JO at Colorado Pols salutes Senator Mark Udall for introducing a bill to end "predatory practices of banks and other institutions issuing credit cards." Charge!
Colin at South Stands Denver wonders if Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is playing Patriot games by pretending that Kyle Orton's ankle injury is worse than it is. Pray that he is...
You don't expect much from your daily-newspaper sports columnists these days. Sentences that make sense, some well-placed punctuation, maybe a bad pun or two. But while our expectations have been lowered over the years by the likes of Woody Paige and Skip Bayless and whoever else shows up in the corners of our sports pages, this effort by the Post's Mark Kiszla made Paige look downright sober.
After the Broncos' lifeless loss to the Redskins on Sunday, Kiszla somehow came to the conclusion that quarterback Kyle Orton was hiding on the bench rather than reenter the game:
ESPN Sports Guy and Broncos bandwagon driver Bill Simmons is in Denver tonight, for the last stop on his fall book-signing tour. If you have or want a copy of his new tome, The Book of Basketball, get to the LoDo Tattered Cover sometime before 5 p.m. and stand in line with the rest of Denver's sports geeks. With any luck you'll be blowing the ink dry by tip-off of the Nuggets game.
Word is Simmons is a pretty chatty fella at these things, so you might be able to actually engage him while he draws oddly detailed photos of Teen Wolf on your book. Especially if he gets hammered. But what will you ask him? Some suggestions:
On last night's Channel 31 late newscast, reporter Heidi Hemmat mined comedy gold with the story above, about a Boulder man who's created a "THC ministry" that ordains anyone, Hemmat included, willing to treat ganja as a religious sacrament. The most humorous moment -- even funnier than the use of Pink Floyd as background music? Hemmat's conversation with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, one of the most vocal opponent of current medical-marijuana laws. After first arguing that the weed-as-religious-totem gambit is illegal (not that he threatened to bust anyone), Suthers said that if someone really needs marijuana that badly, "I suggest you go see a doctor and convince him you have a debilitating condition."
Is the Colorado attorney general really giving tips to the public about how to obtain medical marijuana using fraud and deception? You be the judge. Let us pray.
Macon Cowles doesn't necessarily want to declare Boulder to be Colorado's medical-marijuana capital.
Medical marijuana is a smokin'-hot topic in Boulder these days, what with the city council this week implementing assorted restrictions on dispensaries -- and almost (but not quite) legitimizing any and all weed sellers, whether they're supplying licensed patients or not.
Cowles hasn't backed away from this concept -- but he does take issue with a line in the article about Boulder becoming the nexus for medical marijuana in the state. Here's that passage:
Bob Newman wants to keep you safe -- or put you behind bars. Depends on you.
Update below:
Back in August, combative KOA radio host "Gunny" Bob Newman announced that he was leaving the station in order to take a security and counter-terrorism position for an unnamed employer in "a rather grim war zone" a nineteen-hour flight from Denver. So imagine our surprise when, just three months later, we learned that Newman had taken on a role as "Senior Fellow in Homeland Security Studies" for the Rocky Mountain Foundation, a nonprofit overseen by former congressman Tom Tancredo.
What's the story? Newman didn't have time to chat yesterday, reportedly because he was "up to my eyeballs in terrorism stuff right now." But he did agree to answer some questions via e-mail. Here's the exchange:
James Dobson will be signing off in February. Sad?
Word that Focus on the Family founder James Dobson would stop producing his trademark radio show and cut the cord between him and the organization in February likely spurred cheers among people whose vehicles sport one of those "Focus on Your Own Damn Family" bumperstickers. But Focus supporters feel very differently, according to Gary Schneeberger, the organization's spokesman. "We've been getting e-mails and phone calls from people saying how much Dr. Dobson has meant to them over the years," he notes. "I wouldn't characterize it as an enormous outpouring, because we all knew this day would come. But for many people who've grown up hearing his voice on the radio, and for all of us, it's still a very emotional time."
