Zooming the local Colorado news: What you missed from some recent journalism panels
The Asian community wants an apology for a newspaper’s ‘racist and xenophobic’ April Fools article, and more
Zoom goes the calendar: Journalism panels of the week
You’d be forgiven if you couldn’t attend all the local media panels that took place virtually over the past week or so, even if that’s kind of your jam.
On April 6, the Colorado Media Project and the Colorado Trust hosted a Zoom panel discussion called “The News About Local News: Takeaways from Colorado Journalists and Residents.”
The event featured research for the Colorado Trust from the University of Denver’s Kareem El Damanhoury and David Coppini, and Stephanie Snyder of Hearken. The trio delved into what they learned from surveys of local journalists, their own local media content analysis of news organizations in certain parts of the state, and community listening sessions. Their work came as the Colorado Press Association also checked in with newsrooms with a survey during a harrowing year.
On the Zoom, the researchers explained their findings, which I highlighted in a recent newsletter, and opened up a larger discussion among journalists and their advocates.
Asked during the panel what concerned him most from the findings, Colorado Press Association CEO Tim Regan-Porter said local journalists here are overworked and have fewer resources than they need. But, he said, “What’s been going on in Colorado has really been an example for the nation of what can be accomplished through collaboration.”
Tina Griego of the Colorado News Collaborative, or COLab, summed up the report like this: “Journalists know where the shortcomings lie, and community members bear the consequences of those shortcomings.”
Diamond Hardiman, who directs News Voices: Colorado, said one of her biggest takeaways from the research was that most people “get their information through an interconnected network of trusted individuals.” That’s something she said she’s also heard from Black Voices and Latinx Voices working groups in Colorado: “In order to be able to understand and connect with community, they want to have trusting relationships with journalists and journalism institutions.” In those working groups, she added, she and others are trying to determine how best to repair broken trust between newsrooms and communities of color.
Erin McIntyre, who co-owns The Ouray County Plaindealer, talked about what it’s like operating a small press in a rural county of fewer than 5,000. “We’re it,” she said about her newspaper. “If the Plaindealer didn’t exist, it would be a news desert. There’s no TV, there is a radio station but it broadcasts in Telluride on the other side of the mountain — you actually can’t hear the radio station that is located in Ouray because of where their transmitter is.” One thing she said she’s learned since moving from a larger newspaper in Grand Junction is how government officials aren’t as used to dealing with reporters in smaller towns.
The Colorado Trust financed the research that came out of the DU and Hearken team. (In the fall of 2019, the foundation that’s dedicated to “advancing the health and well-being of all Coloradans,” said it was looking to spend up to $100,000 for a media landscape study.)
Following the panel, the Colorado Trust’s Noelle Dorward said the organization is thinking about how it can support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in a comprehensive way, and how it can support more accountability journalism here.
She also said the organization is looking to support under-resourced community-based outlets.
Latinx Voices: ‘The Past as Prologue’
On April 9, COLab’s Tina Griego, who became the first Latina columnist for Colorado’s major daily newspapers in 2001, began a Zoom panel discussion with the metaphor of an EKG machine. The tape goes back decades, she said, and you can see spikes registering on it across the years.
There are spikes in the 1940s, the ‘50s, and big spikes in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “They come every few years,” she said. “We’re in a spike now. We’re in a spike that started with the murder of George Floyd. We’re in a spike that was jolted over the last two weeks by Lori Lizarraga’s column in Westword, by the call-to-action letter that the Denver Post newspaper guild published. And we’re in this moment of furor and heat again.” But, she said, “this is not just about two newsrooms, and it is not just about two weeks.”
The panel included community activist and educator Nita Gonzales and former lawmaker Polly Baca who was the first minority woman to serve in the Colorado Senate. Some takeaways:
“Disappointed and frustrated”: That’s how Gonzales characterized her reaction to Lizarraga’s column and the Post letter. But also this: Not surprised. “We are not yet respected in the same way in media and in journalism and this has been an ongoing struggle at least that I’ve experienced in my life.”
A newspaper “divided our community”: “I grew up in Greeley, Colorado,” Baca said. “Where the local newspaper really divided our community. Because it used words like — if you were being complimented about something, you would be Spanish. If you … had maybe encountered the police of some sort, you were Mexican.”
“That’s not true when it comes to us”: “I remember being a little girl and boycotting the Rocky Mountain News,” Gonzales said. “We did a picket line and boycott for well over a month because of the articles and the way they depicted my father and other Chicanos who were beginning to speak up and stand up. … We were socialized to believe that whatever you read in the paper was true, or whatever you heard on the radio or saw on TV. And my father would say, ‘No, hell no, that’s not true when it comes to us.’”
