Recently Colorado Public Radio (CPR) and KRCC (the Southern Colorado Public Radio affiliate) collaborated to cover the accusations made against Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade, namely that he lied to the FBI.
It’s easy to blast past, but if you are someone like me, someone who is tuned into the labels the media use (and don’t use), you’ll note that CPR/KRCC took the time to mention that the Daily Wire, which originally broke the story of the accusations, was a “conservative” media outlet. This stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Why the tag? The story reads just as well without the label.
I emailed both the CPR and KRCC journalists on the byline. I didn’t get a response from the KRCC reporter, but did from CPR’s Megan Verlee. Quoting her from my email: “In the case of the Daily Wire, I described it as ‘conservative’ because it’s a site our readers may not be familiar with and the adjective matches how DW and its founder describe themselves. I would do the same for other outlets with espoused ideological perspectives and a relative unfamiliarity to readers.”
In response to a question about whether these kinds of labels are an editorial policy or at the writer’s discretion, Ms. Verlee replied: “This kind of decision is made between reporters and editors (I’m usually the editor in that situation, but in this case, I contributed to the writing of the story) at CPR, under the guidance of our news director and executive editor.”
The Daily Wire does indeed refer to itself as “conservative.” So in this case, characterizing them as having an ideological tilt is perfectly fair; if you label yourself, you should by rights expect others to follow your lead.
Selective labels
But this raises the question of whether or not such labels are applied evenly to others.
The strength of the label—pejorative, bland, descriptive, etc.—matters of course, but that’s not the whole story. A disparity in labeling also matters. A label on one group (with a certain ideology) calls that one out for special attention. It signals to the reader that the object being labeled is apart from ordinary consideration.
So I was curious to know how left-leaning outlets such as CPR actually handle labeling. Is it the case that they “do the same for other outlets with espoused ideological perspectives?”
Let’s consider a couple Colorado media outlets with contrasting ideological orientations. Complete Colorado is the news and commentary arm of the Independence Institute, which openly leans into a “free-market, pro-freedom perspective.” Colorado Times Recorder, on the other hand, openly identifies as left-of-center. Quoting from their own about page: “We aim to be fair and accurate. Our work is nonpartisan, with a progressive orientation, which means we emphasize coverage of Colorado stories that advance or illuminate the progressive values of freedom, justice, responsibility, opportunity, and equality.”
I ran site searches to see how these two outlets are labeled by CPR, as well as the equally left-leaning Colorado Sun. There were some very old results for both outlets, but I decided to stick to articles from 2018 forward.
CPR clearly shows a pattern in how they reference these outlets. In a 2018 article, CPR’s Bente Birkeland referred to Complete Colorado as “right-leaning.” Similarly, Ms. Birkeland in a 2019 article referred to Complete Colorado as “…a website owned by the conservative Independence Institute.” Conversely, in a June 2023 article, and in two separate October 2023 articles, CPR’s Jenny Brundin merely links back to Colorado Times Recorder articles without any label whatsoever.
The same site searches on the Colorado Sun’s website return more results from 2018 forward, so I chose to pick more recent articles and limit myself to 4 results.
With regard to Complete Colorado, the Sun is a little more variable than what we see from CPR. Two articles on their site reference Complete without any label. Two others reference Complete as a “conservative news site” and a “conservative blog” respectively. For the Colorado Times Recorder, things are spottier. In a guest column about Colorado news media, journalism professor Corey Hutchins, unfailingly refers to the Times Recorder as progressive. The Sun’s own reporters, however, either leave the Times Recorder unlabeled, or refer to it as “liberal.”
As a quick aside, I had considered including Colorado Newsline in the list above–both CPR and the Sun have cited Newsline’s work. Newsline’s parent company, its funder, has in the past labeled itself as a “progressive political journalism startup.” They have since dropped that label and Newsline doesn’t label itself ideologically, even though they clearly tilt well to the left, so I did not include them in my results.
Swimming outside the mainstream
It’s evident that who gets labeled and how is a matter of who does the story and not just whether they espouse a particular ideology. It also seems to depend on the reporter (and, since we can reasonably figure that these stories passed through at least one editor’s hands, you could say the same for the editor).
It is also quite evident that there is a wide disparity in who gets a label and who doesn’t.
We label what sticks out to us. This leads to the reasonable conclusion that for some journalists and editors, what is conservative or right-leaning is worthy of extra mention as it is seen as outside the progressive mainstream they are swimming in.
This touches, too, on the idea of familiarity. Can we conclude from a disparity of labels that reporters feel we are all aware of Colorado Times Recorder’s progressive orientation while we are suffering some benighted ignorance as to what Daily Wire is and does?
I wouldn’t wonder that the assumption of familiarity says more about the writer than the reader.
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.