It's likely an anxious one as well, since Dobson and Focus are one and the same in the minds of many observers -- and given that the operation has struggled with cuts and layoffs in recent years, the timing of his departure seems particularly bad. But in this case, anyhow, Schneeberger doesn't foresee an apocalyptic scenario.
An illustration of Phil Anschutz from a NowPublic screed.
Citizen journalism has a lot of attributes -- but its mainstreaming can be messy. Case in point: A spelling-challenged attack on Denver gazillionaire Phil Anschutz published earlier today on NowPublic, a Canadian citizen-journalism site that (ahem) Anschutz's Examiner.com bought just over two months ago.
"Who is Phil Anschutz?," credited to a writer who goes by CJist, looks askance at a number of Anschutz's conservative associations and values, declaring that "his Examiner.com reveals the same-old-shit media diat [sic] on their screens that America (Oh, my Canada!) has grown used to like foxes do rabbit on their menu." Moreover, he seems to view the purchase as a sign that citizen journalism has now become just another commodity. "Is Philip Anschutz a paragon for leading the future of citizen journalism and one of its brightest constellations of citizen journalists at NowPublic?" he wonders. "Or could this be a moniker that CJ is dead or dieing [sic], and consumers consuming consumers is now big business -- $25 million reaped by NowPublic."
Well, at least no one from the home company has ordered the post be removed, so as not to annoy NowPublic's new owner. Not yet, anyhow.
In the movie The Dark Knight, the Joker conducts a nail-biting sociology experiment by rigging bombs on two ships -- one loaded with ordinary folk, the other transporting prisoners. A detonator for each bomb is then placed in the hands of the opposing camps, who are invited to blow up the other ship first and thus save themselves.
According to this 7 News story, Jefferson County is conducting a similarly explosive little test with the H1N1 virus. The county jail has received 110 doses of swine-flu vaccine for staff and high-risk inmates, even while law-abiding citizens are "desperately waiting" for the scarce vaccine for their own kids, the station reports. And parents are outraged. Grrrrr!
"You said it wasn't going to hurt!": A photo from Colorado Public News' beta site.
After the closure of the Rocky Mountain News earlier this year, groups featuring former staffers launched not one but two high-profile online news projects, neither of which revolutionized the medium, or proved that the concept could be financially viable. INDenver Times is still publishing despite falling 47,000 people short of a 50,000 subscriber goal, but it's running on a skeleton crew, and last week, those on its e-mail list received a message seeking "non-tax-deductible donations" -- not exactly a positive sign. Meanwhile, the Rocky Mountain Independent, launched by renegade INDenver Times participants, quietly expired last month.
So why on earth is Ann Imse, another Rocky veteran, moving ahead with Colorado Public News, whose beta site features a wide-ranging and detailed look at people without healthcare? Because she's taking a different approach from the commercial model utilized by the crews behind INDenver Times and the Rocky Mountain Independent -- and, she hopes, a more viable one. The concept: Instead of going it alone, CPN has formed a nonprofit partnership with Channel 12, an adventurous public-television station.
Last night was a good one for Republicans, who won governor's seats in New Jersey and Virginia over opponents for whom President Barack Obama had actively campaigned. But the news wasn't as positive in a New York congressional race either for right-leaning residents of the area or a right-leaning former governor of Colorado.
Thanks to a schism among conservatives in what had seemed like a safe Republican district, Democrat Bill Owens earned a victory, thereby sentencing Colorado's Bill Owens to a term's worth of confusion. Yesterday, in the run-up to the vote, the Today show ran a photo of our Owens by mistake, prompting the former guv to say this to Channel 9's Adam Schrager: "I'm not seeking any more publicity or notoriety, so for a number of reasons, I'm hoping Bill Owens loses this election."
Didn't happen -- and now, the Bill Owens name will be associated in many minds with (eeesh!) liberalism. Tough luck, Colorado Bill.
