KOPEL: Dailies shrug off Libertarian confab

By Dave Kopel, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Last weekend, the Libertarian Party held its presidential nominating convention at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Denver, and selected Bob Barr, who had previously served four terms as a Republican U.S. representative from Georgia. The best local coverage of the convention came from The Colorado Independent, while the best national coverage was provided by The American Spectator magazine.

The Colorado Independent is an online newspaper whose editor is Cara DeGette, the journalist sister of Denver's U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. The Web site was launched two years ago as "Colorado Confidential," and is a project of the Center for Independent Media, a group that funds left-leaning online newspapers and bloggers.

Whatever the ideological leanings of The Colorado Independent, its coverage of the Libertarian convention outshone the Denver dailies. Over the course of the four-day convention, DeGette produced five pieces that examined key topics at the convention. One piece detailed the fight between Libertarian pragmatists and fundamentalists; the former wanted a platform that could appeal to the 16 percent of the U.S. population that is generally libertarian in outlook, while the latter wanted a platform that set forth maximal Libertarian goals. For example, the pragmatists wanted a platform promising to abolish the federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service, while the fundamentalists wanted a platform demanding an end to all taxation.

DeGette also covered the Friday speech of Richard Viguerie, one of the most important founders of the modern conservative movement, who excoriated Democrats and Republicans in general, and John McCain and George W. Bush in particular. He accused Republican leaders of betraying conservatives, and, in regard to McCain, said that the lesser of two evils "is evil."

On Sunday afternoon, DeGette and Wendy Norris live-blogged the presidential and vice-presidential nominating votes. Barr, a candidate of the pragmatist wing, won on the sixth ballot. Wayne Allyn Root, another pragmatist, won the vice-presidential nod, after finishing third in the presidential contest, and then endorsing Barr.

Also providing excellent live-blogging coverage of the presidential vote was Robert Stacy McCain, writing for the weblog of The American Spectator, a national conservative magazine. The American Specator's convention reports also covered the pragmatist-fundamentalist battles, the operations of Barr's well-oiled machine, and the suspicions of some Libertarians about Barr's collection of operatives wearing business suits.

In contrast, the Rocky Mountain News did not even have a story about the Libertarian Party presidential nomination on its Web site by 9 p.m. on Sunday, while The Denver Post merely had a short story from The Associated Press. The next day, the Rocky had a short article, while the Post, admirably, put a long article on its front page. The Post article detailed the concerns of many Libertarians about some of Barr's past positions, such as his previous support for the war on drugs. The article would have been even better if it had mentioned that among Barr's most enthusiastic current supporters are the staffers for the Marijuana Policy Project, a drug war reform group for which Barr is now a lobbyist.

On May 23, the Post ran an article noting that Gov. Bill Ritter has not yet signed or vetoed a bill that would outlaw discrimination against homosexuals or transgendered people. But the article failed to adequately research a factual argument by opponents. According to the article, Jim Pfaff, of the Colorado Family Association, warned that "the measure could mean that a wedding photographer would have to shoot the commitment ceremony of a gay couple regardless of the photographer's religious beliefs about homosexuality."

After summarizing Pfaff's warning, the article quoted a response from the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Jennifer Veiga. She called Pfaff's scenario "scare tactics," and claimed "These kinds of problems just don't materialize . . . "

To the contrary, this April the New Mexico Human Rights Commission ordered Elane Photography to pay a lesbian couple $6,600 in attorney's fees because the owner, acting on his religious beliefs, refused to photograph the lesbians' commitment ceremony.

A good article in the Post might have advanced public debate over whether laws forbidding discrimination against homosexuals violate First Amendment rights, or whether people with religious objections to homosexuality have no rights which the government is bound to respect. But the Post article retarded debate, by failing to report whether there was a factual basis to Pfaff's warning.

Kudos to the Rocky for its ongoing series, begun on May 19, providing short biographies of all the Colorado delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions. It's interesting to see what kind of people are chosen by their parties - including the Greeley Democrat who won a coveted delegate post by bragging about the time she dumped dog feces at the door of Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. Too bad that both Denver dailies wasted space reporting the presidential predictions from astrologers gathered for a convention in Denver.

Dave Kopel is research director at the Independence Institute, an attorney and author of 10 books. He can be reached at kopeld@RockyMountainNews.com.

• May 31, 2008

  7:30 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  DougH writes:

  David, thanks for giving us a clear insite into the minds of the Libertarians: the pragmatists wanted a platform promising to abolish the federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service, while the fundamentalists wanted a platform demanding an end to all taxation.
  There does not seem to be a lot of differance in these extreme positions and that is why Libertarians have a long way to go in order to taken seriously.

