In my Sat column, I wrote that Clear Channel’s Kris Olinger told me that the perceived political bias of a radio network is a factor in Clear Channel’s decisions on which radio networks to air on its Denver stations.

For example, CBS news is heard on AM760, which carries Air America. Fox is heard on KOA, which broadcasts sports and conservative talk, mostly.

Olinger told me that she doesn’t think the radio networks are, in fact, biased politically. She says that journalistically all three (ABC, CBS, and Fox) have their strengths and weaknesses.

So the perception that Fox radio is biased is a carry-over from TV, not radio, she says. I couldn’t find an analysis to prove this wrong. It doesn’t look like the national network radio feeds have been studied for political bias.

A few weeks ago I wrote a column arguing that the government shouldn’t just stand on the sidelines as newspapers around the country lay off reporters and cut content.

The government can act to protect newspapers from Wall Street’s typical pattern of greed.

In addition to public funding for newspaper journalism, Washington could offer tax incentives for investment in newspapers or for the transfer of newspaper assets into nonprofit entities, like foundations, that won’t demand profit margins of 15% or more.

The Rocky is offering “voluntary separation” packages to 20 senior staffers.

Click here.

Dream Team? Rocky columnist Mike Littwin wrote Feb. 6 that wealthy entrepreneur Jared Polis hired a “dream team” of “high-paid lawyers and lobbyists” to defend Amendment 41.  

I don’t know why Polis’ team is any more dreamy than the hired guns attacking Amendment 41. In fact, the Rocky reported Jan. 24 that both sides hired “big guns” to represent them.  

In any case, the phrase “dream team” is laden with opinion, so it’s appropriate for Littwin’s column, but it’s not right for a news story, unless it’s attributed to someone.  

Yet, the day after “dream team” appeared in Littwin’s column, the phrase popped up twice in a Rocky interview with Jared Polis.  

The Rocky told Polis that “very few people can hire the dream team that you’ve hired,” and in another question asked how much he was paying for the “dream team.”  

The Polis interview was tough and interesting. And I wish more Rocky interviews were as aggressive as this one was.  

But the use of “dream team” introduced bias, particularly since it appeared in Littwin’s column the day before.  

I was left thinking that the reporter was trying to suggest that Polis’ wealth is giving him an advantage in the legislative fight, allowing him to hire the best consultants money can buy, while Amendment 41’s opponents can’t do this.  

Maybe this is true, but I doubt it, and it certainly hasn’t been proven.  

As part of its PR push for its redesigned newspaper, the Rocky sent pastries to the KOA newsroom, trying, as KOA’s Mike Rosen put it, “to curry favor with us in the broadcast medium.” Ironically, reporters at the Rocky probably wouldn’t be able to accept pastries if sent to them by a PR firm, due to the newspaper’s ethics policies. Yet the Rocky felt okay about sending the sweets to KOA.

A few days before the 3,000^th U.S. soldier died in Iraq, America reached another major milestone there. The number of U.S. deaths in the war exceeded the number of casualties in the 9-11 tragedy.
This milestone deserved front-page treatment, but it was completely ignored by the Post.
The Rocky Mountain News ran an Associated Press article, noting that “there has not been any credible evidence linking Iraq to the 9-11 attacks” but that “President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States’ post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad.”

Fair and wrong. As documented by Media Matters for America, Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor and the Associated Press last week actually identified Republican Mark Foley as a Democrat.

In case you’ve been on a news fast, he’s the one who resigned after his lurid email messages to congressional pages were exposed.

Fox prides itself on fair and accurate reporting, so I can’t see the Fox producers saying, yes, let’s just label him a Democrat on the TV screen and see if anyone notices. Can you?

Responding to the argument that TV news should carry more election stories, 9News reporter Adam Schrager emailed me:

“The rubric by which you choose to measure civic journalism has changed. You and others can call all you want for extra air time on any newscast you select, but I would much rather be able to offer more in-depth coverage for our viewers to experience on THEIR time rather than on a time I’ve pre-determined for them. Further, I have empirical proof to back me up. My experience shows that hundreds of thousands of unique visitors visited the election page on 9News.com in 2004 and stayed for 15-16 minutes.

In my Saturday column, I showed how local TV news stations are filling their broadcasts with lucrative political ads, while downplaying the upcoming election.

And local TV news is the top source of news for Americans.

The news director at one local TV station told me that he has a hard time presenting political news in a way that viewers want it. This makes some sense, of course, because they are used to being entertained to death–by local tv news shows and elsewhere.

But, maybe viewers — not just elitist critics like me — want more serious news:

Today, the Radio and Television News Directors Association came out with a study showing that TV news viewers want more serious news. All the more reason that local TV news should give them more election coverage.

In an interview about gay marriage last spring, Bob Beauprez’s newly minted running mate Janet Rowland said, “For some people, the alternative lifestyle is bestiality…-do we allow a man to marry a sheep? I mean, at some point, you have to draw a line”
 

In describing Rowland’s quote and other portions of the interview, the Rocky Mountain News reported (Aug. 15) that Rowland was “comparing” homosexuality to bestiality.
 

I heard Dan Caplis on KHOW trying to explain that, really, Rowland wasn’t “comparing” homosexuality to bestiality.
 

Is “compare” a fair characterization for a journalist to use, or was Rowland simply listing sexual acts that she considers beyond the pale?
 

She was definitely comparing bestiality and homosexuality.
 

After all, Rowland implied that homosexuality is heading down a slippery slope to bestiality and other nasty stuff, and though she was not “equating” the two, she was comparing them…-as in homosexuality is closer to bestiality than heterosexuality.
 

To avoid controversies about whether a characterization is fair, journalists should avoid them, whenever possible.

But often journalists must summarize a quotation, due to space or time considerations. Rowland’s quote was accurately characterized by the News.