Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers at the state Capitol rankled some journalists and their advocates when they chose Sunshine Week to pass a bill that exempted themselves from the state’s open meetings laws.

Despite pushback, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis swiftly signed the measure into law with a note basically saying it was none of his business.

Now, some members of the press corps fear lawmakers are doing just what opponents of the new law had warned.

The Colorado Sun reported this week that Democrats in the state Senate met with their caucus via Zoom. They were doing so in order to talk about “what would even be possible with schedules/logistics” involving property taxes and the state budget, the Sun reported in its subscription newsletter The Unaffiliated, citing a spokesperson.

The Sun “tried to attend the meeting, but was barred because legislation wasn’t going to be discussed and nothing is currently pending before the legislature,” the digital nonprofit newsroom reported, citing the same unnamed spokesperson.

“This was a meeting the public and journalists previously would have been entitled to attend,” said Jeff Roberts, director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, in a statement. “How,” he asked, “do we know lawmakers only discussed ‘schedules/logistics’ around property taxes and the state budget? Has anyone CORA’d for the Zoom recording, if it exists?

Democrats in the Colorado House held a similar meeting that journalists were not able to attend, according to media reports.

The recent developments led the Denver Post’s editorial board to slam the Democrats and their House leader. The editorial board had warned in an op-ed earlier this year that the new law would exempt too much of the legislature’s work.

From this Wednesday’s Post broadside:

If we are giving Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie the benefit of the doubt, the meeting — which was held remotely using a video meeting service and that several journalists unsuccessfully attempted to join — was merely to figure out the logistics of who would be available for such a special session and not to figure out who would vote yes on a detailed package to further reduce property tax increases.

However, a few days later, a nearly complete and thoroughly analyzed plan to adjust the law to bring another $270 million reduction in property taxes statewide was presented to the legislative committee responsible for studying property taxes during the interim. No alternative was discussed.

Colorado’s open meetings law is built on the premise that we shouldn’t have to trust lawmakers not to discuss public policy in private because meetings of a voting quorum will be open and honest. Coloradans approved the open meetings law in 1972, and the first paragraph says: “It is declared to be a matter of statewide concern and the policy of this state that the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Later in the column, the editorial read: “the development of the property tax cut proposal must happen in public, and we fear that a deal has already been reached among lawmakers in private making the special session irrelevant — a public show to make it seem like lawmakers are engaging the public when in reality the majority caucus has already decided.”

Governor Polis on Thursday called lawmakers back into a special session to cut property taxes that will begin Aug. 26. “The deal was negotiated behind closed doors in recent weeks among the governor’s office, Advance Colorado’s Michael Fields, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers,” the Sun reported.

Are the Post’s fears, informed by the paper’s previous fears, warranted?

If Democratic Colorado House lawmakers disagree with the Denver Post editorial about what they did in secret, you’d think they could release audio of the meeting and prove it pretty easily.

Speaker McCluskie did not respond to a text message Wednesday asking to talk about the editorial. Jarrett Freedman, the communications director for the House Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday the Speaker was traveling and unavailable for a phone call. Subsequent attempts Thursday seeking an interview via email were unsuccessful and Freedman did not respond to a question about releasing audio of the meeting.

Marianne Goodland, who is dean of the Capitol Corps and reports for Colorado Politics, said on social media this week that she had written “extensively” about the new law when legislators were debating it earlier in the year.

So much so, she said, that Senate Democratic President Steve Fenberg “chewed on me several times for reporting that meetings would take place out of public eye, which he said would never happen.” Goodland added: “The Dems have proven me right, to my dismay.”

Democrats in Colorado control both chambers of the legislature by a healthy margin. The party holds the governorship and all statewide constitutional offices.

FOX 31 morning anchor Ashley Ryan leaves citing sleep issues

Following three years on the morning news desk for FOX 31 KDVR in Denver, Ashley Ryan told viewers that a certain issue has forced her from the anchor chair.

The award-winning journalist with a young child at home said issues involving sleep began about two years ago after moving to Colorado from Oklahoma where she was an evening anchor. But in recent months, it “kind of got to a scary point,” she said in a broadcast last week.

So Ryan went on medical leave for nearly a month to focus on her health and her relationship with the Sand Man. Things got better. She found herself able to get six hours of shuteye a night.

But last week, when she returned to morning TV screens across Denver, she told viewers they wouldn’t see her for long. Last Thursday was her final day at KDVR so she can continue to fix her sleep issues.