“Such a struggle”: Baca said she was the executive director of the Colorado Committee on Mass Media and the Spanish Surname. “And we did launch some challenges to the local media,” she said. “And we were able to get Channel 7 to give us a half hour television program, but you know it was such a struggle, it was so difficult to get the media to understand how dangerous it was to misrepresent us in the media, both the print and broadcast media. And it’s still happening.”
The Fairness Doctrine: “Because of the Fairness Doctrine we could talk about [how] we needed time, we needed equal time as other communities, and we pushed for that and we had that influence and that muscle,” Baca said. “But in my opinion with the demise of the Fairness Doctrine the media didn’t feel responsible to represent us anymore or respond to us.”
Asked what a healthy relationship would mean with local media now, Gonzales said it will be when she sees people who look like her on editorial boards and writing articles. Baca said it would mean respect. “It’s important,” she said, “that our community be respected and understood.”
Watch the full nearly hourlong video here.
‘Someone needs to do this’: The News Matters doc panel
Tuesday evening, independent Castle Rock filmmaker Brian Malone joined a virtual panel discussion among journalists in preview of his new film News Matters: Inside the Rebellion to Save American Journalism.
Viewers logged in to watch and kept up a robust conversation in the YouTube chat.
The panel, moderated by COLab director Laura Frank, included Paul Cheung of the Knight Foundation, Colorado Sun founders Dana Coffield and Larry Ryckman, former Denver Post editor Greg Moore, former Denver Post editorial page editor (and Denver Rebellion leader) Chuck Plunkett, and national news industry analyst Ken Doctor. News outlets like The Aspen Times and Vail Daily aired the panel live on their sites. Here were some takeaways:
A check-up from the doctor: The United States has a political system based on local democracy, Doctor said, and at its root, local democracy demands understanding local issues. “I fear that many generations now really don’t have a sense of what local news is and don’t seek it out even if it’s there,” he said.
The future of local news: “I think the future of local news is a variety of news sources,” Cheung said. “It could be that single journalist who decided to join Substack and be a great newsletter for your community. It could be someone like The Colorado Sun … it could be a podcaster. I think in some way the chaos that we see could lead to … a new Golden Era for journalism because journalism could now be telegraphed in all these different ways and platforms. … You’ll see a lot of different players from small fish to big fish. There won’t be this sort of dominance.”
On public funding for the local news: “I am truly open. Fifteen years ago, 20 years ago, I would not have been,” Moore said. “Look, the advertising model was not sacrosanct.” He added he thinks of the idea more as “taxpayer-supported funding” as opposed to “government funding.” He said he doesn’t have a problem with taxpayers having a financial stake in quality journalism. “I think it’s up to us to figure out how to do that the right way.” Doctor said, he, too, is open to it. But it’s always a question about where the money comes from. “How much of the burgeoning local news experimentation is based on what Facebook and Google want to do?” he asked. “And if it’s a billionaire, which billionaire is it?”
“Someone needs to do this.” That’s what Malone said when asked why his film is important now. Here’s the whole quote: “This is one of those stories that kind of like slaps you in the face and says someone needs to do this. And there’s a lot more to the story underneath this initial revolt or whatever you want to call it. It’s unheard of when you think about the fact that journalists are now on the other side of the protest line. That’s a pretty unique situation.”
Where Moore gets some of his local news these days: “I get a lot of news through my Ring security network,” the former Denver Post editor said. “And that was how I learned people were stealing catalytic converters from vans. They were sharing that information on the network. And the same is true for Nextdoor. So there are a lot of different ways that you can get information that’s really vitally important to you as a local community resident and it’s not necessarily the traditional journalistic avenues.”
“Helen was threatened with death.” That came from Coffield at one point in the discussion in reference to Helen Richardson, the Denver Post photographer who witnessed and captured footage of a 9News security guard shooting someone at an October demonstration. Her comment came in the context of a new digital age of disinformation and journalists coming under attack online.
130. That’s how many participating Colorado newsrooms are involved in COLab now, Frank said.
The News Matters documentary will air on Rocky Mountain PBS at 10 p.m. April 27 and 7 p.m. April 29. PBS will offer it to stations nationally later this spring.
Asian community wants apology for newspaper’s ‘racist and xenophobic’ April Fools article
Anti-Asian violence has been on the rise in Colorado.
