The Colorado Independent - Latest Comments in ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:24:59 -0000

Wait . . . The Standing Committee that handles press credentials on Capitol Hill doesn't try to screen out publications that have an ideological agenda. Otherwise, many major publications sympathetic to both parties couldn't cover the beat. Obviously they do and are accredited in most cases.

What the Congressional standards are trying to prevent is lobbying under the guise of journalism. They don't aim at journalism that takes a form, or reflects an ideological hue, at odds with members of the Standing Committee's preferences.

Thus it is easy to see the distinction between what goes on with coverage of Congress and what the CCPA is and does.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:19:43 -0000

No . . . "Truthteller," I don't think anyone is arguing that objectivity should be abandoned. Nor is anyone arguing that it isn't important to strive for it, at least in circumstances where the publication for whom one works advertises itself as an impartial chronicler of the news.

What is being argued is this: one can be a journalist, and a damn good one, even if one is not impartial and even if one works for a publication that has a clear agenda.

Do you say that the great reporting done on the Vietnam War, for example, by David Halberstam was "objective?" Highly skilled, an indication of awesome talent, thorough, clear, yes, but objective, I think not. And nor should it have been. The problem that Halberstam and Neil Sheehan and others confronted was government deception. They saw it as their duty to be skeptical of that government.

The same approach should have a place at the press tables in the chambers at the Colorado State Capitol. When reporters become so devoted to "objectivity" that they lose the ability to inform the public or point out the dishonesty, cynicism or manipulation of facts that happens often in politics, they don't do their job well.

Moreover, sometimes it is the lack of objectivity itself that makes a good journalist. Do you suppose the editors and writers at The Nation or Mother Jones or Human Events would be motivated to explore the issues about which they publish, and to devote precious ink and space to them, if they didn't have an ideological commitment to those issues?

And it's naive to say that any of the major papers covering the Capitol are "objective." All of them have editorial philosophies which are reflected not only in the editorial pages but also in the choice of stories that are covered and even the way in which their reporters' stories are edited. Any reporter can tell you war stories about that particular situation.

This dispute is about protectionism, plain and simple. "Truthteller," you have to accept, whether you think it is a good thing or not, that the media in this country is changing. You can have a good argument about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but there can be no doubt that it is happening.

And once journalists and publications threatened by the evolution and trends in the industry actually enlist state help to try to blunt that change, then the free press itself is threatened. So is the profession's commitment to the free exchange of ideas in a society that has a political system dependent on that for its vitality and healthy functioning.

The CCPA is an over-reaction. Worse, it will not be effective. As Bob Egewen wrote elsewhere in this thread, a good reporter doesn't need access to the floors to find stories. So what's the point, exactly, other than to make a mountain out of molehill (namely, someone's gripe about Colorado Confidential) at the cost of the profession's ethics and the commitment of the reporters and media companies involved in creating the CCPA to free expression?

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:07:20 -0000

Thanks for the compliment Christine, thanks for the compliment about my criticism of the CCPA.

I have chosen not to provide my real name here because I am engaged in a project that involves covering the Capitol and, obviously, I don't want to needlessly antagonize those in the Capitol press corps that believe the CCPA is a good idea.

Suffice to say, I have experience covering state legislative matters.

I hope you and others in the Colorado Press Association might consider making a formal statement, even directed to Sen. Groff and Speaker Romanoff, indicating the problems with this whole approach.

Thanks for sharing your point of view.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Christine Tatum — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:25:12 -0000

Let's hope the CCPA goes away -- immediately This Colorado Capitol Press Association is so rife with problems it's hard to know where to begin criticizing it. Plenty of people -- particularly Bill Menezes and "CCJNew" -- have done a nice job of explaining why this group should be discredited and disbanded immediately.

I am pleased to see here input from Professor Philip Meyer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Norris has identified a passage from Professor Meyer's book, "The Vanishing Newspaper," that is worth plenty of discussion. Few things get journalists more riled up than his reference to a "professional apparatus." I stirred that debate on a blog I maintained last year while serving as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. For kicks, check out

http://spj.org/blog/...

