When the News is the New News

[Originally published in The Voluntaryist, by Paotie Dawson)

In the Pikes Peak region over the last couple weeks, public angst over local media outlets reached a crescendo when John Weiss, owner and publisher of the Colorado Springs Independent, led a public protest against the Gazette, the city’s only daily newspaper. Blog posts from the Independent reflect a deep-seated animus towards the conservative daily. Reading both newspapers’ social media accounts suggests public opinion regarding either news outlet varies by the hour, though it is common to see folks cheer one outlet while jeering the other.

Unfortunately, the reality of the media wars in the Pikes Peak region is a bit different than what the Indy would have you believe. While it is true the Gazette uses its media presence to influence public support for its political ideals, the Independent’s owners do the same in Manitou Springs, albeit in a different format with profound consequences for the city, its public officials and the public they serve.

A lack of a true, journalist-based outlet has led to widespread political apathy and extreme political polarization within the city. While a majority of folks in the city are active in terms of state and national politics, they don’t go to local meetings or city council sessions, nor do they particularly have any form of objective news to depend on to make informed decisions. Only the Manitou Marquee has produced quality journalism regarding a single bridge (a story the Bulletin ignored, too.) Meanwhile, the city websites provide difficult-to-access information, and city officials have adopted the tactic of demanding folks sign up for “interviews” to discuss anything related to city government, further compounding the lack of information available to the public.

For years, the Pikes Peak Bulletin printed mainly pro-government articles friendly to the whims and plans of bureaucrats. That hasn’t changed; but what has changed in the last couple years is the Bulletin’s expansion of its already pro-government views, a direct result of Weiss’ purchase of the Bulletin. This is in sharp contrast to how the Independent, the Bulletin’s sister newspaper, operates in Colorado Springs as a single reporter provides comprehensive, critical and sometimes challenging coverage of most city council and governmental activities.

Rather than face potential transparency and accountability measures, Manitou Springs politicians know they can depend on the Bulletin to play defense, protect their plans, and attack (and even ignore) those who challenge city officials. A terrible consequence of this has been total indifference by too many bureaucrats and city officials, including the mayor, towards the general public. Conversely, this reinforces the general public apathy and frustrations towards the local government.

For too long, the Gazette has dominated politics in the Pikes Peak region. It favors cronyism and boondoggle projects that reward their political friends. They print what would otherwise be known as fake news stories regarding recreational marijuana and frequently cater to the Reefer Madness crowd in holy pursuit of outlawing the harmless plant. And this is to say nothing of the outrageously bad idea called the City for Champions project in Colorado Springs the Gazette continues to push.

But I live in Manitou Springs, and my focus today is on my city. The Gazette rarely publishes anything regarding city government in Manitou Springs, as do many of the other Colorado Springs television and radio outlets. I have no real beef with the Gazette with regards to Manitou Springs, other than not doing enough reporting. But the Bulletin is a different story altogether, especially since it concerns its owners and editors are part of their own news stories.

In 2015, I ran for City Council in Manitou Springs and was invited to a candidate forum at a local and private inn. As part of accepting the invitation, I requested signed language interpreters (I am deaf) to assist me during the forum. For weeks leading up to the forum, Ralph Routon published columns in the Bulletin, bragging about how he would “help a candidate” by providing signed language interpreters to the forum.

What he didn’t tell his audience was the fact the Bulletin sent an underling to Manitou Springs City Council to plead poverty and request city funds to pay for the signed language interpreters. In fact, at the conclusion of the meeting, I approached City Attorney Jeff Parker and asked him how he could support funding the interpreters for what was essentially a private event held on private property (he expressed surprise and acknowledged I made a great point; when he asked why I didn’t tell the Council the same thing, I replied, “Nobody asked me.”)

But it should be noted the Independent routinely projects an image of helping marginalized and poor communities, and Mr. Routon’s attempt at doing the same for me presents a problem: there were no signed language interpreters at the forum, which put me into a rather difficult spot. More striking, it seems Mr. Routon is incapable of understanding the position I found myself in without any signed language interpreters. Compassion and empathy may not be Mr. Routon’s strong points.

In fact, when it was pointed out there were no interpreters at the forum, Bulletin staffers, including Mr. Routon, did nothing. They continued eating their meals. While Mr. Routon would later give me a handwritten list of questions to be asked of all the candidates, only a Citizen’s Project (which co-hosted the forum) employee went to the Bulletin staff and informed them they needed to provide the interpreters or face legal consequences. Long story short: I opted to stay at the forum and participated as best I could. (In hindsight, I should have left but that’s another story for another day.) I will forever be grateful to the Citizen’s Project for advocating on my behalf that night at the candidate forum.

I have never received an apology from Mr. Routon, nor has he ever printed an apology or taken accountability for his failure to live up to his own promises. More importantly, his failure constituted news, but because he was part and parcel of that failure, the Bulletin (and the Independent) did not report news created by its own editorialist.

So I read with interest a recent Independent article in which Mr. Routon states, writing about errors and biases at the Gazette, “ … reflects on every editor on the staff, especially when we've still not seen any kind of correction in print.”

Right. So, where’s your correction, Mr. Routon? You know, it is a bit of interesting news when a newspaper columnist brags about doing something for weeks and then fails to deliver, and even more striking, fails to be compassionate or empathetic about the person(s) impacted by his failure, and this is a guy who claims to help marginalized and poor communities. I am of those communities, too.

So, while Colorado Springs rages into the night over which newspaper is worst, the Gazette or the Independent, in Manitou Springs, we do not have such a wonderful luxury. We constantly fight to have our city government be more transparent, accountable, and provide a true service for the community. What does the Bulletin do in that regard? It refuses to bite the hand that feeds it.

I have hope, though: through the years, there have been numerous attempts at citizen journalism and blogging, and as previously mentioned, the relatively new Manitou Marquee, in addition to the Front Range Voluntaryist, are signs that the existing media power structure, as it were, is being challenged across the Pikes Peak region.

And that’s a great thing because voters, residents and stakeholders in the Pikes Peak region deserve information from different viewpoints and not just those from the two major newspaper outlets who seem content to manipulate the public to serve the publishers’ political goals. No real shocking news here.

But someone should remind the Independent they are the weekly version of the Gazette.