The Howard Beale Index?

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Feb 10, 2012 at 08:49:08 AM MST

Then, from the darker side of The Post, Editorial Page Editor Curtis Hubbard, wrote on The Post's Spot blog, that he has a "hunch" that FOX 31's Eli Stokols' strategy of calling Mitt Romney out for avoiding the press in Colorado will pay off. Hubbard wrote:

Eli throws a bomb: I don't know that I've ever seen a reporter publicly criticize a campaign for their media strategy/declining interview requests. Fox 31′s Eli Stokols didn't hold back in his criticism of the Romney camp today. Just a hunch, but I bet his strategy pays off.

Reporter doubts he'll go "all Howard Beale" but his slam of Romney silent treatment is great anyway

by: Jason Salzman

Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 14:39:50 PM MST

For example, as I've discussed before, when politicians slam the "media" or "The Denver Post," as having a liberal bias, reporters should ask them for the evidence, not act as if an insult has not been hurled at them.

And when political candidates like Mitt Romney slide into Colorado, take questions from friendly talk-show hosts, and slide away, journalists should call them out on it--so we are informed that a candidate is avoiding questions but also so we know that journalists are trying to do their jobs, to ask questions on our behalf.

You'd think most journalists would agree, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Otherwise you'd see more journalism, like the kind Fox 31's Eli Stokols produced today, in the form of an "Open Letter to Team Romney."

Zappolo mixes light touch with good questions in interview with Coffman on SS and flat tax

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Dec 08, 2011 at 12:29:31 PM MST

Kelley let it fly by, but I thought this should have been picked up by journalists, since it came from Coffman, especially given that Rick Perry, who was surging at the time, had just called Social Security a ponzi scheme.

After I posted it on my blog, Coffman's comment was reported by national blogs and, later, by a Post columnist, but not a single reporter asked Coffman to comment further.

Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, I missed an subsequent interview in October with Coffman on Fox 31's Zappolo's People, a weekly interview program that airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Channel 31.

Fox 31 anchor Ron Zappolo usually asks his guests tough questions, so the show has an underlying edge, but his questions are often sufficiently surrounded with light chatty stuff that his interviewees don't get defensive; they answer with more honesty than they otherwise might, like on a lot of talk radio.

In this segment of the Coffman interview, Zappolo begins by shaking his finger at Coffman and smiling to Coffman and into the camera, as if Coffman were an old friend:

Zappolo: You are never afraid to say controversial things.

Coffman: It's true.

Zappolo: I'll give you just a couple. You went on somewhere the other day and said that Social Security is a ponzi scheme. You've also talked about how all ballots should be in English. Correct?

Coffman: Right.

Zappolo: Do you ever think about, as a politician, some of these things, I might be better off steering away from?

Coffman: You know, no. [smiles] My staff wishes I would. [laughs]

Zappolo: The honesty comes out. [laughs]

Coffman: But I don't. The thing with Social Security. I think it is, although I agreed with ponzi.

Zappolo: You scared people in your district who are 65 and over.

Coffman: I think a lot of people, and I made my best effort to get them to understand. Quite frankly, the program is going to be there for them. It's just the younger generation that it's not going to be there for. And so the sooner we can reform it, and I think if we reformed it it now, I think there are analyses that say for people 55 and older, we can leave it the same. For 55 and younger we are going to have to phase up the age up to age 70 to make it work. And so I think we can certainly make it work.

Chain restaurants are heavy backers of campaign opposing sick days, say sick-day supporters

by: Jason Salzman

Wed Oct 26, 2011 at 07:44:23 AM MST

As Fox 31 reported:

On Tuesday, supporters argued that [the opposition to paid sick days] is not a mom-and-pop opposition campaign, noting that more than $250,000 of the $645,270 raised is money coming from out of state.

"Many of the local restaurants that have contributed to the campaign against the paid sick days initiative are part of large, profitable national chains, including Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Buffalo Wild Wings and Morton's of Chicago," states a press release from the Campaign for a Healthy Denver.

...."This is one more stunt from a group that has received 99.7 percent of their funding from a special interest group in Milwaukee to bring an initiative Denver small businesses uniformly say our economy can't afford," said George Merritt, the opposition's spokesman. "Walk the local shops in LoDo, on Tennyson, South Pearl and East Colfax and they plead with you to vote "No" on initiative 300."

Coverage also appeared in the Denver Business Journal and The Denver Post.