Millionaire software entrepreneur turned U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who perhaps still hasn’t quite grasped the idea that he represents constituents, has offered an apology for his gleeful comments about the death of the Rocky Mountain News.
Polis Apologizes for Rocky Comments
I’m not a Polis fan by any measure, but essentially what he said is true. His timing sucked but we did contribute to the demise, all the while moaning about it.
Anyone ever advertise on Craigslist?
What was he thinking? Or was he? Perhaps he needs to good public relations counsel.
He may have been thinking the Rocky political endorsements historically have skewed a little right.
I’m happy Polis saw fit to apologize. The staff of the Rocky deserved far better than the grenade he tossed their way.
It appears, however, the Congressman still fails to comprehend that citizen journalism just won’t cut it. We need to find a financial model in this new media age that will allow professional journalists, with their ethics and strict fact checking rules, to continue practicing their watchdog role. That requires money and staffing well beyond today’s blogs.
The vast majority of professional news reporting originates with newspapers. If too many other newspapers follow the course of the Rocky, we could be left with Internet content that is substantially weakened. Imagine the reliable information needed to make decisions in a free society replaced by a bunch of blogger blabber.
Polis seems to have little concern for the bigger issues posed. It’s perhaps ironic, but the Boulder Democrat appears to have expressed ideas similar to a guy named “Rush.”
While we’re talking about apologies, I eagerly await the mea culpas from all the former journalists at the Rocky about the fact that in three days they wrote more about themselves and the 200 or so people who lost their jobs there than they did in the previous YEAR about the thousands and thousands of others who have lost jobs in mass layoffs in Colorado. I don’t recall seeing a dozen full-page treatments, candlelight marches or special websites about this:
http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/23/daily41.html