• May 31, 2008

  8:08 a.m.

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  JohnSWren writes:

  Your point that big local stories are overlooked is right on.

  To do something about it, a few of us are organizing a monthly (may become weekly) Denver Speakers Corner right across the street from our two major daily newspapers. We'll video what people have to say, put it up on You Tube.

  For more (including video of our first meeting) and optional RSVP see http://cocacop.meetup.com/2 or just attend and speak out about the issue, cause, or candidate of your choice or anything else on your mind.

  Denver Speakers Corner
  Sunday, June 8, 4 p.m.
  Denver Civic Center, North Pavilion
  To get on speakers list first, RSVP at
  http://cocacop.meetup.com/2

• May 31, 2008

  1:16 p.m.

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  EricK writes:

  DougH said, "There does not seem to be a lot of differance in these extreme positions and that is why Libertarians have a long way to go in order to taken seriously."

  The bigger problem, as evidenced by your post, is trying to educate the populace. The income tax is only one of the taxes you pay.

  A larger list includes Federal Unemployment Tax, Workers Compensation Tax, Social Security Tax, Medicare Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax, School Tax, Sales Taxes (State and Local), Real Estate Tax, Property Tax, Building Permit Tax, Well Permit Tax, Septic Permit Tax, Utility Taxes, Severence Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Accounts Receivable Tax, Privilege Tax, Inventory Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel permit tax, Inheritance Tax, Interest Expense, Capital Gains Tax, IRS Penalties, IRS Interest Charges, Liquor Tax, Luxury Taxes, Marriage License Tax, Service Charge Taxes, Telephone federal excise tax, Telephone federal universal service fee tax, Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes, Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax, Telephone state and local tax, Telephone usage charge tax, Vehicle Sales Tax, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Recreational Vehicle Tax, Trailer registration tax, Road Toll Booth Taxes, Toll Bridge Taxes, Toll Tunnel Taxes, Watercraft registration Tax, Gasoline Tax, Dog License Tax, Fishing License Tax, Hunting License Tax, Cigarette Tax (and many, many others).

  I won't argue whether or not all of these taxes are required, but I do take an issue with your statement there is not a difference between removing all taxes and removing the income tax.

• May 31, 2008

  6:07 p.m.

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  raysmom writes:

  It's no surprise that an obtuse, liberal-agenda media outlet gives the Libertarians more press than mainstream media- they hope to get some conservatives to move their votes from McCain to Barr, and I suspect that has just a little something to do with your interest and the baiting title of your column, Mr. Kopel. C'mon, Libertarians- you have some good and right ideas about today's politics, but a vote for Barr is vote for Obama.

• May 31, 2008

  9:21 p.m.

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  anderson writes:

  raysmom, what are you calling a liberal agenda media outlet? Surely not the American Spectator. It sounds like you are cherry-picking from the article to make your point.

  Kopel, who is employed by the Independence Institute-a think tank with a clearly libertarian bent, tells us that 16% of Americans have a libertarian outlook without citing any source. I believe no Libertarian presidential candidate has ever garnered more than 2% of the vote (if that much). Maybe that has something to do with the Denver dailies' small coverage of the event.

• June 1, 2008

  12:19 a.m.

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  yaakovwatkins writes:

  You are double counting in some cases and in other cases making up taxes that don't exist.

• June 2, 2008

  2:20 p.m.

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  ZioKen writes:

  16% of American's score in the Libertarian Quadrant of the Nolan Chart as portrayed in the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz which has the data available online through the advocates for self government who publish the quiz, although here in Colorado, we were the first group to publish the quiz in Spanish and passed it out at the recent Cinco de Mayo festival. I am neither a pragmatist or fundamentalist and the Colorado Libertarians I know don't care as much about national platform or policy, rather on local politics and issues. In fact, in the final ballot only 4 of 30 delegates from Colorado voted for Bob Barr. Check out the Libertarian booth at the People's Fair this weekend and take the quiz yourself and see where you stand.

• June 3, 2008

  5:58 p.m.

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  anderson writes:

  Thanks for providing a reference. I believe I've seen and taken that quiz. If it is in fact ublished by "advocates for self-government" this suggests the possibility the questions are loaded with Libertarian presumptions--and that is what I recall if it's the one I'm thinking of. In other words, it is probably not a reliable survey of the public's political views.

• June 4, 2008

  9:21 a.m.

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  anderson writes:

  Yes, this is it. It's obviously a self-serving Libertarian quiz.

  http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html