Salzman: Media Matters takes on the right

State group monitoring conservative 'misinformation' offers model analysis

Published August 5, 2006 at midnight

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Dear Jon Caldara and Mike Rosen:

You both consider yourselves media critics. That's obvious from listening to your talk radio shows.

Trouble is, as I've pointed out, you often practice the worst kind of media criticism, throwing out sweeping accusations of "liberal media bias" at the Denver dailies without providing evidence.

So, I'm writing to help you become better media critics. I really hate to see you doing it so poorly. Your approach poisons public debate and insults hard-working reporters.

Here's what you should do: Take a moment to look at the Web site of Colorado Media Matters (http://colorado.media matters.org/).

You may not know much about this new Web-based organization because, unfortunately, the dailies didn't cover its launch two weeks ago - even though it's almost certainly the most comprehensive and well-funded local media-monitoring group in the country.

Colorado Media Matters monitors print and broadcast outlets statewide.

Then they "catalog and correct specific instances of conservative misinformation, using thoroughly researched and documented evidence to substantiate the items," editorial director Bill Menezes writes on the Web site.

The organization, which is the sole state-level chapter of Media Matters for America, has 12 staffers who operate in "a hierarchy that's similar to a daily newspaper's" and are subjected to an "editing process that's designed to look at the items very closely before they go out on the Web," Menezes told me Wednesday.

And guys, stop reading Ann Coulter's book and pay close attention to this: Colorado Media Matters doesn't accuse the news media of having a bias, conservative or liberal.

"We don't attempt to identify 'bias,' " Menezes writes on his Web site. "We deal in facts by identifying news or commentary that's not accurate, reliable or credible, and that forwards the conservative agenda."

So, Mike and Jon, you'll see the best kind of partisan media criticism on this Web site. And you should copy it.

Already, the organization has unearthed numerous errors and misrepresentations in the Colorado media, including one factual mistake by Rocky Mountain News media critic Dave Kopel in an appearance on KBDI's Colorado Inside Out on July 21.

Setting a good example for you guys, Kopel read about his error on the Media Matters Web site and corrected himself on a subsequent show.

There's actually one way Colorado Media Matters can learn from you. That is, to solicit comments from the journalists it criticizes.

I appreciate how you both do this, on occasion.

Menezes posts responses from journalists on the Web site, as he did this week when Patti Dennis, 9News' news director, sent an unsolicited comment regarding an item about 9News, but he won't ask journalists to respond.

Menezes wants readers to question reporters about the items on the Web site, which provides relevant contact information for journalists.

At a minimum, Colorado Media Matters' home page should state, prominently, that any response from a journalist will be posted verbatim.

Mike, you told me this week that you're "awfully careful" about your facts, and anyone would be "hard-pressed to find any mistakes."

I'll leave it to Colorado Media Matters to verify that statement, but I know that the organization can help you and Jon be better media critics.

You should welcome them to town.

Be a watchdog. It's a beautiful thing that in America everyone can be a media critic - not only Rosen, Caldara and Colorado Media Matters.

But, unfortunately, most people complain about the news to their breakfast mates or water- cooler buddies - instead of respectfully and briefly addressing reporters directly.

You should let reporters know when something bugs you in the news (e.g., an error, omission or misrepresentation), and journalists should encourage the feedback.

That's why journalistic enterprises should provide contact info for editorial staff. Fortunately, most of Denver's major news outlets do this.

The News gets the gold star for listing on its Web site the e-mail addresses and direct phone numbers of editors and most reporters.

Regrettably, the Post's Web site lists full contact info only for editors, but it does explain how reporters' email addresses are structured.

Both dailies provide reporter contact information at the end of stories.

The Web sites of 9News, the Denver Channel, CBS4 and WB2 contain email addresses of most staff and a main phone number.

FOX 31 lists staff journalists and a central phone number but provides no email addresses for them.

•

Regulate hospitals? As businesses begin shipping sick employees to overseas hospitals to reduce health care costs (Post, July 31), we read that Health- One, which runs a third of Denver-area hospital beds, "posted an operating margin" of 29 percent in 2003 (Post, July 30).

A future article could address the role of hospital consolidation in the high cost of health insurance and whether, in light of these high profits, the government should regulate hospitals like a public utility.

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.

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