The Colorado Sun got a little snotty this week with the new conservative kid on the block — Campfire Colorado — and called out founder Matt Connelly for working in politics at the same time he writes about it on his new website.
The Sun seems to be suggesting that Connelly has crossed some sort of sacred line of ethics that’s unseemly to Real Activist Journalists like those at the Colorado Sun.
We hate to bust their conspiracy thinking, but Connelly’s mission isn’t exactly super-secret. Readers can find out all about it by clicking the “About” link on the front page of the website. (Emphasis ours)
Campfire Colorado is an online news source for Colorado conservatives that serves as a voice for the People at a time when there are few voices left willing to advocate on their behalf.
We are dedicated to reporting on stories that are often ignored by the mainstream media and to shining a light on the politicians and members of the media who drive their own agendas at the expense of everyday Coloradans.
Connelly further discloses:
Campfire Colorado was founded by Matt Connelly as a privately owned, for-profit website that only receives funding from subscribers, advertisers, non-tax-deductible donations, or from businesses that post on Campfire Colorado’s jobs board.
Matt Connelly is a nationally recognized political consultant and the founder of Campfire Media. Campfire Colorado is a separate business from Campfire Media. All stories, posts, or op-eds appearing on Campfire Colorado that focus on current clients of Campfire Media will note that relationship within the story, post, or op-ed.
We would call that brazen transparency, but the Sun sees something sinister behind full disclosure, and unleashed this headline in the “The Unaffiliated,” their regular email blast that bills itself as a “political newsletter”:
Which Republicans’ campaigns are paying the head of Colorado’s new conservative news website
As if Connelly wasn’t clear enough about what he does for a living or the objective of his news source, The Sun decided to publish Connelly’s salary for every Republican politician he’s working for this cycle.
It’s all public information that is disclosed in public campaign filings, again the word we’re looking for here is “transparent.”
The Sun was just being extra shitty in doxxing Connelly’s pay.
Connelly clearly establishes that his website is political advocacy with a conservative viewpoint, unlike the Colorado Sun that bills itself as a “journalist owned” news outlet, yet solicits donors more aggressively than a PBS pledge drive. The Sun doesn’t disclose their workers’ salaries, but they are paid by these people.
Connelly’s political jobs and salary are all public record. And Connelly pledged to tell readers when his two worlds collided and note when a post is about one of his clients.
So back off and leave the kid alone.
If anyone should be giving Connelly a hard time, it would be Peak Politics for Connelly’s poor imitation of our superb snarky shtick.
As if.