“I’ve read countless books, worked with several specialists, and consumed as much information about insomnia as possible,” she said on Instagram. “Sleeping 0-3 hours simply isn’t sustainable and my body proved that in some scary ways.”

For years, some morning news anchors have spoken about the demanding schedule.

Some have talked about hitting the hay between 5:30 p.m. and 6 in order to get a full night’s sleep and taking magnesium. Several years ago, a magazine did a whole story on the “insanely early morning routines of America’s favorite newscasters.” Some morning news personalities have turned to prescription sleep medication.

While a three-week break was helpful, “I guess I’m just no match for the 2:30 a.m. alarm clock,” Ryan said on air during her goodbye broadcast.

She added about the work-life balance: “Health and family come first.”

On ‘advocacy and true journalism’ in Denver arts coverage

Loyal readers of this newsletter will recall a May story by Denver Gazette arts writer John Moore in which he lamented the diminished nature of arts coverage in Denver.

When I wrote about it, the coverage earned a comment from Alex Miller, a former editor of Vail Daily who also worked in PR and now runs a digital publication.

“OnStage Colorado, the site I’ve been building over the past five years, is aimed specifically at filling the gaps in arts coverage left by newspapers,” he wrote.

Here’s more from Miller’s comment:

We’re focused on theatre for the moment but looking to scale this model to include all kinds of live performance and arts coverage. We’ve already started gaining some ad revenue from theatres and I truly believe that as we grow we can create opportunities for paying arts journalist[s] while creating that one-stop place for all the coverage as suggested. Once the cornerstone content is in place, we can then continue expanding how we share it in places beyond the site itself because we know not all audiences are in the same place anymore!

This week, Moore profiled Miller, 60, and OnStage Colorado where Miller and his “10 volunteer editorial contributors are on pace to produce 200 generally encouraging reviews of Colorado theater productions in 2024 — which, he accurately states, ‘is about a bazillion more than anybody else does.’”

The sub-headline of Moore’s piece reads “Journalist and theater fan’s startup website offers comprehensive guide and raises questions.”

Those questions pertain to the business model of journalistic enterprises where financial support tends to come from those involved in what they cover because of the niche nature of the product.

Here are some excerpts from the column:

• If you are the type who gets caught up in the whole, “Is this journalism or is this marketing?” question, Miller gets that, too. The question that matters most is whether what’s clearly good for the theater company is also good for the everyday theatergoer who has traditionally relied on criticism to both steer them toward what they should see — and away from what they might fairly miss.
• Miller freely admits that OnStage Colorado blurs the line between advocacy and true journalism – and he’s well aware of the landmines and the opportunities that come with both.
• [T]he spine of OnStage Colorado remains its multitudinous stage reviews, which is, where Miller admits, things get a bit squishy.
• OnStage’s collective reviews are almost always reliably positive.
• And that generally favorable light has helped make Miller and his team welcome and deeply appreciated in nearly every theater in the state. And well-clicked. It also has helped him to start to monetize his website, which is the ultimate sign of credibility and potential staying power.
• But those advertisers are largely the very same companies he covers, including the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Aurora Fox and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company.It’s, again … tricky.

“As someone who grew up in a newsroom culture where we called the advertising department ‘the ad slime,’ I get it,” Miller told Moore for the story. “But I definitely make it clear that just because you are buying an ad doesn’t mean you’re going to get a review – or a good review. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more inclined to make sure that I covered the theaters that are also buying ads. And then again – I probably would be covering them anyway.”

As legacy news organizations continue to retrench, audiences are going to encounter different kinds of niche news and information arrangements more and more, so understanding how they operate is useful.

In Colorado, we’re seeing some notable models emerge beyond just the theater scene.

Consider Colorado Springs where Matthew Schniper, who covers the city’s food-and-drink industry for his Side Dish newsletter, has come up with creative sponsorships in order to pay himself what he has called a “real salary” instead of working “full-time-plus hours for barely part-time pay.”

When telling his readers about the details of his Side Dish Dozen “sponsorship club,” Schniper wrote about “transparency and tightrope walking … related to potential conflict of interest.”

Disclosure is always key. Your audience should be able to take that into account when you’re providing coverage people need or want — and can’t get anywhere else.

