Colorado Newsline gets around. The progressive journalism site’s articles show up in media outlets around the state, from the High Country to the Denver metro area, East to Kiowa, South and West to Durango and Cortez, and swinging back up to Grand Junction, just to name a few. Operating like a Colorado wire service, though not requiring money like the Associated Press, they seem to be popular with smaller news outfits looking for content and happy to not have to shell out money for it.
That the content carries a decidedly leftward slant doesn’t seem to factor into the equation.
Colorado Newsline is an affiliate of the national news organization States Newsroom, a tax-exempt nonprofit which hauled in $17 million in 2023 (down from $23 million the year prior). States Newsroom began as an offshoot of NC Policy Watch (a progressive activism group out of North Carolina, similar to our own ProgressNow Colorado), then got “fiscal sponsorship“–that is, got taken in and helped with money until it could it achieve full nonprofit status–by the Arabella Advisor’s dark money offshoot The Hopewell Fund, and then set out on its own in 2019.
Claiming “fully funded” newsrooms and “partner” news organizations in all 50 states, States Newsroom calls itself the nation’s “largest nonprofit news organization dedicated to state coverage,” with Newsline as it’s Colorado operation.
Following the murky money trail
Perhaps to distance itself from its dark money childhood, and perhaps also from its own earlier self-applied “progressive political journalism startup” label, States Newsroom began listing donors that gave them more than $1000 in 2020, now boasting that they do not take money from “anonymous sources.” Despite such claims, however, States Newsroom’s own funders page lists a roster of progressive nonprofits. Showing that they’ve not shaken off a dependence on Arabella Advisors, they list the newer (2019) Arabella offshoot the North Fund, but don’t stop there. Along with that dark money, they list a host of second-order anonymous funders known as Donor Advised Funds (DAFs).
DAFs are a relatively new thing in charitable foundations. DAFs are a more watered-down version of what Arabella Advisors does. Arabella works with big organizations and shuttles around container-ship-sized loads of money. DAF’s shuffle money around as well, but tend to move less, with money’s source more diffuse. As part of that aggregating of generally smaller donations, however, a DAF shares the feature of Arabella in that that donor information gets scrubbed out.
Individual donors give to the DAF and get a tax deduction and a receipt in return. Depending on how things are set up, donors can advise (hence the title) on where to give money, but it’s ultimately the DAF’s call on where to give. And it does so without sharing the identities of its various donors.
This leads to the natural question regarding Colorado Newsline. How far does the apple fall from the tree, both in terms funding and progressive heritage?
Going to Colorado Newsline’s page and trying to find who funds them just deadheads you to the States Newsroom funding page. I emailed and then had a brief phone conversation with Quenten Young, Colorado Newsline’s editor, who told me most of their funding comes directly from States Newsroom. So while they participate in local fundraising with other media outlets and groups here in Colorado, by and large (Mr. Young was unable to give me an approximate percent), it’s national money funneling down to Colorado.
Because of this, and despite the brave words in their ethics policy about not accepting donations made anonymously, I think it’s fair to say Colorado Newsline is getting money from outside sources who prefer not to reveal themselves. Not too far from the tree here.
Tilting leftward
Colorado Newsline bills itself as providing fair and accurate reporting on politics, but their roster of both named and unnamed funders argue against that. Would left-leaning foundations and wealthy progressives line up to give money to a group that gave 50 percent of its coverage to thoughtful and positive coverage of values in opposition to their own?
Newsline, of course, makes the same claim that their funders have no say in their reporting. Putting aside obvious arguments about incentive structures, the fact that they outwardly claim to receive no money from anonymous donors while at the same time accepting it does not invite trust in their other claims.
Put that with what Newsline personnel say outside their news coverage. The blisteringly hateful political commentary by Mr. Young (formerly the opinion page editor at the left-leaning Boulder Daily Camera) against Donald Trump, Republicans, and those who dare to disagree with him politically makes it incredibly hard to think he or his newsroom would, in any way, work to understand the perspective and concerns of those he disagrees with.
With screeds like “…voters [for Trump] sided with fascism, criminality and schoolyard cruelty”, “Pockets of Trumpist energy do mar the state [of Colorado]” and “The policy choices of Coloradans also establish their fortitude in the face of rights-stripping Republican priorities,” it’s hard to imagine that, as the editor, Mr. Young could divorce his deep-seated dislike of conservatives, Republicans, and anyone with the temerity to vote for Trump from any desire to understand what matters to them outside of his preconceived notions.
Consider, too, the well-outside-the-mainstream views of Newsline reporter Chase Woodruff displayed in his past and present tweets. He calls for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), calls our country “disgusting,” and claims that in order to stop climate change all oil and gas development must cease (along with leaving the already explored in the ground).