"A lot of people consider the practice of journalism with a lot of scorn, and sometimes it's deserved," says veteran newsman Greg Dobbs, who'll talk about his new book, Life in the Wrong Lane: Why Journalists Go in When Everyone Else Wants Out, at 6 p.m. tonight at the Denver Press Club. "But journalists do put a lot on the line to give people the news and perpetuate the free flow of information. And I think it's a good thing people know that."
Nonetheless, Dobbs didn't want to recount his years as an international correspondent for ABC in a dry or didactic manner. "I don't think there's a chapter where there isn't a funny, or at least a bizarre, story," he maintains. "The book's about the funny, funky, scary, stupid, dangerous, distasteful, unwise and unbelievable things journalists experience just getting to the point of reporting a story."
On the left: Colorado's Bill Owens. On the right: New York's Bill Owens. No, they're not the same person.
Just heard from a sharp-eyed viewer who saw a familiar face on the Today show this morning -- one who had no business being there. Political reporter Chuck Todd was discussing a New York state congressional election taking place today, which pits a Democrat named Bill Owens against Doug Hoffman, a candidate for the Conservative Party. Problem is, the photo of Bill Owens that popped up featured a different guy entirely -- the one who was twice elected Colorado's governor. As a Republican.
No, they aren't related -- either by blood or ideology.
Update, 12:10 p.m.: A short time ago, Colorado's Bill Owens sat down with Channel 9's Adam Schrager to discuss (and joke about) that New York-based Bill Owens, and the confusion between them. Here's what he had to say:
It's been at least a week since our fair state made it on any Most Livable, Charming, Fittest or Drunkest list. So thank heavens for the folks at ForbesTraveler, the "luxury travel authority from inspiration to reservation." Its latest ingenious and largely predictable compilation of "America's Prettiest Towns" does not snub our picturesque state.
Mike Klis can still report -- but not prognosticate.
For as long as most of us can remember, beat writers at the Denver Post have been allowed to make game predictions about teams they cover -- but no more, because of a decision by the paper's editor, Greg Moore.
The dictate went public Friday afternoon, when Broncos writer Mike Klis appeared on Mile High Sports Radio, at 1510 AM, with hosts Nate Kreckman and Joel Klatt, who hooted at the very idea of a prognostication ban.
The Balloon Boy story is the gift that keeps on giving thanks to paterfamilias Richard Heene's proclivity for recording every stupid thing he did -- or at least enough of them to keep the tabloid press quivering with censorious excitement for the foreseeable future. The latest exhibit: Nancy Grace getting hot and bothered by footage obtained by TMZ, in which Big Dick more or less offers an infant a cigar and a beer. Maybe he was just trying to train the lad to be Bill Clinton some day, but Nancy was appalled anyhow. "I was worried about switching the twins from formula to real milk," she hisses, "but that's a cold Miller Genuine Draft!"
This photo by LILHOWLER is among approximately a gazillion on 9News.com.
Longtime Denver residents understand that snowstorm coverage on local TV newscasts tends to follow a familiar pattern. First, live shots of assorted correspondents freezing their asses off alongside various roads and occasionally holding up handfuls of snow, as if the stuff falling in the background wasn't illustration enough. Next, extended forecast segments loaded with colorful Doppler radar imagery and predictions that generally play up the potential for catastrophe, followed by reports about traffic slowdowns, closures and the like. And once that's done, the crew loops back and does it all over again.
In recent years, however, a new element has entered the picture: photos sent in by viewers. But while this staple can occasionally be useful and interesting (as well as revenue enhancing, particularly on the web, where each mouse click registers as a page view), stations tend to overuse it in this period of short staffing and limited resources. A few pics of people's backyards are okay. But a dozen of them turn viewers into the equivalent of guests at '50s-era dinner parties forced to smile uncomfortably as their hosts cycle through roughly 400 slides they took during their trip to the Grand Canyon. Guess you had to be there.
Libby Weaver gets another chance to show off her god-given talents on the Colorado View cover.
