Selective scrutiny: Are Colorado journalists choosing who gets held accountable?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Complete Colorado

In a recent LinkedIn post, local Colorado media mascot animal Kyle Clark proclaimed, “Journalists just repeating what the powerful say isn’t news. And it’s not Next [Clark’s news magazine Next on 9News]. Next holds power to account, offering context and clarity that cut through spin and misinformation. It’s time for truth.”

Not too long after putting on his emphatic face and making his bold statement, Clark recorded a Next segment where I think it’s reasonable to say he didn’t quite hit his own mark.  In the segment, Clark amplified a piece written by Logan Davis of the Colorado Times Recorder (CTR) entitled  “EXCLUSIVE: Secret ICE Detention Facilities Exist Around Colorado, Data Shows.”  The Next segment also included some snippets of what was obviously an interview with Mr. Davis.

So did Clark really cut through spin?  Did he offer context, and hold power to account?

It’s not fair to say he never did. Clark is careful to note that CTR is a “progressive” news outlet (a label CTR self-applies), and he doesn’t follow Davis in using the erroneous “secret” label for the ICE substations around Colorado, though the insinuation is on display throughout the segment.

Still, Clark does leave out the fact that CTR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that doesn’t reveal their donors, nor does Clark actually question any of the several claims spun by CTR in their article. That CTR doesn’t reveal their donors seems like context that’s quite relevant. After all, there might be some powerful people with agendas hiding in there.

That he boosts CTR’s ideological “journalism” without challenging any part of it is a missed opportunity to “cut through spin.”

Further on in the segment, you get more of the same. Clark has no issue showing video statements made by Democrat politicians Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen about ICE and their substations, but neither he nor his reporter seem very interested in examining their claims, offering context, or cutting through their spin.

Perhaps Clark’s “holding power to account” depends on his whim.  Perhaps his words are more applause line than policy.

Speaking truth to (some) power

A natural extension of this idea would be to ask how well other media outlets around Colorado do at holding power to account. Obviously not every outlet makes the same claims as Clark, but, in one form or another, I frequently see media outlets talk about being watchdogs, or how they “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”.  Equally bold statements.

I think that in general, most media outlets (across the ideological spectrum) do this about as well as Clark. That is, sometimes what’s on the label matches what’s in the can and sometimes it doesn’t.

There is one notable general exception however, mainly in left-leaning media, and particularly in progressive nonprofit news outlets. Perhaps due to sympathy, other left-leaning nonprofits frequently are able to make claims that pass unexamined.  Examples are not hard to find.

Staying on the topic of ICE, multiple media outlets forwarded the claims made by immigration advocates Companeros, claims which included allegations of physical torture, seemingly without any effort to verify such claims.  More recently Denverite published a similar piece about the ICE detention facility in Aurora with equally large claims, and no verification.

A Colorado Sun series on child care recently started with an article which quotes liberally from the Colorado Children’s Campaign, whose multiple claims the Sun reporter lets pass unexamined.

It’s tempting to see nonprofits as a band of shaggy-dog, do-gooders operating out of a strip mall.  Real grassroots efforts, living on a shoestring and a dream, trying to make the world better.  How could they deserve the same scrutiny we’d give to politicians and billionaires?  Do they have power enough to warrant being held to account?

It turns out they do.  Companeros, by their most recent IRS filings, has $2.45 million in assets, and pulled in $775K in revenue for 2024. The report Denverite leaned on for their piece was written by several groups including Casa De Paz here in Colorado and the American Friends Service Committee.

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