And thanks, Cara DeGette, for your interesting story. As I read it, I certainly wasn't wondering whether you and Colorado Confidential deserve press credentials.

Christine Tatum

Immediate Past National President, Society of Professional Journalists

Assistant Features Editor/Online Features Editor, The Denver Post

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Wendy Norris — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 09:00:38 -0000

thank you for your comment Professor Meyer, I am particularly interested in this passage in your book:

Biologists and social scientists alike are starting to agree that moral systems are formed and persist because they have survival value for the social groupings that create them. Journalism's traditional value set was based on the economic and mechanical constraints of the newspaper business. New information technology is forcing us to experiment with new ways of working and that necessarily means experimenting with new ways of defining and organizing our occupational specialties.

...snip...

If journalism is to survive, it will need a professional apparatus as one of the tools in the fight. Trying to reform investors, editors and publishers is a good idea, but let's not wait for those people to change their ways. Those of us who practice or teach journalism at ground level will make progress with greater speed and certainty if we also organizer to reform ourselves. If we can do that, then the next generation of journalists will be ready to work when the process of natural selection chooses the new media forms where trust and social responsibility prevail.

Could you expand on that notion a bit, as it seems in this debate that "floor space" has become a convenient foil for the discomfort some in the traditional media have for their online peers?

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Bob Moore — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:50:38 -0000

A link to the Standing Committee's guidelines Professor Meyer points in a good direction. The CCPA has cited the congressional guidelines as an inspiration for its process. Here's a link to the congressional guidelines:

http://www.senate.go...

Compare those to the CCPA guidelines:

http://www.state.co....

The congressional rules are much simpler and lack language about "activity intended to influence elections or any matter before the General Assembly or before any independent agency ..." that in my opinion trigger all sorts of problems.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

pmeyernc — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:06:36 -0000

Philip Meyer Good discussion, but I didn't see any mention of the long-standing precedent set by the U.S. Congress. The Standing Committee of Corresponents goes back to the 19th Century and was created for the express purpose of disinguishing real journalists from advocates for narrow interests. Its history can be found in Donald Ritchie, "Press Gallery," Harvard University Press, 1991.

Members are elected by their peers and Congress has delegated to the committee the power to decide who sits in the Press Gallery. The committee has been slow to change with the times and was late in admitting, blacks, women, and online journalists. But it does adapt, and nobody has figured out a better system for allocating the limited space.

See also my "The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age," pp. 253-259.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Walter Abbott — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:48:31 -0000

License to Publish http://encarta.msn.c...

Henry VIII established a licensing system that resembled the prepublication censorship of Pope Innocent VIII. It required printers to submit all manuscripts to church authorities for their approval prior to publication. This licensing system continued in England until 1695. The English poet John Milton protested against such censorship in his classic essay Areopagitica (1644). Many English people associated licensing by church censors with ecclesiastical supervision, the Inquisition, and restraints on religion, education, and intellectual pursuits.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

DT — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:21:12 -0000

Chieftain unbiased? Please By Ashby's rules the Chieftain would certainly not be allowed attend Colorado Springs city council or utilities meetings. The public benefits from more voices and more access, not less. Maybe if the Chieftain had a real website and wasn't stuck in the paleozoic they'd understand. The "good old days" of daily newspapers are over, kids.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

bmenezes — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:26:11 -0000

Just how friendly of a relationship does the press have with the Colorado legislature?

Glad you asked. Here are some examples of how one statehouse beat reporter at a Denver daily has managed to carry the state GOP's water over the past year:

http://colorado.mediamatter...

Sadly, he's not the only one engaged in this type of "journalism" (Charles Ashby of the Pueblo Chieftain, one of the Capitol club "deciders", also is guilty) just one of the more frequent perpetrators...

Bill Menezes

Editorial Director

Colorado Media Matters

http://colorado.mediamatter...

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:04:22 -0000

Who Else? I guess that would also include the New York Times and the Washington Post, "truthteller," since, just in the last few years, those papers abandoned objectivity most clearly in the election of 2000, the run-up to the Iraq war, and the coverage of global climate change until about 2004 or so. These are just a very few examples of many, many instances where "mainstream" newspapers have overtly or covertly advanced a partisan or ideological agenda, and not just in their editorial pages.

