Denver KOA talk show host Mike Rosen made it a habit of ridiculing former Denver Post columnist Diane Carmen for not accepting his kind invitation to appear on his radio show.

Last night at the Tattered Cover in downtown Denver, 9News reporter Adam Schrager signed his book, The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story, in front of a high-profile crowd that included Mayor John Hickenlooper and a current or former Denver journalist in every row of the packed house.

Gov. Carr is known for defending the rights of Japanese Americans, who were treated horrifically after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Schrager’s presentation of the book was inspiring, if a bit too formal, because you left thinking that people really do want a leader like Carr, who will stand up for unpopular ideas.

Schrager was excellent during his question-and-answer session when he was funny and more relaxed, though he acknowledged that he was dodging specific questions about how Carr’s story relates to today’s politics, with illegal immigrants being scapegoated.

I think journalists should tell us what they think more often. They can still be fair and accurate in their news reporting.

Today, by email, I asked Schrager about something originally exposed by Colorado Media Matters:

Do you think Carr would have recommended that Clear Channel executives fire KOA’s Gunny Bob for his on-air statement that “every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times?”

And what do you, personally, think Clear Channel should do in response to this statement by Gunny? Here’s his response:

“The Constitution includes all people,” he wrote to the Rev. DeWitt Talmadge Alcorn in Coffeyville, Kansas, and numerous others. “We must preserve its principles for every man or we shall not have it to protect any man.” “(The) Constitution starts out by saying, …We the people of the United States.’ It doesn’t say …We the people, who are descendants of the English or the Scandinavians or the French.’ It says, “We the people… When it is suggested that American citizens be thrown into concentration camps, where they lose all the privileges of citizenship under that Constitution, then the principles of that great document are violated and lost.”“While not expressed in this exact language, the underlying theory of the Constitution is found in the proposition that every man may use the talents which God has given him, may reach any goal toward which he sets his eyes and may enjoy the fruits of his ambition, his study and his toil, provided only that he does not use his powers to injure his fellows.”

On Tuesday, when I was preparing to write my Sat. Rocky column, I sent Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman, hosts of the Caplis and Silverman show on KHOW radio in Denver, the following questions.

I didn’t think I’d have any problem getting answers out of them, because they regularly respond to reporters questions. And they interview people themselves for a living. You’d think they’d get back to me.

Here’s my questions. Notice that I didn’t ask them to answer all the questions, just some of them, to help me place them on the political spectrum:

Hi Dan and Craig —

I’m considering a column saying that I like your show but I wish there were another talk show in Denver with a real leftist, a David Sirota-type, to counter a right-winger like Dan. I’m not saying Craig, who I consider a centrist Dem, should be replaced. I will say directly that the two of you have a good thing going.

Here are a few questions to help me place the two of you on the political spectrum. Please try to answer yes or no, when appropriate. I understand if you can’t answer some of these. That’s one reason I’ve listed so many.

I need to finish my column by tomorrow night.

How would your describe yourself politically?

Ultra-right wing

Very right of center
Right of center
Centrist
Left of center
Very left of center
Ultra-left wing

Economy
 ·              Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?
 ·              Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week?Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week?
EnvironmentDo you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week? ·              Do you support regulating CO2 emissions?
 ·              Do you think the US should join the Kyoto Protocol?
 ·              Do you favor banning construction of all new coal-fired power plants?Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week?Do you support regulating CO2 emissions?Do you think the US should join the Kyoto Protocol?Do you favor banning construction of all new coal-fired power plants?Abortion
 ·              Are you pro-choice?
 ·              Are you pro-choice when it comes to partial-birth abortion?Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week?Do you support regulating CO2 emissions?Do you think the US should join the Kyoto Protocol?Do you favor banning construction of all new coal-fired power plants?Are you pro-choice?Are you pro-choice when it comes to partial-birth abortion?Health Care
 ·              Do you support a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system?
 ·              Do you favor the free distribution of condoms in public high schools?

Do you support raising the federal minimum wage to $11.00?Do you support a federal law requiring time-and-a-half overtime pay for work exceeding 40 hours per week?Do you support regulating CO2 emissions?Do you think the US should join the Kyoto Protocol?Do you favor banning construction of all new coal-fired power plants?Are you pro-choice?Are you pro-choice when it comes to partial-birth abortion?Do you support a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system?Do you favor the free distribution of condoms in public high schools?Media

Do you favor federal legislation requiring local TV stations to air 5 minutes of news about “electoral issues” each night in the month prior to each federal election?

