The Denver Gazette threatened Aurora with a lawsuit after the city heavily redacted documents about gang activity at apartment buildings before releasing it to the newspaper through an open records request.
The Gazette reported this week in its continuing coverage of the Tren de Aragua troubles that city officials finally acquiesced and turned over clean records without the superfluous black marks.
It’s important to note how seriously the Gazette takes its role as a government watchdog, as we turn our attention now to how Denver’s 9News did the exact opposite this week.
The TV station also used the same open records law to obtain emails between Colorado’s first gentleman Marlon Reis and what 9News described simply as “a group that included the governor’s wildlife adviser” in an alarming report that Reis is trying to craft new laws before his husband leaves office.
The state released the emails, and the names of those Reis was corresponding with to lobby state government and/or push through regulations or laws.
Yet in a complete turnabout of the whole point of their job, it was 9News who redacted the names of those whom Reis was corresponding to secretly craft laws.
The news industry term for such an egregious action within their own ranks is, “what the actual f@*k!?”
Here’s part of the email Reis sent earlier this year to the mystery people, perhaps his radical animal activist buddies, with at least one of Polis’s advisors who may or may not be a government worker.
“With only two legislative sessions to go while Jared is still Governor, I suspect we would want to start safeguarding parts of the wolf reintroduction plan that are likely first to attack on the opposition’s list of priorities, i.e. downlisting and then relisting as a Game Species.
“I also think there are opportunities for us to learn from other States and craft legislation that further restricts tools traditionally used in hunting wolves, like artificial lighting at den sites, snowmobile regulations, etc.”
9News says they redacted the email addresses on the documents, but it is a journalist’s obligation to find out who he was communicating with and inform the public.
Reis’s activities are important enough for 9News to go to the trouble of filing an open records request, reviewing the documents and writing the story.
But equally important is for the public to know who else is engaged in this legislating activity so we can determine what exactly it is they’re planning and if it’s legal.
The governor’s office completely redacted what might be a very important response from Reis in one email, claiming it was a “work product” and somehow privileged information not subject to open records law.
Reis does not work for the government, so why is he talking about state “work product” that the public is not allowed to know about?
A state Democrat lawmaker last week pressed wildlife officials repeatedly on how much interreference or influence is coming from the governor’s office to operate the controversial wolf program.
We say it’s no coincidence that 9News is first out of the gate with documents confirming yet covering up the influence and activities of the governor’s partner — a well-known animal advocate whose meddling in state affairs always backfires on Polis.
Just look at how 9News took the redacted emails communicating with mystery people about Reis’s mystery laws to Norman Provizer, an MSU Denver political science professor emeritus for comment.
Without knowing who Reis was lobbying in his legislative effort or even what he was lobbying for, Provizer wrote it off as freedom of expression.
What is Gov. Polis, Reis, and their friends at 9News covering up?
Maybe the Denver Gazette can get to the bottom of what kind of laws Reis is crafting, and who he’s doing it with.