that we hate Trump and love Biden.” She said the Sun is concerned about listening to what the implications of an election are and reporting on them. “We’ve kind of come up in an era where a point of view is expected in everything that we do and we have to be careful not to alienate people in that reporting. Yes, we are pro-democracy — participate, get engaged, actually get mad at your party for not nominating more viable and rigorous candidates. There are many things to be worried about that we need to be talking about all the time. So, yes, we’re pro-democracy.”

• Wieland: While Wieland agreed on the pro-democracy front, he added, “I think we’re pro-truth.” That means calling out lies and misinformation as a critical part of what CBS News Colorado does. “The truth doesn’t have a political side,” he said. “If we’re going to stand for truth that means we stand for truth across the board.” A newsroom’s job is to report what’s happening, he said. “And if we do that fairly on all sides then I’d say that’s pro-truth and that’s pro-democracy.”

• Dale: “I think we have to follow the facts,” he said. “I think we have to put things in context.” Responding directly to the question, he said, “I would say we’re pro-democracy.” He added that Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner has been pushing for a newsroom conversation about how Colorado Public Radio should cover campaigns and elections. Dale noted how some journalists might think that their job is to make sure Trump does not win and other journalists don’t believe that’s their mission. “People get to decide [for themselves],” Dale said. He added that polarization has made the job of journalists much harder, particularly during this election cycle. “You can do a story that’s irrefutable with facts and proof, and I guarantee you a significant portion is just not going to read it.”

I’d be curious to know how other Colorado newsroom leaders might have answered the pro-democracy question, so feel free to get in touch for a potential future newsletter if you have anything insightful to add or to perhaps share a different view.

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🌿 This week’s newsletter is proudly supported in part by Grasslands, a journalist’s best friend for sourcing reporting on cannabis, psychedelics, and our ever-changing relationship with drug policy. Founded in 2016 by 24-year newspaper veteran Ricardo Baca — who in 2013 served as the world’s first Cannabis Editor at The Denver Post and a decade later was appointed by Colorado’s governor to the Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to the state's psychedelics policy development — Grasslands brings a unique Journalism-Minded™ ethos to its suite of public relations, content marketing, and thought leadership products. Together with its partners, Grasslands is rewriting the broken narratives around cannabis, psychedelics, and global drug policy. Learn more at mygrasslands.com, and email Ricardo directly with any sourcing or interview requests for cannabis or psychedelics researchers, entrepreneurs, nonprofits and beyond: ricardo@mygrasslands.com. 🌿

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‘It’s gross’: Journalists air frustration with Colorado Dem access during #BidenWeak

This week, influential Democratic officeholders across the country grappled with the possibility that Democratic President Joe Biden risks losing to Donald Trump because of the extent to which the electorate believes he is in control of his faculties following a disastrous televised debate performance and subsequent public appearances.

While Colorado’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, were some of the earliest members of Congress to go public to reporters with their fears about Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November, some journalists complained that other Colorado Democrats were being less accessible with the press than usual.

“We’ve asked every Democrat in Colorado’s congressional delegation for an interview about whether they think Biden should remain the Democratic nominee. They’ve all declined,” said Marshall Zelinger while guest anchoring the 9NEWS program “Next” on Tuesday. “Governor Jared Polis has also repeatedly avoided our request to talk about it.”

“Even by the low, low standards of access these days, local media is getting next to nothing in response to repeated requests to weigh in on an extremely important and pressing national story,” said Colorado Newsline reporter Chase Woodruff. “Just another way this situation is sowing deep distrust and alienation.”

Newsline Editor Quentin Young said July 9 it appeared that the top Colorado Democrat “who has said the least” about Biden after the debate is Joe Neguse. “He has not responded to Newsline or apparently any journalist questions about Biden’s campaign. It’s an astonishing refusal to engage with the people on an enormous matter.”

“I reached out to Neguse’s office repeatedly over the past week, including calling his spokeswoman again today. Other than an initial ‘working on it’ response, radio silence,” said Denver Post political reporter Seth Klamann on Tuesday.

While some Colorado journalists might have had better luck getting public officials to engage on the topic, the early stonewalling led one reporter to put it in the context of what he sees as a broader trend.

“Not that long ago, members of Colorado’s congressional delegation didn’t avoid local press like the plague,” said 9NEWS investigative reporter Chris Vanderveen on social media. “Today they routinely don’t even bother to respond to local media questions/calls/emails. All part of the nationalization of politics in this country. It’s gross.”