Unions
 ·              Did you support H.R. 1072, which was vetoed last session?
 ·              Did you support Gov. Ritter’s executive order allowing state workers to form partnerships?

Gays
 ·              Do you support gay marriage?
 ·              Do you think gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered persons deserve formal civil rights protections, like women and minorities enjoy?
 ·              Do you support affirmative action?
Christmas

Did you support Hicks proposal, before it was rescinded, to eliminate “Merry Christmas” from City Hall decorations.

Over the past month I’ve left KOA talk show host Gunny Bob between 5 and 10 messages on his voice mail. I said I had some questions about why Cumberland Press canceled his book contract abruptly, as reported by Colorado Media Matters.

I called Gunny again on Tuesday, and got an email response today:

Jason:

You have to wonder what Cumberland Press was thinking when it agreed to publish a book by KOA talk show host Gunny Bob.

You wouldn’t expect much brilliance or originality. You wouldn’t anticipate humor or subtlety. Your expectations, honestly, would have to be pretty low.

In fact, based on, if anything, too much evidence meticulously provided by Colorado Media Matters here, you’d have to be prepared to receive a manuscript full of falsehoods and ugly insults.

So why in the world did Cumberland reject Gunny’s manuscript, as reported by Colorado Media Matters?

What could possibly have made Cumberland change its mind?

I called Cumberland Press Friday, but the Publisher didn’t have five minutes to tell me what happened between him and Gunny. But he did discuss the issue with his underling, who sent me a written statement by Publisher Ronald Pitkin:

“Cumberland decided to cancel Bob Newman’s War in America this year because in our judgment the manuscript we received varied significantly from the thrust of the proposal upon which the contract we offered was based. We didn’t think the manuscript offered enough new insights to make it a saleable book, and so we decided to cancel it.”

This position is very strange given that Gunny’s book was already listed in Cumberland’s promotional materials. And, you have to wonder, again, what Cumberland could possibly have been expecting to receive from Gunny in the way of “new insights.”

Did Cumberland’s rejection of Gunny have anything to do with the fact that Gunny was discussing his new book when he stated that “every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times.”

Did it have anything to do with the falsehoods and distortions that Colorado Media Matters is constantly finding in his radio show–and the ones it found in his previous book?

Did the cancellation have anything to do with the campaign by Denver activist groups to pressure businesses to pull ads from Gunny’s radio show?

I’m still trying to reach Gunny and Cumberland to ask these questions.

Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd told a Denver talk show that he’s got a 14-point litmus test to determine whether potential Rockies players are of good enough “character” to join the team.

This deserves more scrutiny, as explained here, especially given the prominence of Christianity among the Rockies players, management, and owners, as reported, for example, here and here.

O’Dowd says a “byproduct” of his litmus test for “character” is “faith.” I think O’Dowd was referring to religious faith as opposed to faith in humanity or something nonreligious, but he may not have been. If he was referring to religious faith, would athiests lose points in O’Dowd’s 14-point method to evaluate “character?” Would gays? Would other sinners, as defined by various religions, be frowned upon by the Rockies?

In any case, are political beliefs on O’Dowd’s list? What behaviors or beliefs would exclude a good person from the Rockies team?

Here’s a partial transcript of the inteview with O’Dowd, Vice President and General Manager of the Colorado Rockies, Oct. 17, 2007 on KHOW, 630 AM in Denver, on the Caplis and Silverman Show.

Dan O’Dowd: Honestly, I think that the thing I’m most proud of is the fact that the model that was followed here is a model that can transcend many organizations and actually many people in how they go about leading their lives. I think that the players that we have are made up of the right stuff. But I do think that was a focus that started here many years ago. It’s just now coming to fruition.

Dan Caplis: Well that’s right, and when you look at the Colorado Rockies website, even in the official biography of Dan O’Dowd, it says, quote, …A key component in that process,’ this system that Dan’s referring to, …is finding players who possess character both on and off the field.” And Dan when you took the stage the other night out behind second base at Coors Field and it was your turn on national TV to talk about your team, you zeroed in on just that.