Remember the September cover of Denver Magazine? The one that showed Deuce/Channel 31 personalities Libby Weaver and Natalie Tysdal going from anchors to skank-ers by way of a photo that showed them entwined while clad in flirty, boob-boosting outfits straight out of a Skinemax erotic-thriller? Well, here we go again, this time courtesy of Colorado View magazine, whose debut edition features Weaver and three other local anchors (Christine Chang, Kim Christiansen and Nancy Fitzgerald) in a photo split between a torso shot and an upside-down reflection of the same image that makes it seem as if they're wearing skirts that gape open from the navel on down. Today's episode is brought to you by the letters Va-Jay-Jay.
The difference between this photo and the earlier one? The Denver mag pic was clearly meant to be provocative, while Colorado View editor Ellen Gray insists, convincingly, that neither she nor anyone else on her staff ever imagined that their cover could be seen as salacious.
The Post moved over 340,000 of these babies today.
Predictably, the Denver Postaccentuated the positive in its analysis of its circulation figures just out from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, reporting that the broadsheet has retained 86 percent of former Rocky Mountain News customers in the six months since the Rocky closed. Some of the methods used to come up with this figure are debatable, but there's no doubt the Post has held onto far more Rocky readers than practically anyone expected -- me included. This accomplishment is especially impressive given the economic downturn in general and the tough times being experienced by newspapering as a whole.
And now, for a question that hasn't really puzzled anyone as far as we can tell but is pretty funny nonetheless: Can you tell the difference between photos of 103.5/The Fox personality Kathy Lee's boob cleavage and butt cleavage. This is the challenge jocks Rick Lewis and Michael Floorwax have placed before their listeners this morning, with their web page allowing visitors to vote for which is which. Seems pretty obvious to me: The shot above is boobage, while the one on view below is buttage. Then again, maybe L&F forced Ms. Lee to undergo painful boob-for-butt-swapping surgery before launching the contest, to make it that much more difficult. Or would that be too ass-backwards?
Last week, former Denver Post columnist Jim Spencer left his position as communications director for the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in favor of a return to journalism at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune; while a CU spokeswoman said she thought he'd taken an editor-type gig, he's actually been placed on the paper's Sunday/enterprise team. But there are more Post alums, and one of them -- Dan Meyers, who served as national/foreign editor at the broadsheet, among other positions -- has been chosen to fill Spencer's UCD med school spot.
Most recently, Meyers served as a producer and fill-in host on Colorado Public Radio's signature program, Colorado Matters -- and his departure is the second from the show in recent weeks; producer Kristina Tabor left to report for Aspen Public Radio. Two big hits in a brief period of time. Look below to read the CPR memo announcing Meyers' move:
Fox Sports' Tim Ryan and Jay Cutler have a thing goin' on.
Sorry, Kyle Orton. Even if the Broncos go undefeated this season, you probably still won't get any respect from NFL media wise guys. Latest example: Fox Sports' Tim Ryan, who was asked in a "5 Questions" piece if the Bears made the right move giving up so much to get Jay Cutler. His answer: "Yes, absolutely. Cutler is worth it. When was the last time we saw that kind of talent available for a trade at his age (26) with his production and his contract?" In Ryan's view, the Bears "knew what they had in Kyle Orton and that he could run a tight-end offense, but they wanted to go deeper than that." Orton may fit what Josh McDaniels likes to do -- "You saw that last season with Matt Cassel in New England" -- but he "doesn't have the mobility or the skills, and he can't drive the ball down the field like Jay Cutler can. Orton is much more a flat-liner than Cutler. His upside is so much greater than Kyle Orton's."
Hard to argue with a lot of that from a statistical standpoint. But there are some other numbers worth considering -- like career record as an NFL starter (Cutler: 20-22, Orton: 27-12) and wins and losses this season (Cutler: 3-2, Orton: 6-0). Guess Ryan's using the new math -- the kind that doesn't always add up.
And we thought Balloon Boy coverage was beneath NPR.
At last, the Balloon Boy saga has reached metaphysical ubiquity, with the last national media outlet seemingly immune to the appeal of little Falcon Heene -- National Public Radio -- finally surrendering.