Throughout the week, some members of the congressional delegation trickled out statements in support of Biden staying in the race (Diana DeGette) and urging him to pass the torch (Brittany Pettersen).

Rocky Mountain PBS goes on the road with local community events

In the run-up to the November election, Rocky Mountain Public Media has partnered with more than three dozen hyper-local newsrooms across Colorado to “co-design experiences that engage new audiences within their communities,” the organization’s CEO, Amanda Mountain, said in a statement.

The first installment of the initiative happened June 26 with a donor dinner and lawn bash in Aspen along with partner Aspen Public Radio.

For the community event, radio host Halle Zander held a live broadcast on the lawn where she interviewed “local, regional, and national journalists, local elected officials, and program leaders about how civic engagement plays a role in strengthening our democracies.”

One of those journalists was NPR “1A” host Jenn White.

Also appearing on the show was Jeremy Moore, Rocky Mountain Public Media’s director of journalism, who talked about the broadcaster’s new Reality Check initiative.

“They’re the tools of journalists,” he said about the tools RMPBS is using. “It’s critical thinking, it’s not taking this necessarily at face value,” Moore said. “Doing your research, looking at other sources, and then realizing that in our digital world there is so much more that we need to be checking.”

Three “bedrock questions” anyone should ask when trying to stay vigilant about not getting duped online, he said, are: Who is behind the information? What’s the evidence? What are other sources saying?

Journalists, Moore said, “don’t feel as secure in our profession as we used to,” noting how newspapers are going out of business “left and right,” and so “we’re all, in a sense, journalists now” who need to make sure we’re checking ourselves in what we share and what we consume.

Meanwhile, residents got to see screenings of “Undivide Us,” a “film about the power of civil discourse” in Glenwood Springs and Rifle this week as part of this “statewide initiative bringing local news outlets and communities together.”

The project is called Above the Noise, and is a “statewide initiative led by Rocky Mountain Public Media in partnership with the Colorado Press Association, Colorado Media Project and CSU.”

Colorado Public Radio outsourced its sponsorship department, four positions gone

Colorado Public Radio has restructured its in-house sponsorship department by partnering with a company called Market Enginuity, which resulted in some job losses.

“Nearly all of CPR’s former sponsorship department is now employed by Market Enginuity,” said CPR spokesperson Clara Shelton. “These individuals are still embedded at CPR headquarters, working closely with their colleagues here and serving clients they have managed for many years.” She said those jobs “all remain full-time.”

However, “there were four positions in our sponsorship department that were not offered roles with Market Enginuity,” Shelton said.

The reason for the move is to “generate more net revenue to support CPR’s digital and broadcast channels utilizing Market Enginuity’s tools and expertise developed across multiple markets,” Shelton said, adding that the company is “better equipped to help facilitate sales by providing resources and tools to reps beyond what we can do in-house.”

Shelton called the company the largest employer of sales professionals in public radio and said it manages sponsorship sales for organizations across the country.

“As a sales-focused company, they provide resources and tools to their sales professionals beyond what any individual public media organization can offer,” she said.

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Springs Indy fleshes out staff and contributors with some familiar names

The revamped Colorado Springs Indy, a bi-weekly print publication now under new ownership, has brought back some old heads to bolster its staff and contributor stable.

Kathryn Eastburn, who co-founded the Indy in the early 1990s, had an important local freelance cover story this week that readers won’t find anywhere else in the Springs. Cannon Taylor, who editor Ben Trollinger described in a column as a “young gun,” has also joined the team to cover arts and entertainment.

Joining the staff as a senior reporter is Noel Black, a longtime Springer who some might recall from his days running the Bush-era local thumb-in-the-eye Toilet Paper and also spent some time at the previous incantation of the Indy.

Black most recently worked for History Colorado producing the “Lost Highways” podcast. Before that he co-hosted the excellent “Wish We Were Here” long-form radio documentary series at KRCC that died squealing under the bloody hatchet of a former station manager.

Trollinger said the Indy is also looking for a City Hall reporter and a business reporter for the relaunch of the Colorado Springs Business Journal.

14 Colorado newsrooms will take part in a ‘news philanthropy lab’

More than two-dozen Colorado newsrooms will take part in an “intensive, six-month fundraising lab” supported by the Local Media Association and Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter.

From the announcement:

The 14 organizations selected for the 2024 CMP/LMA Colorado News Philanthropy Lab represent local newsrooms big and small, serving diverse communities across the state of Colorado, producing online, in print and broadcast – but all united in their focus on civic journalism. The lab will help these local news organizations develop and execute comprehensive programs to secure philanthropic support for their essential local journalism that is responsive to community priorities. The lab runs from July through December 2024.

