The Polis administration got caught trampling the First Amendment and trying to strong-arm rural newspapers to pull stories that criticized Dear Leader.
The Kiowa County Press and Chronicle-News based in Trinidad both picked up an article from an online state news service,
The target of the story was the latest government office stood up by Polis, who (our words, not theirs) has shown an affinity for spending taxpayer dollars to expand government and create new offices with Orwellian names like the Office of Future Work.
Long story short (read it here), the newspaper editors checked the articles for accuracy, held their ground and refused to bow to government censorship.
Polis spokesman Conor Cahill was trying to blackball the news service because he didn’t like a funder.
The Denver Post has printed his explanation, without a hint of irony.
“When we looked into this group and discovered that it was not an objective wire service, but instead a branded website funded by the Koch Brothers’ political organization, we were alarmed that it was being reprinted by reputable news outlets in the state,” Cahill told The Denver Post. “The people of Colorado deserve quality, objective news they can trust so they can make their own informed decisions. Newspapers can publish whatever they want to, anywhere they want, at their own prerogative, but the public is served best when articles by partisan organizations are placed in the opinion section or branded accordingly.”
So the Polis administration wants to “brand” news organizations that conservatives find of interest?
While we’re at it, why not “brand” liberal news organizations like ProPublica, which was founded with millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation and other left-leaning funding sources?
But liberals don’t out their own. Instead, they hand them Pulitzer Prizes.