People have been spit at in grocery stores. College students were pushed into oncoming traffic. Workers at a Vietnamese restaurant had threatening insults hurled at them. Inventory was knocked off the shelves at a Mongolian-American couple’s liquor store. Other store owners had rocks thrown at them. Those are just a few incidents of hateful rhetoric and violence directed at Coloradans of Asian descent that Fran Campbell, president and CEO of the Denver Asian Chamber of Commerce, has heard about since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
From The Denver Post:
…members of Colorado’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community say they’ve faced discrimination, vandalism and a drastic loss in business over the last year. Some local Asian American business owners waffle between not wanting to draw unwanted attention to themselves and needing to lure clientele back after a difficult financial year plagued by pandemic restrictions and customers whose biases kept them away.
About a month ago, Colorado Public Radio reported “Anti-Asian Hatred Has A Long History In The US, And In Colorado.” Three weeks ago, KOAA in the Springs reported this headline: “Colorado ranks 13th in the nation for violence and discrimination against Asian Americans.”
So it was in this atmosphere that a community newspaper, The Villager in Greenwood Village, thought it would be funny to publish a front-page April Fool’s Day article that the Denver Post reported “played on racist stereotypes of Chinese people.”
From The Denver Post’s Noelle Phillips:
The article, published on April 1 under the headline “America’s Largest Amusement Park Heads to Greenwood Village,” appears to be an attempt at satire — and is being widely condemned. The article makes jokes about Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus was first detected, uses Asian stereotypes such as chopsticks, and features jokes about Chinese people overrunning the school district and housing market. It also makes jokes about gun violence. The article, written under the byline “Loof Lirpa,” which is April Fool spelled backward, includes fake quotes from local public officials, although with altered name spellings.
The Post story about the foolish article rounds up outrage from community leaders who want an apology — and more. “We strongly suggest diversity training and hiring,” Fran Campbell, president and chief executive officer of the Asian Chamber of Commerce, told the Post. Cherry Creek Schools’ outgoing and incoming superintendents sent a letter to students and their families calling out the article for using “racist and xenophobic language” that is “harmful to the Asian American community.”
Outlets including CBS4, Denver7, and others reported on the Denver-area newspaper’s article and reaction to it.
The Villager has responded, saying, “In light of recent events and attacks on Asians, the paper sincerely regrets any insensitivities in the April Fools spoof.” And this week, the Post reported, The Villager “used its entire front page to respond to the criticism, although the statement did not offer an apology. The front page statement was signed by the Villager’s publishers, Bob and Gerri Sweeney.”
The Villager “will continue to use our platform of the free press to respectfully learn, grow, elevate, unite and better understand cultural traditions, perspectives, racial injustice and embrace positive dialogue, acceptance and understanding of all ethnicities, religions and cultures,” part of The Villager’s statement read.
Harry Budisidharta, director of Asian Pacific Development Center, launched an advertising boycott of the newspaper including a list of advertisers, their contact information, and a sample email template.
Sentinel Colorado editor Dave Perry penned a Thursday editorial saying The Villager’s April Fool’s edition “warrants more than just a call out.” He also sketched out the local landscape in which the latest racial controversy to engulf a Colorado news organization is taking place:
Greenwood Village is an enclave of about 16,000 people, of which about 94% consider themselves white, and most of the rest of the metro area would consider the residents there relatively wealthy. The average median household income is about $120,000, about double that of Aurora. The splotch of tony homes and upscale chain stores and eateries lies in the shadow of the Denver Tech Center. … One staffer at the Villager made it even worse by posting all over a local Asian magazine Facebook page, where readers were incensed by the failed Villager satire.
“I’m in the business of defending everyone’s expressed opinion, but not racism couched as humor,” Perry wrote. “If all of us don’t regularly push back hard against racism, now, it’ll never end.”
Questioning fact-leaky opinion pages
Colorado Newsline columnist Trish Zornio is hoping to spark a conversation about whether those who run newspapers should hold content in their opinion pages to the same journalistic standards as content in their news sections.
“For months, I’ve become increasingly salty as more and more patently false information gets published under the guise of ‘opinion’ in otherwise credible news sources,” she wrote for the nonprofit news outlet this week.
From the column:
In an age of heightened disinformation and political polarization, I strongly believe it’s time for newsrooms to accept full responsibility for their commentators. This includes applying basic journalistic standards such as essential fact-checking, citing or linking reputable sources and providing reasonable scope in making the argument. After all, if you have to fabricate or omit details to justify your argument, how worthy is your opinion to begin with?
More from Zornio:
This is where many of my colleagues will rightfully argue that opinion writers and newsrooms are separate entities — a standard practice which Newsline also adheres to. For this reason, they argue, opinion pages should not reflect on the integrity of the newsroom. After much reflection, I disagree. If newsrooms aren’t willing to accept responsibility for maintaining the factual accuracy and anti-discrimination practices for their commentators, why should the public trust that their news reporting criteria is substantially different?