To argue that the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Gazette, Durango Herald and Pueblo Chieftain have no ideological ax to grind in their coverage of the Capitol is, at best, naive and, at worst, deceptive.

Those publications are no more entitled to a presumption of neutrality than any blog. Besides, what's wrong with advocacy journalism? Mother Jones, The Nation, The New Republic, National Review, and many other respected periodicals and publications engage in it. So do the widely disseminated publications of many non-profit organizations and industry trade groups. Their ideological preferences, and editorial decisions that reflect them, do not cast doubt on the skill or integrity of the individual writers on their staff or on the journalistic worth of the publication itself.

Your argument is a red herring, designed to paper over the real motivation for the ridiculous CCPA protectionism. That motivation is nothing new: protect turf, limit competition, and thereby aim to prop up sales of the newspapers involved in a market where more and more people are turning away from printed newspapers (and their online cousins) and turning to more free-wheeling, focused or innovative electronic media.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Michel Marizco — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:06:32 -0000

Too cozy for their own good A group of reporters meeting with some politico to devise an exclusive group of journalists accredited between themselves?

Are you kidding?

Just how friendly of a relationship does the press have with the Colorado legislature?

If I had that close of a relationship with the federal agencies I cover, I wouldn't call myself a reporter. I'd be their spokesman.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

edward allen — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:54:08 -0000

edward allen Interesting issue, but the "press" has encountered it before when radio and then TV discovered the state legislature. Unreported in your story is how the legislature dealt with these issues in the past. You should also look at this from the side of the legislature. Lawmakers are interested in getting their stories out -- they are not making the floor open just for the benefit of the press. If the lawmakers find it in their interest to cater to local bloggers, etc., they will. The "press" does not own the capitol's galleries.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Bkt — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:07:39 -0000

Pre-Emptive War It's pretty obvious that this is just a thinly veiled pre-emptive strike against bloggers. No wonder no one takes the press seriously anymore.

These reporters should be embarassed.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

notachanceatall — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:25:31 -0000

Godslayer is a nutjob...... .....as reported here today. And that somehow makes it true???

Media Matters is just as slanted to the left as you all believe FOX NEWS is slanted to the right. .....Whatever????

Blecch.....

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

notachanceatall — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:20:53 -0000

Sheeple is... ...as sheeple does.

Eah Zappy baby

Media Matters a reliable source of information....HAH That is rich on so many levels. Chortle, chortle.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:30:01 -0000

Answer Wendy, it's a great question. But I think the answer has to be this: Whoever says they are.

The whole idea behind our nation's commitment to the freedom of the press was to prevent the kind of control over dissemination of information exercised not only by the British monarchy, but also by colonial guilds.

For a group of reporters, competent and respected and talented as they are, to say that others who write for a publication that editorializes or seeks to advance a set of political or philosophical ideas is to say that anyone working for an industry newsletter can't be a journalist. It's to say that anyone who writes an editorial column for a daily newspaper can't be a journalist. It's to say that anyone who writes a story for a magazine or newsletter published by a private organization trying to advance a cause can't be a journalist.

Let's not beat around the bush. The CCPA attempt to delineate who is and who is not a journalist seriously raises the risk of censorship and, maybe worse, enlists the subject those journalists are supposed to be writing about - namely, the state government and its agents and instrumentalities - in an effort to protect their exclusive contemporaneous access to legislators and key General Assembly staff.

This is, to my mind, a cure far worse than the problem. The solution to worries about giving a press credential to an organization with an identifiable ideological bent in its editorials or even in what it chooses to cover is to grant the credentials to other organizations with an opposite or differing point of view.

It was Justice Hugo Black, I think, who once said that objectionable speech can and should be countered with even more speech.

The principle holds here.

The writers at Colorado Confidential are journalists. Maybe some would say they're not "good" journalists, but that's a different question, isn't it?

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

CCJNew — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:19:50 -0000

A Cynical Overreaction I covered the Capitol for a major daily in this state last year and so I was there when the vitriol over Colorado Confidential's "audacity" broke out.

Bob Ewegen is right that there is a lack of space in the chambers and that a reporter doesn't need to be on the floor to do his or her job.

