Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Newspapers

Reporter’s dream of a split in Colorado tea party movement is way over blown

Stephanie Simon is reporting that Colorado's tea party and related groups are "splintering", which is absurd. First, most tea partiers and Republicans are united behind Tom Tancredo for governor and Ken Buck for U.S. senator. And most are backing John Suthers for attorney general and Ryan Frazier, Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner and Mike Fallon for Congress.

Denver Post is going after Ken Buck

Having endorsed appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet over Republican Ken Buck, the Denver Post is going after Buck, and he's helping them make their point. This makes sense and is predictable. I am doing the same thing on this blog—cheering on Tom Tancredo, Buck and Ryan Frazier while highlighting their opponents' missteps whenever I can. That's politics and attacking candidates is one of America's great political traditions because it informs voters. Yes, the attacks often are unfair and even untrue, but because both sides do it, voters have plenty of time and ways to process all of the opinions and facts that they see and hear during a campaign. Sometimes voters blow it as they did when gullibles elected Obama, but most of the time, they make pretty good decisions. LINKS: Off the cuff, Buck missed the mark; The candidate reaffirmed his knack for sticking his boot in his mouth with his comments about gays choosing their sexuality. Denver Post editorial. Buck's reprimand was no youthful indiscretion, Bob Barr's Denver Post op-ed.

Tom Tancredo victory wouldn’t hurt GOP or American Constitution Party

Democrats are doing all they can to scare Republicans into voting for the ethically-challenged Dan Maes instead of helping elect former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo governor of Colorado. And the Denver Post political writers are doing all they can to help the Democrats by writing misleading stories about the situtation and quoting warnings by a Democrat political consultant, Fred Ciruli. Even if the reporters are trying to be objective and fair, their work looks very biased in favor of Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper. I support Tancredo and my agenda is obvious.

Denver Post: John Hickenlooper must disclose his gifts to ACORN, hard left groups

The Denver Post is proving that it’s no longer just a liberal newspaper. Its political reporters are exposing the character flaws of not only the disgraced Republicans, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, but also those of Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper. This morning, the Post’s editorial calls on Hickenlooper to disclose all of his contributions to charitable organizations and hard left political advocacy groups like ACORN and Re-Create 68, which threatened to disrupt the Democrats’ 2008 Convention in Denver. This editorial comes only a day after a Post editorial that questioned Tom Tancredo’s support for Amendments 60 and 61 and for Proposition 101. The Post is becoming Colorado’s newspaper of record and its doing a good job of trying to keep politicians honest. LINKS: Hickenlooper ought to reveal donations, Denver Post editorial. Governing a state of ruins, Denver Post editorial.

Don’t blame Scott McInnis’ political problems on Denver Post, Channel 9

Some of Scott McInnis’ supporters are trying to turn the story about his plagiarism into an opportunity to flame the Denver Post and Channel 9, which jointly investigated the plagiarism. No one should be defending McInnis. Plagiarism may not be a crime, but a lot of people have been fired for plagiarism. No one who has 

Denver Post’s parent files pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy

The holding company that owns the Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera is filing a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy that allows the executives who borrowed the company into bankruptcy to retain control of the company and 20% of its stock.

How did Dean Singleton,

Dick Wadhams: Scott McInnis has to sell himself; Dan Maes needs to raise money

Some of the best political reporting and blogging on this election cycle’s gubernatorial and senate races is being done by Michael Roberts at WestWord. He has an excellent report on Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams’ current views on the contest between Scott McInnis, the near consensus choice of the GOP establishment, and Dan Maes, the political rookie who’s making a good impression at forums and in interviews. Wadhams tells Roberts that McInnis still has to sell himself to the GOP base, and Maes has to show he can be competitive in the fundraising primary. Link:

Chicago Sun-Times gets new owners

After I started my career in the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal, I joined the Chicago Sun-Times as a business and financial writer.

For more than three years, I covered the commodity futures, transportation and auto markets, among other things. And I had a great time at the Sun-Times. Fortunately, The New York Journal of Commerce offered me a lot more money, and away I went.

Anyway, it’s good to see that the Sun-Times has new, mostly local owners. The company has been entangled in bankruptcy brought on by the fraud that put the former CEO, Conrad Black, in jail.

If the new company can start with relatively clean balance sheet, it will have a chance to be profitable. Mesirow Financial chairman James Tyree, the lead investor and the new chairman of the company, may not be a journalist, but he does know finance and business, which is more than you can say for most newspaper publishers. Most newspaper companies are hurting because they are over their heads in debt. Even when interest rates are virtually zero, too much debt makes it difficult to survive a severe recession.

Link:

James Tyree names Chicago Sun-Times investors

Denver’s Phil Anschutz, his Examiner, Weekly Standard, campaign contributions profiled

Phil Anschutz is profiled by Politico as the new owner of The Weekly Standard and a contributor to Colorado Republican parties and candidates.

It will be interesting to see who he’s backing this year.

Links

Phil Anschutz’s conservative agenda

The Weekly Standard.

Washington Examiner.

www.examiner.com/denver

Will the Post help Bill Ritter reply to Scott McInnis?

Now that the Denver Post has helped Governor Bill Ritter reply to Josh Penry’s charge that he’s added more than 4,000 jobs to the state’s payroll since taking office, will its intrepid investigative political reporters dig into Ritter’s three bad bets that Scott McInnis is telling supporters about?

The three bad bets made and being made by Ritter, according to McInnis:

NY Times health insurance poll stacked with Obama supporters.

Nice to see the wonks are catching up.

Now the NYT/CBS poll’s bias is on http://www.drudgereport.com. The whole world knows.

I reported this the night the poll was published on NYtimes.com.

Scroll down a few posts.

Demise of E. W. Scripps’ (SSP) Rocky Mountain News creates opportunities for struggling Denver Post

How will the struggling Denver Post exploit the demise of the Rocky Mountain News, which will publish its final edition on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009?

(Click on hed for more)

 

E.W. Scripps (SSP) is trying to cut its Denver losses or plotting to put the Denver Post under

E.W. Scripps (SSP) is either trying to minimize and cut its losses on its Denver Rocky Mountain News or put its editorial competitor, The Denver Post, under.

Today’s

How could newspapers be more useful to small, local advertisers?

Several large newspapers are going too be closed if they can’t be sold, and potential buyers are trying to figure out how they might bet into the newspaper business cheap and change the business model in ways that preserve the papers’ editorial products while profitably competing with the online advertising services that are driving some papers out of business.

In addition to our Rocky Mountain News, the Miami

E.W. Scripps (SSP) may outlast competition in Denver newspaper war

E.W. Scripps (SSP) may not have to close or sell its Rocky Mountain News in Denver because its joint operating agreement partner and competitor, MediaNews Group, is in a lot worse financial condition and may have to sell or close its Denver Post.

This assumes that