Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Colorado media

How a youth trap shooting story became a debate over gun policy
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How a youth trap shooting story became a debate over gun policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The Colorado Sun article linked first below is nominally about high school kids, trap shooting, and teaching young ones how to be responsible around guns. The subhead illustrates pretty well: “Schools in mostly rural counties are building high school shooting teams that teach kids discipline, focus, camaraderie — and most important, how to handle a gun safely.” Perfectly fine topic. I like the topic, and I like that the Sun is looking outside the metro area to bring interesting stories back to that region, something that they do regularly if I’m going to be fair to them. If the Sun reporter stayed with the topic of the subhead, if she had focused on what is an unusual sport and how it’s helping youngsters...
Read More
Before the funding push: How Colorado’s childcare case is being built
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Before the funding push: How Colorado’s childcare case is being built

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The building of the childcare narrative, ahead of a taxpayer funding push This is a lengthy story, so I want to start with a quick introduction/overview. There is a push to get government to pay for (and/or perhaps operate?) childcare in Colorado. I am sure that the policy moves will be in the legislature and/or on the ballot soon enough, but you and I are lucky enough to be witness to it in its infancy. We are lucky enough to see the narrative being built from the ground up. What I have for you today is a couple of posts falling loosely into the categories of “how do the media work in concert with market research and evaluation consultants to help drive your opinions?” and then “how are the high ups in...
Read More
When everything is a crisis, nothing is
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

When everything is a crisis, nothing is

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project How many crises does Colorado have? I don’t know that I can count them all for you, but to give you a sense, I did a Google site search for four major Colorado media outlets: The Denver Gazette, Colorado Politics, CPR, and Colorado Sun. If you’re curious to tool around in there, you’ll find the searches linked below in that same order. We apparently are beset by crises. A quick survey through the first four links below shows a climate crisis, a budget crisis, a Colorado River crisis, a mental health crisis, a healthcare crisis, a childcare crisis — the list goes on. I am not surprised by advocates and politicians using the word crisis. The fifth link below is to Senator Hickenlooper’s Twitter feed and, sure e...
Read More
Critics say Denver Post coverage skews ICE arrest data
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Critics say Denver Post coverage skews ICE arrest data

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project There’s one group the lefty press hardly checks: nonprofits Local media spirit animal Kyle Clark recently said: "Journalists just repeating what the powerful say isn’t news."Agreed. The media shouldn't be, but all to often are, merely scribes.Thing is, Clark and others have a spotty record at checking the powerful. In particular, they do a terrible job of checking the powerful nonprofits that have so much influence here in Blue Colorado.More on that topic in my recent op ed below.https://completecolorado.com/2026/03/23/colorado-press-selectively-holds-power-to-account/ The Denver Post’s Klamann and fun with statistics In the previous post today, I shared a recent op ed about how the lef...
Read More
Selective scrutiny: Are Colorado journalists choosing who gets held accountable?
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

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 N...
Read More
Follow the funding: Commentary examines Gary Community Ventures media grants and Colorado Sun coverage
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Follow the funding: Commentary examines Gary Community Ventures media grants and Colorado Sun coverage

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project An example of the coverage Gary Community Ventures (GCV) supported This post is a continuation of a series on the media grants issued by Gary Community Ventures. The first link below is to Monday’s newsletter, the previous installment. It will have a link to the first installment in it. In today’s post, I want to look at the coverage that GCV paid for, specifically the efforts by the progressive outlet Colorado Sun. In previous posts, I mentioned how the Colorado Sun raised their hand when GCV asked if anyone would like grant money to fund coverage on childcare in Colorado. I also mentioned how the Colorado Media Project (CMP, and some of its consultants like journalism professor Corey H...
Read More
Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado Times Recorder (CTR), Hutchins, the Gazette, and Glass Houses There was an interesting bit in Journalism Professor Corey Hutchins' media newsletter recently. That newsletter is linked first below and the quote I reference is attached as screenshot 1. Because pictures don't have working links, I put the CTR article Hutchins links to second below for convenience's sake. Both the CTR piece and Hutchins blurb are pretty chatty, as much about the insider ball of producing news as anything, but a quote from the CTR piece helps point to another dynamic I think is at play here. It's subtle, stay with me.Copied here with link intact:"Criticizing the Gazette newspapers isn’t something loc...
Read More
Senator Sullivan’s “just another form” gun law remark goes unchecked by media as sheriffs warn of crippling costs
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Senator Sullivan’s “just another form” gun law remark goes unchecked by media as sheriffs warn of crippling costs

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Senator Sullivan's dismissive rhetoric goes unchecked by the liberal media Let me start with a quote from Post "reporter" Nick Coltrain's article linked at bottom. "SB-3 does prohibit the sale of many semiautomatic weapons -- unless the purchaser has completed a firearm education course. The bill was heavily amended while it made its way through the legislature and Sullivan now describes it as a 'permit-to-purchase' law. People who follow the law haven’t lost access to anything in recent years -- and won’t under this law, Sullivan said. But laws need to change as society changes, he said. Sullivan likened the new gun laws to the shift toward widespread adoption of seatbelts in cars a few generations ago. It didn’t ha...
Read More
Hutchins: ‘Free press under fire’ isn’t just a panel title—it’s reality
No Comments
Substack, Approved, Local

Hutchins: ‘Free press under fire’ isn’t just a panel title—it’s reality

By Corey Hutchins | Commentary, Inside the News in Colorado, Substack The free press is under fire. That was the theme of a public discussion in Colorado Springs about the ways in which the local journalism industry operates during a time of, shall we say, disruption. On the panel was 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. Will Stoller-Lee, the program chair for the Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance, moderated the discussion at the Ent Center for the Arts on the campus of UCCS. Topics ranged from bias and diversity in newsrooms to attacks from Republican Pres...
Read More
Boulder Weekly shuts down publication for first time in 32 years amid internal revolt
No Comments
Substack, Approved, Local

Boulder Weekly shuts down publication for first time in 32 years amid internal revolt

By Corey Hutchins | Inside the News in Colorado, Substack The news behind the news in Colorado This week, as the nation’s annual conference for alternative weekly newspapers was convening in Madison, Wisconsin, one of its Colorado members was imploding. Shay Castle, who had been editor of Boulder Weekly for just under two years, said on July 2 that the paper’s owner, Stewart Sallo, had fired her. A week later, things utterly collapsed at the free alt-weekly that has served the city since 1993. “The newsroom is gone,” Castle said over the phone this Tuesday. “All four of us are gone.” While the paper typically comes out on Thursdays and populates news racks around Boulder County, this week those racks are empty for the first time in 32 years. No Big Goodbye, no...
Read More