March 17, 2015 02:04 PM UTC

Damn You, Politico!!!

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Columbia Journalism Review takes a look at the departure of Fox 31’s Eli Stokols for Politico — and what it means for his Sunday public affairs show #COPolitics:

…his departure will leave a noticeable hole in coverage of politics and policy in Colorado, and his own station isn’t sure yet how it might be filled.

“I’m not positive what we will do when he leaves. Still working on that,” said Holly Gaunt, the news director and vice president for KDVR and its sister station KWGN. “Covering politics will still be important to us, but at this stage I don’t know how things will shake out.”…

…And since he’ll be assessing day-to-day Colorado news from the perspective of a consumer rather than a producer, I asked what he hopes to see more of when he’s gone. More enterprise coverage, for one, he said. (I agree.)

And, he added, “I’d like to see people here be a little tougher on some of the people that we cover. I don’t know if I saw that enough in the campaign coverage last year. There seems to be a reluctance to hold people accountable for policy positions. [Pols emphasis]

“I think for the most part people here do a good job,” he continued, “but I think it’s tough when you have these relationships and you’re everybody’s friend to really bang peoples’ heads around because you don’t want to do it. There’s always that catch between access and holding people accountable.”

Stokols starts his new job as a national political reporter with Politico in April.