Find out which outlets made the cut here, along with blurbs from those who run them about how they believe the project will help their work.

“Each and every newsroom in this cohort is unique, and plays a vital role in the state’s information ecosystem,” Melissa Milios Davis, director of Colorado Media Project, said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with LMA and our peers at Colorado Gives Foundation to help newsrooms navigate the philanthropic sector and position themselves both for community impact and for sustainability.”

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📢 Amplify your message: When you reach journalists, you reach their audiences

Each Friday, this “Inside the News in Colorado” newsletter reaches perhaps more influential Colorado journalists and media-adjacent readers in one place than any publication and has a record of raising awareness among the state’s press corps and newsmakers. Get in touch about a sponsorship box in this newsletter. Email me at coreyhutchins[at]gmail[dot]com.

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More Colorado media odds & ends

💥 🍦 If you missed last week’s newsletter because you weren’t checking email over the Fourth of July holiday click here for the published version. You can also bookmark this page for the full published archive of this newsletter.

🥧 A summer intern for KKTV in Colorado Springs beat the station’s sports anchor in a pie-eating contest at the local rodeo.

🆕 The Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has elected me to its board of directors. Let me know if you have any ideas for how I might be able to serve our state’s journalism community in that capacity.

📡 NPR hauled in a $5.5 million grant “to fund two regional newsrooms and a visual journalism pilot,” Tyler Falk reported for Current. “The funds will also support the Mountain West News Bureau, an existing public radio journalism collaboration of 14 stations in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.”

💨 Katie Pelton has left KKTV in the Springs. “I have loved working here and covering Southern Colorado,” she said.

➡️ When the Gazette published a Washington Examiner story online with the headline “Boebert suggests Biden’s mental decline caused by COVID vaccination,” Colorado Newsline Editor Quentin Young, who runs a newsroom that’s part of an initiative to more thoughtfully and better cover politics, said, “That is the wrongest wrong way to do it.”

⛰ The Estes Valley Voice has launched as a public benefit corporation digital news site at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park in Northern Colorado. “We transitioned from a static ‘coming soon’ landing page to a newsroom via Newspack,” says editor Patti Brown. “There are a few hiccups that have to be worked out but we are excited to start a new chapter in independent, locally-owned journalism.”

🪓 The “long-running conservative talk show, ‘Wake Up with Randy Corporon,’ hosted by the eponymous attorney and Colorado Republican National Committeeman, aired its last episode on 710 KNUS on June 29,” Heidi Beedle reported for the Colorado Times Recorder. “This decision was made about a week and a half ago, I guess,” said Corporon on-air. “The way it works when you’re an independent contractor doing a talk show is that both sides agree to give each other 30-days notice. I got my 30-day notice a week ago last Thursday.”

🖥 Bucket List Community Cafe, which is not a coffeeshop but a hyperlocal digital news site in Denver, has a new website.

💰 Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s political and financial patron, the billionaire Reid Hoffman, who co-founded LinkedIn, is helping bankroll the Smartmatic voting company’s defamation lawsuit against the conservative media companies Fox News and Newsmax. Hoffman “has made a multimillion-dollar investment intended in part to help the company sustain its costly litigation,” Jeremy Barr reported for the Washington Post. “Smartmatic has said the two news outlets smeared it by airing bogus claims of rigged vote counting in the 2020 election.”

✍️ Heidi Beedle of the Colorado Times Recorder has started doing some freelancing for the Pikes Peak Bulletin.

📖 Former Colorado journalist Arthur Kane, who is now at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “told his late colleague’s story as a cautionary tale of investigative journalism” in a new book, “The Last Story,” in which he “recounts events surrounding the murder of colleague … Jeff German.” The Colorado Sun published an unbylined interview with him.

👏 Because Colorado law “now allows state universities to give associates degrees to former students who completed 70 hours of credits but left before completing a four-year degree,” 9NEWS video editor Geoff Sawtell graduated “18 years delayed,” a KUSA news anchor said.

🍾 Dylan Anderson is happy to see Google is “finally recognizing” his independent nonprofit Yampa Valley Bugle site as “news” in its algorithm.

👣 Big foot, aka “Sasquatch,” got some major play in the Denver Post. “In this house, we write Bigfoot onto the front page of the legacy newspaper,” said reporter Elizabeth Hernandez recently. “Have a read learning about the Sasquatch tourism industry and the people who lead Bigfoot expeditions into the Colorado forest.”

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.