August 26, 2010 10:53 PM UTC

Fox 21 erred in reporting that Buck held "U.S. Senate unity rally"

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• by: Jason Salzman

Fox 21 reported Monday that Ken Buck held a “U.S. unity rally” Monday night in Colorado Springs.

But Buck spokesman Owen Loftus told me today that Buck’s stop in Colorado Springs was a normal campaign rally, not a GOP U.S. Senate unity rally.

“That was just a mistake on Fox 21’s part,” he said, adding that “if we were to have a unity rally, we would make a big deal of that.”

“There were Norton supporters there,” he added. “They are coalescing around Ken now.”

As spotlighted on ColoradoPols yesterday, Fox 31’s weekday anchor and Vice President of News Operations Joe Cole reported:

Republican nominee Ken Buck was in town for a U.S. Senate unity rally. He’s trying to gain support from Jane Norton’s supporters whom he beat in the Republican primary. He is also turning his focus to incumbent Democrat, Senator Michael Bennet.

In its report on the rally, Fox 21 pictured Buck with the tag “unity rally” at the bottom of the screen.

At Monday’s really, Buck reportedly encouraged his supporters to get behind GOP gubernatorial candidate Don Maes and incumbent Attorney General John Suthers.

It appears that the Fox 21 reporter may have thought Buck’s statement of support for Maes and Suthers constituted a U.S. Senate unity rally, when in fact it did not.

Cole did not immediately return a call for comment.