➡️ As a new board member of the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro chapter, I’d like to invite you to join the nation’s foremost organization for journalists. SPJ is a fierce national advocate for First Amendment rights, journalistic ethics, and other values important to a free and vital press. The Colorado Pro chapter offers professional training programs and events, including the four-state Top of the Rockies competition, the region’s broadest platform for honoring journalism excellence. We’re making plans for a regional conference next spring. And each year, the chapter provides thousands of dollars in scholarships to the young journalists of tomorrow. At a time when journalists are under fire from all sides, joining SPJ is your chance to make a stand for journalism. Learn more about the chapter here, and find out how to join here. ⬅️

RE-BUFFED: Coach Prime vs. Colorado media

Prominent University of Colorado Boulder football coach Deion Sanders really got into it this week with some of the locals who cover him and his team.

In a testy press conference during the school’s annual sports media day, Sanders brushed off KCNC’s Eric Christensen of CBS Sports Colorado, refusing to engage with him because the coach apparently did not appreciate something the national CBS network had done.

“I’m here in Denver not national,” Christensen responded when Sanders cut him off by saying he wouldn’t have anything to do with CBS. (CBS had recently ranked Sanders the second-worst coach in the Big 12 and reported on his son’s bankruptcy.)

“You are who you are,” said Sanders, whose nickname is Coach Prime. “CBS is CBS.”

Guilt by affiliation. This is something plenty of reporters for local FOX affiliates have likely had to deal with: someone conflating, say, FOX21 in the Springs with, you know, Fox News.

But Christensen wasn’t alone.

Sanders also ripped into Denver Post sportswriter Sean Keeler, insinuating the columnist does not like the team and is “always on the attack.” Sanders repeatedly asked Keeler why he would cover a team he didn’t like. “Why do you do this to yourself?” he asked. “What does it do for you?”

Keeler tried to engage, but Sanders wasn’t having it. So the columnist responded in print — with, shall we say, a very critical Aug. 10 column. Here’s an excerpt:

This was Desperate Deion, a man who stared into the future and saw 5-7 staring back. This was Nebraska Deion. As in, Deion from the Nebraska postgame news conference in Lincoln. After the Buffs drop another heartbreaker.

This was a side of Sanders the Front Range hadn’t seen before. A confident man who suddenly looked and acted and sounded … afraid. Afraid of critics. Afraid of the truth. Afraid of bad news looming like a tsunami at its crest.

During the same press conference, Sanders cut off an Associated Press reporter for using the term “bolstered” about his offensive line, saying he didn’t know what it meant and that the reporter could have said “improved.” He then took issue with a question about team “chemistry,” asking what that meant. Gesturing to the press corps, the coach said, “You guys work together, you don’t like each other most of you.”

Journalists and sports figures inside and outside of Colorado took notice.

“I’m not going to act like Deion hasn’t been a source of national criticism since he’s been at CU — he obviously has been — but it’s weird to see him lash out like this at the local media, which I’ve found to be even-keeled, if not outright fawning, with its coverage of him,” said Denver-based USA TODAY sportswriter Craig Meyer.

Pat Rooney, who covers the team for the Buff’s hometown newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera, called the news conference a “circus” and said the coach’s “us-against-the-world approach only adds to pressure for [an] unproven team.”

Rooney, however, also offered this in a column:

Granted, some recent headlines have to have been frustrating for Sanders and his team. The recent Athlon report describing an off-the-rails culture was irresponsible. As was the report earlier this year that safety Shilo Sanders would miss the bulk of the season due to an injury. If it was my son’s health being referenced incorrectly, or my team’s collective character being questioned, I’d be fuming too.

The press conference this week has clearly rankled some who cover Sanders. (Rooney even published a line you’d expect straight from coverage of Donald Trump: “Everything is a conspiracy. Everything is a grievance.”)

“He’s coming off just like he’s trying to intimidate and push around anybody who dares to ask him a question,” sports anchor Scotty Gange said about Sanders on 9NEWS.

Vic Lombardi of Altitude TV had a take that was illustrative about the world of sports media that includes credentialed reporters like those from the AP to fan sites, independent content creators, and anyone with a microphone or video camera who can type out the word podcast.

“The problem with covering Prime,” Lombardi said, “is most of the media that covers Prime – and I’m not trying to offend anybody here, and if I do, I don’t give a shit — most of the media that covers Prime kisses his ass and basically bends over backwards and will never say anything to fall in disfavor.”