Of course, NPR being NPR, the approach taken in two stories yesterday was more highfalutin than high flying. First up, Michele Norris interviewed Bill Hayes, who heads the company behind Jon & Kate Plus 8; Hayes declared that the Heene family probably wouldn't have gotten past his firm's background check -- and given how loopy the Gosselins have been of late, that speaks volumes. Immediately afterward, august, ninety-something news analyst Daniel Schorr opined about the thin line bewtween lies and hoaxes even as he placed the weenie Heenes in a historical context alongside the Orson Welles/War of the Worlds panic of the '30s, the bogus Hitler diaries and false Twitter reports about Kanye West's death.
That's the kind of attention for which Richard Heene clearly lusted -- but it doesn't pay as well as a network-TV contract.
Jay Marvin at home in June, before his epic surgery.
If anyone deserves some good news, it's AM 760 host Jay Marvin, who's been to hell and back since earlier this year, when he began experiencing the first in a series of health problems that resulted in an arduous surgery at a hospital in New Jersey. Too add insult to very literal injury, his rehabilitation since returning to Colorado a few months back hasn't gone as quickly as he hoped. And then, on Wednesday, he suffered one of his most frightening experiences yet.
"I tripped and took a fall," Marvin says. "I was in the bathroom, and my head was propped up against the door, so nobody could get in to get me. The fire department had to come in and cut a hole in the door to get me out."
It's already been a big week in marijuana. Yesterday, the Obama administration issued new, less strident rules about medical-marijuana, prompting Colorado Attorney General and anti-pot crusader John Suthers to demand tighter regulations on dispensaries. Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents to a new Gallup poll advocated legalization of marijuana across the board. Granted, 54 percent still opposed it -- but the legalize-it numbers are up 8 percent in just four years.
All of which gives Mason Tvert -- head of SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation) and the driving force behind a 2005 measure legalizing small amounts of marijuana in Denver -- plenty to talk about. And talk he does. About Suthers, for instance, Tvert says, "It's unfortunate that he's meddling in the healthcare decisions between doctors and patients. We hope that he will respect the voters of this state and the decisions being made by patients and doctors in accordance with state law."
Now we know why Gene Shalit seems to love so many awful movies.
The amount of coverage generated by our quest for a medical-marijuana dispensary reviewer has proven conclusively that national media outlets such as the New York Times to National Public Radio have a heretofore unimagined ganja obsession. Less surprising is the latest publication to weigh in: Rolling Stone, which is now in its fifth decade of promoting puffing. But the context of the reference is still high-larious. Included in an article from October 29 issue about President Barack Obama's conflicts with generals over war policy is a graphic headlined "Threat Assessment: The Good, The Bad and the Scary, which arrays recent events along a continuum ranging from "With Us" (meaning positive for you, me and America) to "Against Us." And in fourth position toward the "With Us" end, just after Apple's exit from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the latter's global-warming views, the EPA's proposed rules about greenhouse emissions from factories, and news that marijuana arrests have declined for the first time since 2002 is the snippet above -- "Denver newspaper posts opening for medical-marijuana critic" -- accompanied by a photo of Today show reviewer Gene Shalit taking one toke over the line.
Strangely, Shalit hasn't applied for the reviewing gig, unlike dozens upon dozens of others. (We're still weeding through the applications.) But give him time...
Turns out the correction Jim Spencer demanded and got last week from the Denver Post, the very newspaper that handed him his head in a cost-cutting move, was among his last official duties as communications director for the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. Spencer hasn't returned a series of calls, but UCD spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery confirms that he's taken a position at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. (It's an editor-type gig, not a columnist position.) As for Spencer's replacement at the med school, Montgomery says no hire has been made, but interviewing has reached the finalist stage. By the way, a commenter on the blog linked above called my failure to mention Spencer's new gig as a "grievous omission." That sounds like a phrase more appropriate to describing the U.S. media's failures in the lead-up to the Iraq war, but who am I to judge? So my apologies for the grievous omission.
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