But that's not the point.

The point is that Charles Ashby, who has broadcast loudly his antipathy to any form of new media, wants to secure a privileged position for the old media in this state.

In doing so, he and the other four representatives of the news outlets in the CCPA have snookered the Senate president and the speaker into using state power to help them.

That's not only a bad idea, it is very likely unconstitutional. After all, the CCPA accreditation rules say that an applicant for a credential can't have an ideological agenda. But the outlets that sit on the CCPA board all editorialize on matters before the General Assembly and, to be blunt, some of those outlets take a thinly disguised partisan point of view.

Anyhow, I digress. If you are screening credential applicants for the supposed ideology they intend to advance in their writing, and you use the power of the state (exercised through Romanoff and Groff) to deny equal access to the floors, you're using state action to engage in content discrimination. That's a First Amendment problem.

The other problem with these new rules is that reporters can't always get into the gallery. For example, today there was a huge demand for press access to cover Ritter's address. But reporters couldn't carry their equipment (cameras, laptops) into the gallery without getting a CCPA pass, which in turn required filling out their application form. And the Sergeants-at-Arms, who are state employees, were being used to control press access and decide which journalists got passes and which journalists didn't.

Ashby & Co. have created a monster. I hope those of us that want to be free to cover the Capitol without joining a guild will get a meeting together and talk about whether it might be a good idea to ask a lawyer to write a letter pointing out the obvious constitutional problems.

It might also be good to remind Groff and Romanoff that they aren't making themselves look particularly thoughtful, at least on the issue of the free press, by going along with the reactionary "get a permit to be a journalist" scheme of the CCPA.

One more thought: the space problem can be solved via a lottery, so that all journalists have a shot at being on the floor instead of the "select" who are the CCPA. Or floor access could be eliminated altogether, as many other states have done.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

stagarite — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:09:57 -0000

Since when do the Shriners dictate who gets to wear a fez? More to the point, it sounds like the CCPA, an ad hoc group of paleo-media types, has organized to protect its perceived franchise. The problem is, interfering with somebody else practicing his trade exposes CCPA and its members to civil and statutory liability. Let's hope that these mastodons soon find themselves parties to a well-deserved lawsuit.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Truthteller — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:53:15 -0000

P.S. We have a republic, not a democracy.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Truthteller — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:14:29 -0000

OH, yeah, Zappaterro Like you're SO unbiased yourself.

:rolls eyes:

GMAFB.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

bmenezes — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:45:42 -0000

It's not about feelings, actually

It's about a small group of reporters with no accountability and a huge conflict of interest having decision-making authority (albeit limited) over who gets on the floor and who doesn't. That's the problem.

If, as Mr. Ewegen says, 95 percent of his job can be done from off of the floor, then one solution might be to bar floor access for all journalists, instead of having the Capitol club decide who stays or goes. I covered the Missouri state legislature for years with the Associated Press and the rules then (and now, probably) did not allow media on the House or Senate floors during legislative proceedings. And, just as Mr. Ewegen's extensive experience indicates, reporters who couldn't get on the floor had no trouble cultivating sources, getting interviews and other information, and otherwise covering the beat.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Bob Moore — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:47:38 -0000

No hurt feelings I respect Bob's opinion, but my objections had nothing to do with hurt feelings. The Coloradoan had no problem getting a credential. My concerns were fairly summarized by Cara in the story. I'd point out that under the rules adopted by the CCPA, credentials can't go to those who are seeking to influence legislation or state action. That's precisely what good columnists do, so the rules would preclude Bob and other good columnists from getting credentials (unless the rules were only selectively enforced.) The rules may be well intentioned, but they are poorly crafted and, in my opinion, cause more problems than they solve.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

Zappatero — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:04:47 -0000

As Colbert said: the facts are biased MM prints straight transcripts and lets winger words stand on their own. If they're embarrassed by them they shouldn't have said them in the first place.

Re: ‘Real’ Colorado Journalists Wear Purple

me2-14 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:36:50 -0000

Why I read Colo Confidential.... Bob is the reason I read Colo Confidential. Listen to the seasoned pro, guys!