Maybe not this week, anyway.

More Colorado media odds & ends

⛰ Register now for next Friday’s Summit in Denver hosted by Colorado Media Project, which underwrites this newsletter. There, funders, partners, and community members will review progress, share learning, and workshop “new ideas for continuing to build a more functional, resilient, and inclusive public square for all Coloradans, both online and IRL.”

🗞 Incoming Colorado College student Beau Toepfer wrote about his summer interning at The Aspen Times where he says he experienced ageism. “One of the biggest takeaways of this job is people’s innate untrustworthy attitude toward the press. That was only compounded by my age,” he wrote. “People can’t seem to believe I’m a reporter and not trying to pull their leg. Several times I’ve been met with the same lines: ‘How old are you? I thought you were older on the phone.’ ‘So how did you get this job again?’ ‘Do you have any way to prove to me you’re actually a reporter?’”

🌟 Current, the nonprofit outlet that covers public media, chose Hayley Sanchez, 29, of Colorado Public Radio as one of 35 rising stars across the country. Her advice for public media leaders is “Listen to your staff. It’s not hard to be a good manager or leader if you listen and are human. Take accountability when warranted, and advocate for your employees.”

👀 University of Colorado Democratic Regent Wanda James had some questions on Twitter/X for Denver journalist David Sirota, who founded the award-winning investigative news site The Lever. “Are you saying that what you do is actual journalism? And by whose standards?” she asked. “White men living in a Colorado bubble of mostly white people?” Her comment came in response to a post from Sirota lamenting that “it’s wild to try to do actual journalism in a world where just a jacket gets 5,000 retweets” after seeing a post on the platform about Kamala Harris wearing Team USA clothing rack up so many views. (Sirota likened Wanda’s comment to “Elected officials trying to publicly de-credential journalists,” which he called “disgusting.”)

💨 Sarah Bures, the audience editor for Colorado Public Radio, is leaving the station for London next month. This her last week. For the past three years, the editor has handled CPR’s daily emailed newsletter, The Lookout. “I leave you in good hands,” she wrote in the Aug. 14 edition. “My CPR News colleagues will continue to bring you the Colorado news you need to know, as well as delightful stories that you didn’t know you needed to know.”

🐅 To what extent do we think reporters quoting Dan Gates in Colorado news stories about a ballot measure to ban hunting bobcats, lynx, and mountain lions should note that he’s the president of the Colorado Trappers & Predator Hunters Association? This week, a news story in Colorado Politics quoted him only as someone “who has been active in Colorado conservation efforts for over three decades.” That’s accurate, sure, but isn’t the important context that he’s leading the campaign against the ballot measure?

🗣 Joe Arney spoke to University of Colorado Boulder journalism professor Angie Chuang about Donald Trump’s interview on stage at a recent conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. “She said there’s a clear generational divide separating older journalists—who see their role as objectively reporting what newsmakers say—and younger ones who want to challenge lies and hate speech,” Arney wrote.

🏆 University of Colorado Boulder doctoral student Muhammad Ali was among the school’s journalism students and faculty “recognized with best paper awards at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place Aug. 8 to 11 in Philadelphia,” Iris Serrano wrote for the university. All told, CU Boulder’s journalism department “won five awards and presented 47 peer-reviewed papers at AEJMC.”

➡️ Make sure you’re reading the Denver PR Blog by PR pro Jeremy Story who writes an item called “Who had the worst week?” (I got an idea for one of the items in this week’s newsletter from it.)

🔎 University of Denver journalism professors David Coppini and Kareem El Damanhoury led a recently published audit of newsroom diversity and other issues in New Jersey for the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. One finding: “Nearly a quarter of respondents reported earning less than $40,000, while 28 percent earned $80,000 or more.”

📱 Reporters Hannah Metzger of Westword and Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton from the Denver Post “have both been reporting on dating” in the Mile High City and have “some interesting insights into how people are — or aren’t — having luck finding partners,” City Cast Denver reported. The two joined host Bree Davies on the podcast to “dig into why the apps aren’t always the place to be and how much this city’s stereotypes can help or hinder singles looking to make meaningful love connections.”

I’m Corey Hutchins, co-director of Colorado College’s Journalism Institute and a board member of the state Society of Professional Journalists chapter. 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.) Reply or subscribe to this weekly newsletter here, or e-mail me at CoreyHutchins [at] gmail [dot] com.