November 15, 2014 11:48 AM UTC

Rosen implied Denver Post had agenda to elect Romanoff but, oops, the newspaper endorsed Coffman

• 5 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

("Liberal media" strikes again! – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

This has been sitting on my shelf for a while, but I thought I'd post it today because I love it so much when Denver radio-host Mike Rosen whines about how The Denver Post practices "agenda journalism" in favor of liberals.

Rosen was sure The Post was in the pocket of Andrew Romanoff. His proof? A news story by Post reporter Mark Matthews.

Discussing the Coffman-Romanoff race in the excerpt below, which aired on his KOA 850-AM radio show Oct. 16 before the Post endorsed Coffman, Rosen implied that The Post was about to back Romanoff.

But The Post endorsed Coffman instead.

It's conservative media criticism at its worst, replete with unsupported assumptions and anger that hurts journalism and, you'd think, Rosen himself. It looks particularly absurd coming from Rosen, who has a platform as a Post columnist.

In the excerpt, Rosen is talking to Coffman about Coffman's bill to turn management and oversight of VA construction projects over to Army Corps of Engineers.

Rosen explains how The Post story about Coffman's bill is part of an elaborate scheme to boost Romanoff. Read the Post article for yourself here.

ROSEN:  So, here is how the game is played. If you’re rooting for Andrew Romanoff, former Speaker of the Colorado House, who is a lock-step Democrat, and Mike Coffman is doing well — in a district, incidentally, that leans Democrat, now, the 6th District — going into this race, even though Mike was the incumbent, Andrew Romanoff was a heavy favorite to win. And a lot—a ton — of money has poured in from the Democratic Party and some other groups to get Romanoff elected, and to kick Mike out of that seat.

So, if you’re rooting for Mike Coffman, if you’re in the media, and if you’re The Denver Post, even though they endorsed Cory Gardner—maybe they think Udall is a lost cause, uh, on the other three state-wide races, they have endorsed Democrats. They endorsed, just the other day or today, I think, Joe Neguese for Secretary of State, uh, Don Quick for Attorney General—over your wife, I should note, Cynthia Coffman, and John Hickenlooper for governor. Those are three state-wide races. So they had to throw in one state-wide race for the Republicans, otherwise the Post, even if they had no shame, would be—would feel awkward about only endorsing Democrats. Now, they do endorse Republicans in state legislative races, especially Republicans who are in absolutely safe Republican districts, so it makes it seem as if they’re more even handed. But even with Vincent Carroll on the editorial page, as the editorial page editor, —I mean, he doesn’t own the editorial page, there’s a chain of command at the Post, it’s a very liberal culture, so Vincent can only go so far. I suspect the Cory Gardner endorsement was perhaps made or greatly influenced above his pay grade and the news pages are very, very helpful for The Denver Post, in any number of issues. And the Post just doesn’t report. They do ‘agenda journalism’. They don’t just report on same sex marriage, for example. They cheerlead for it, and they celebrate it. All right! You know, I’m not opposed to same sex marriage. I’m just observing this, on any number of other issues. When it comes to education issues, they’re—The Denver Post is in bed with the teachers union, generally, on its news pages. So, this story—and we’ll get into the details of it, since Mike is right here, and I’m laying a lot of foundation, but I think it’s important to do so so that you understand what the background of this is. And you’re not going to get a newspaper editor to admit this kind of stuff. So, I have to kind of analyze it and make some assumptions. So, this is just — I don’t have hard evidence on any of this. The story that’s on the front page is by Mark Matthews—and i don’t know Mark Matthews—is what I call a ‘planted story’. He’s writing this story about some criticism of Mike Coffman’s bill, that’s already been passed. In the Senate, as well? Where is it?

COFFMAN: It’s still —It’s pending in the Senate.

ROSEN: Yeah. Everything is pending in the Senate —

COFFMAN: True, right? [chuckles] Yeah!

ROSEN: —because Harry Reid doesn’t want to have them — Democrats — to make them vote on anything—

COFFMAN: Sure.

ROSEN: —in an election year, when he’s desperately trying to keep control. But it passed the House. It sailed through the House. If Mike is benefitting from his work in this area, you want to try and neutralize it, as best as you can, before the election, if you’re rooting for Romanoff. Now, this story, if you read it and you’re gullible, doesn’t look like a biased story. Both sides are presented, although one side is presented with more column inches than the other side. And what it plants in the minds of readers is, “Well, this is— Mike Coffman bill may not be all that it was cracked up to be.” So, the attempt here is to neutralize whatever advantage Mike gets out of being associated with this bill….All right. We’ll get into some more of the guts of this. It’s a fascinating story, and it shows how a news organ like The Denver Post can use its influence to manipulate. And one question I would have for Mark Matthews, who wrote this story—his byline is on it— is that, how did he come by this story? Did he dig it up on his own? Or is he simply operating from a Democratic press release or a phone call? Right back on 850 KOA.