The October 11th edition of Corey Hutchins’ “Inside the News in Colorado” substack had a story about how KUNC, a left-leaning public radio station in Northern Colorado, got a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for nearly $400K. KUNC plans to use this money to form the Colorado Capitol News Alliance with a roster of other left-leaning news organizations: Colorado Public Radio (CPR), Colorado Sun, and Rocky Mountain PBS (RMPBS), among others. How should Colorado news consumers think about collaborations such as this?
In speaking and emailing with KUNC’s Michael Arnold (I also emailed CPR, The Sun, and RPMBS, but as of this writing haven’t heard anything back), it seems as though there aren’t a lot of details yet as to the exact form this alliance would take. The grant might fund a reporter and editor for a year or so then maybe be put to another use. Given the audio/video nature of some of the news organizations in the group, it might also be used to fund producers, etc. Unsurprisingly, there are other, just as critical, details to be worked out. How will collaboration on the news work? Who does what? What gets shared?
An involuntary investment
All this is to be expected. Like in any new relationship, the specifics here are taking a backseat to the excitement. A quick look through Hutchins’ newsletter makes it clear just how jazzed everyone is. I myself am not overcome with excitement, but I think there is some room for some guarded optimism. Fewer reporters working across all news organizations has not been a good thing here in Colorado, especially for state capitol coverage.
As with new relationships, however, there can be problems hiding in the excitement. Let’s put aside worries about shared news content and revisit something I blasted right past at the beginning. CPB is a public organization run, at least in part, on taxpayer dollars, meaning the money comes from you and I, and everyone else in this state. Fairness dictates that since we’re all chipping in, we should all get something out of this (involuntary) investment.
Will this shared coverage reflect the concerns and diverse perspectives of everyone in the state? Whose responsibility will it be to make sure that is the case?
The former remains to be seen. I would like to hope that the answer is yes, but given what I’ve seen in the coverage of some of the outlets, I remain skeptical. Time will tell, and my guess is that any collaborative coverage will be a mixed bag, just as current coverage by these outlets is a mixed bag. The latter question, about responsibility, is a longer story.
Federal law requires that taxpayer-funded programming supported by CPB meet standards of fairness, accuracy, and balance. Public media meeting this standard (or not) has been a perennial sticking point, especially among conservatives. CPB, in fact, for years had a dedicated position, an ombudsman, whose full time job was fielding and investigating concerns from lawmakers and taxpayers. It seems that office is gone now though. In its absence, CPB kicked responsibility back to member stations. In other words, those outlets are self-policing.
Finding the complaint department
This is the problem. Not only are we to fund this collaboration, but we are to trust that the outlets we give our money to will do right by us. If they don’t? Well, I suppose we can complain to them and hope they’ll do right with that.
I ran this past Mr. Arnold at KUNC for more details and his perspective. As things stand now, and this is subject to change, it would seem that if you had concerns about, say, CPR’s coverage, you’d write to CPR. Got a problem with KUNC? Write to them. If you don’t like the newsroom or editor’s response to your concerns, the next step is to contact their president and CEO. Still not satisfied? Reach out to the board chair of Community Radio for Northern Colorado, the non-profit that owns KUNC.
As a quick aside in the interest of fairness, I should note that I have had occasion to call out things done by KUNC jurnalists in the past. The reporters I interacted with were both responsive and respectful.
But the absence of something to share about the Sun, CPR, and RMPBS speaks loudly about how they might view concerns. If they won’t engage at all on the topic, even to say a simple “we’re not sure yet,” I’m not left with a lot of confidence for how responsive they might be in the future. Couple this with some decidedly nasty experiences with their reporters and I have even less confidence these outlets will effectively police themselves, even less confidence in their response to taxpayers who have concerns. This goes double for those taxpayers who disagree with them ideologically.
I hope I am taking a dour view of the situation. I hope that my worries here are unfounded. I hope that more of KUNC rubs off on the Sun, CPR, and RMPBS than they rub off on KUNC. Perhaps they will take the fact that taxpayers had no choice in giving them this money into account when they respond to coverage. I can tell you that I will certainly be reminding them of that regularly when I have concerns (and you should too).
Cory Gaines is a regular contributor to Complete Colorado. He lives in Sterling on Colorado’s Eastern Plains and also writes at the Colorado Accountability Project substack.
