This letter was printed in the Rocky Mountain News, February 6, written by Face The State Managing Editor Brad Jones.
As managing editor of Face The State, I’m responding to Mr. Temple’s recent opinion piece, “A Cautionary Tale for the Web Era.” (2/2/08) That column implied that our news and opinion website, FaceTheState.com, rushed to publish a story about a lawmaker without appropriate safeguards. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Like the News’ reporter, Face The State learned about the allegations over a week before we ran the story. In fact, the woman making the accusations initially did not wish to publicize the story. We investigated, found the allegations absolutely credible, but deferred to the woman’s decision to avoid press attention. In fact, we ran the story only after obtaining permission from our source. The story itself was straightforward reporting and was factually identical to other press accounts offered by print and television newsrooms.
Our report at FaceTheState.com was accurate, and adds to a long list of accurate news reports about Colorado politics. Our reports have uncovered Rep. Mike Merrifield’s statements calling for a “special place in hell” for charter-school supporters, the Governor’s back-room negotiations with labor unions, and we were the first to report Ritter’s plans to issue a collective-bargaining executive order, a full month before he did so.
Our web site has been attacked again and again for breaking these stories. We’ve faced plenty of official hostility as well, including defending a lawsuit initiated by Ritter and Rep. Rosemary Marshall to keep government documents secret. We clearly label our news stories as “reports,” and our opinion pieces as “editorials” – like the News, we clearly separate the two. For these reasons it’s particularly unfortunate that Mr. Temple’s story treats our accurate reporting as a “cautionary tale.”
The Internet no doubt contains its share of inaccuracies and untruths, on blogs and elsewhere. But as a news organization publishing on both the web and radio, we are proud of our proven track record of reporting accurate and timely information. Readers and members of the media should judge our stories by their content, and certainly not discount our reporting because of its medium of delivery.
Brad Jones
Managing Editor
FaceTheState.com