But most revealing are some of his comments on journalism. It’s clear that he sees journalism as more than just telling stories and relating facts, it must also include the more progressive approach to journalism which calls for the journalist advocating for their own views of progress and reform.
Amplifying the bias
Inference does have its place, but it’s not the whole story. A careful look at Newsline’s reporting can show quite a disparity in coverage and perspectives. I chose to focus in on recent articles that appeared in three smaller news outlets (and frequent takers of Newsline articles) bracketing the Front Range: Montrose Press, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, and Kiowa County Press.
The November 12, 2024 Newsline article by Newsline Reporter Lindsey Toomer, reprinted in the Montrose Press, is a perfect example. It goes into great depth on the election of Democratic House and Senate leadership, giving them 103 words of space just for their statements, with plenty of other words giving juicy details on the Democratic elections. As an afterthought, 20 perfunctory words are given over to the election of Republican leadership, naming them but not offering them any space for a quote.
Another Toomer article, appearing prior to the election in the Kiowa County Press and Grand Junction Sentinel on October 10 shows a similar pattern. It quotes liberally from a national report by a group aiming to minimize “imprisonment and criminalization” on how many currently-incarcerated felons in Colorado will not be able to vote. The article even goes so far as to name check Proposition 128, the measure about lengthening times for parole eligibility, quoting a spokesperson from the progressive Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, who claims felons in prison should have a chance to weigh in on this ballot measure. No word from anyone affiliated with or sponsoring Proposition 128 was given a chance to weigh in. No one in support of not giving currently-incarcerated felons the vote was quoted.
Newsline reporter Chase Woodruff has made a cottage industry of reporting on the proposed Uinta Basin Railway. Following Toomer’s pattern, his updates on the fight over running oil trains from Utah’s oil fields through Colorado’s Western Slope on their way to refineries in Louisiana show a clear imbalance of perspectives, perhaps a manifestation of his views about the roles and purpose of journalism, as well as anything related to climate change.
In a pair of articles appearing in the Montrose Press near the end of October, Woodruff cites opponents of the railway in an approximately 3 to 1 ratio to opponents. Woodruff also makes sure to cast some shade on the proponents of the railway along with a conservative Supreme Court justice. Quoting from the earlier of the two articles about a lawsuit around the project: “A long list of conservative advocacy organizations and fossil fuel industry groups have filed amicus briefs in support of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition’s argument. Among them is a filing by Anschutz Exploration Corporation, the oil and gas company owned by conservative Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz, whose ties to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch have repeatedly come under scrutiny.” Similar possible connections and speculation by Woodruff about any of the Uinta opponents or liberal-leaning justices is absent from the article.
In the cases above, in multiple others that I didn’t call out specifically, the more subtle bias is in the omission. It is the perspectives of those who don’t share the ideological orientation of Newline that are either left out or downplayed so much as to be negligible in their coverage.
In order to try and flesh out the perspectives of newspapers who run Newsline’s content, I reached out to the three newspapers mentioned above (among others who frequently run Newsline’s content). As of this writing, I have only heard back from the Kiowa County Press. Chris Sorensen, their publisher and online editor, told me that they feel Newsline’s “…reasonable effort to represent multiple perspectives, helps us present a broader view of issues in conjunction with our contributors and other sources.”
Mr. Sorenson also indicated that his paper takes articles from the Center Square, which he considers conservative leaning, among others, and that he seeks counterpoint for any political lean in things has chosen. To be fair, I have not done an in-depth look at his paper’s overall content, but, for my part, I’d have to say that countering the pronounced tilt of some Newsline articles would be a full-time job indeed.
Some transparency, please
These outlets owe readers more than just their attempts to balance out the coverage of Newsline with pieces from other outlets. Readers of these papers are due transparency in what they are looking at.
Depending on the outlet, Colorado Newsline’s reports are characterized with anything from banal lines like “Originally published on coloradonewsline.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange” (Montrose Sentinel) to the Pilate-worthy handwashing such as “Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.” (Kiowa County Press).
Readers are due more. If other Colorado media outlets are going to amplify Newsline’s slanted coverage, they should at the very least acknowledge that it grew out of–and is still financially attached to–an organization that has openly billed itself as “progressive political journalism,” one that goes outside its own stated values to gather up money from a host of left-leaning and anonymous sources. They should acknowledge that many of those writing for Newsline hold views which call into question their ability and willingness to be fair; to soberly and thoughtfully relay information about things they disagree with.
Readers deserve a label that reflects the fact that the stories put out by Newsline often take an obvious political slant, favoring one group over another, and they should speak up for their due.
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.