Dan O’Dowd: Well, for me character is symbolic of many of the qualities that we’ve tried to develop up here in this organization. But it really centers on the heart. The heart is the determination of how you live your life day in and day out, what your value system is, how you treat people, you know, how selfish you are, and how you go about making a difference in the world. We try to focus on players, certainly. We want to focus on players that have ability. But really the character issue gets directly to their attitude, how the approach life. And again, I think the thing we are all most proud of here is the fact that we have a group of players who look at life they way they should look at it.

-.

Dan Caplis:  So impressive Dan. I’m sure folks are driving down street, whatever they do for a living, and thinking, okay, how do I apply this to my life, to my business, that sort of thing. Give us some of the nuts and bolts, say whether it’s Tulowitzky or a Matt Holliday.

Dan O’Dowd: I think we started with the basic philosophy here when we realized the position we were in, which was not a good position. One, I think we dealt with the reality of it. We didn’t deny it internally. And we tried to create then a system for how we were going to approach it. You know, quite honestly, it started with a system of basic communication, trying to develop the best communication model we possibly could so at least we could communicate with each other day in and day out-.

And then I think, as this unfolded, we realized that could not focus on results. We had to stay within the process of day in and day out, meaning that we had to create a system through scouting and development where every day we would focus on other aspects to create something positive going on in the organization.

And then finally, as a byproduct of that, we realized talent that didn’t match with character was a completely empty approach for us. So we began, from an evaluation standpoint, trying to develop, which we did, 14 points, of trying to measure character. And I’m not going to get into that, because I think it’s a competitive advantage, but it was a way for us to try define those players within our system or before we even drafted them or we acquired them or we found them in Latin America, those particular players that would answer as many of those 14 points as we could possibly find. Now the by product of that has been faith, humility, accountability, trust, integrity, patience. There’s been an incredible amount of by product to all those things which I think makes our organization, in my mind, right now special.
 

Now the true test will be if we can maintain this over a long period of time. But I think if we don’t bet away from the basics of what we created here we should be fine.

-.

Dan O’Dowd: I don’t think any of that is coincidence, nor do I think the things that are happening now. I I do think we’re being honored. But I do think we are being honored because when you follow a set of principles and stick with them and don’t compromise your values as it relates to what you’re trying to accomplish, I think good things happen.

In my column on Saturday, I argued that the Independence Institute, the self-described “free-market think tank,”  projects a disproportionately loud voice in the Colorado media.

The Golden-based organization plays a unique role in state politics compared to other local policy shops. It dedicates a large share of its resources to issue advocacy, communications and media. 

And as its impressive media presence demonstrates, II is quite effective at getting its message out.  By way of regular features in the press, television and appearances in news articles, II enjoys a status of being a newsmaker and conservative source for reporters.

The question for journalists, editors and television producers, however, is how to handle such a behemoth with an aggressive media strategy and ideological bent?

Here’s some more information about the Institute’s media profile.

INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE STAFF EMBEDDED IN COLORADO MEDIANo organization on the left or right of the political spectrum has so many of its staffers doing part time media gigs on the side:President Jon Caldara hosts his own talk show on KOA radio and KBDI Channel 12. In addition, he subs for Mike Rosen on KOA.

I asked KOA’s Mike Rosen about his column in today’s Rocky.

I wrote: “You wrote in today’s Rocky that you’d have fired Churchill for what he said on and off campus, because his free speech rights are much broader in the Constitution than in his job. Would you also have fired Gunny Bob for his bigoted statement that Muslim immigrants, including naturalized citizens, should be tagged and stripped of their civil rights? This discrimination is apparently forbidden under Clear Channel’s employee code of conduct. Thanks for your views on this.”

Rosen replied: “No, I wouldn’t fire him. It would certainly be KOA’s prerogative to fire him, or me, if it chose.  But Gunny isn’t a college professor operating under a scholarly code of conduct at a taxpayer-funded institution.  He’s a talk show host with strong opinions employed by a private sector company. Have you listened to Keith Olberman or Air America lately? I disagree with your assertion that it violates Clear Channel’s employee code of conduct or FCC restrictions, for that matter.  Perhaps you could show me exactly what you’re referring to.  My understanding is that for on-air personalities, the policy relates more to language and off-color subject matter than to political opinions.  Gunny’s proposal was harsh, and goes farther than I would, but his language wasn’t obscene.”