That’s a fair question.
Reacting to her column, one reader wrote, “This is a conversation we desperately need to have,” to which Zornio replied that she hopes it “gets the ball rolling.”
I do, too. I’m curious about what journalists and others think about her argument in the abstract, especially in this scattered and fragmented new way citizens read the news (in stray bits and pieces captured across a constant feed) and how (or to what extent) they should consider an institutional brand stamp on content they consume.
More Colorado local media odds & ends
🖊️ Fill out this Colorado Resident Survey that includes questions like “What are some of the sources you rely upon for TRUSTWORTHY, LOCAL NEWS updates, information, and/or resources about your community?”
💥 Julio-César Chávez, a journalist and vice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said the group met with the parent company of Denver’s 9News and is “Happy to report that TEGNA is changing their language around immigration coverage and the guidance should go out tonight to news directors [and] will be shared with whole newsrooms over the coming days.”
⚔️ “Addressing the issue of fake news and misinformation falls to every citizen to combat the scourge of these phenomena,” writes Alfonzo Porter, editor of Denver Urban Spectrum.
💰 At least 30% of Colorado billionaires are or were in the media business, per the latest billionaire list at Forbes and rounded up by Westword.
📺 “Four new broadcasters have joined the Colorado Springs airwaves at two different TV stations,” The Gazette reports. “Meanwhile, a local anchor has bid adieu.”
🎙️ Gavin Dahl of KVNF public radio on the Western Slope interviewed Colorado College student Anya Steinberg about winning NPR’s national podcast challenge.
🎿 This ski season, “two of the four accidental ski deaths in Summit County (one each at Vail Resorts, Inc. properties Breckenridge Ski Resort and Keystone Resort) don’t appear to have ever hit the news,” wrote Kevin Fixler for the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. Summit Daily explored “the systemic lack of transparency surrounding accidental ski deaths in Colorado.”
💨 Denver-based David Sirota, “who runs the left-leaning investigative site The Daily Poster, said he was considering leaving [Substack] for Outpost, a system built on Ghost, because ‘we want our operation and our brand to stand on its own,’” reports The New York Times.
💪 Ari Armstrong reviewed Colorado’s media literacy bill for Complete Colorado, the news and commentary site of the libertarian Independence Institute.
📕 Colorado College Film & Media Studies Chair Scott Krzych recently published a book titled Conservative Media, Documentary Form, and the Politics of Hysteria. The project might have begun for him as a 12-year-old hearing Rush Limbaugh in the family car, he said during a recent virtual talk about it.
⚙️ Denver magazine 5280 is seeking “an innovative and creative digital editor to join its award-winning team.”
🍷 Denver journalist Chris Walker, who is listed as a freelance podcaster, is one of 28 project grantees across 16 states from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. “It’s another narrative podcast series, but this one has nothing to do with cannabis,” he tells me. “Instead it explores a scandal concerning a different vice: wine.”
🔎 The Colorado Springs Indy had to pay the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office $269 for a video and an Internal Affairs report for a recent Pam Zubeck story, and the city charged the paper $765 for records obtained for a separate cover story about local firefighters who have side hustles.
💉 Colorado Public Radio reported how “misinformation spread on Nextdoor” meant people in an Aurora neighborhood “could have missed a chance at a COVID vaccine.”
🎊 OutThere Colorado won the “best local website” award from the Local Media Association as part of its 2021 “Digital Innovation Awards” presentation. “Brands across the country were considered for the award, with OutThere Colorado competing in the ‘750,000 or more unique monthly visitors’ category.”
🎂 KRCC in Colorado Springs is about to turn 70. Professor Woodson “Chief” Tyree started the station in 1951 on the Colorado College campus as part of the Drama and Speech Department, wrote station manager Jeff Bieri this week. “And at the time, it was the first non-profit FM radio licensee in the state of Colorado. KRCC has been a beacon of learning and inspiration for Southern Colorado ever since.”
🚰 The Associated Press and the Walton Family Foundation announced this week “the creation of a new reporting team that will cover water issues in the U.S.”
I’m Corey Hutchins, instructor at Colorado College’s Journalism Institute, the Colorado-based contributor for Columbia Journalism Review’s United States Project, and a journalist for multiple news outlets. The Colorado Media Project, where I write case studies, is underwriting this newsletter, and my “Inside the News” column appears at COLab, both of which I sometimes write about here. (If you, too, would like to underwrite this newsletter, hit me up.) Follow me on Twitter, reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.