Transparency in Colorado media: Who gets scrutinized and who doesn’t?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Colorado Times Recorder (CTR), Hutchins, the Gazette, and Glass Houses

There was an interesting bit in Journalism Professor Corey Hutchins’ media newsletter recently. That newsletter is linked first below and the quote I reference is attached as screenshot 1. Because pictures don’t have working links, I put the CTR article Hutchins links to second below for convenience’s sake.

Both the CTR piece and Hutchins blurb are pretty chatty, as much about the insider ball of producing news as anything, but a quote from the CTR piece helps point to another dynamic I think is at play here. It’s subtle, stay with me.

Copied here with link intact:

“Criticizing the Gazette newspapers isn’t something local journalists — with some exceptions — like to do. (Here’s one sad story about what I mean.) And it gets more important to do so, as Anshutz’s chain of local newspapers expands in Colorado and other state news outlets teeter or fall.:

In addition to that, I’d offer some related back issues of Hutchins’ media newsletter. Links 2 – 6 below are his Substacks dating as far back as 3/2023 and going up to 12/2025. What they all have in common is mention of Anshutz and/or the fact that he owns a series of papers (Gazettes, Colorado Politics). It’s not in the all, but it is common across these mentions to see Hutchins pointing out the fact that Anshutz is a billionaire, conservative, or a conservative billionaire.

None of this is wrong, none of it is on its face bad, those are the correct labels. I also think it’s fair to point out that both Salzman at CTR and Hutchins dispense some compliments about the Gazette and Colorado politics along with their criticism. See, for example, the bit near the end of screenshot 1.

You can also see it in screenshot 2 attached (coming from link 3 below) for an example from Salzman.

Yet a thorough read of screenshot 2, alongside Hutchins’ repeated mention of Anshutz’s politics and income point to the subtlety I mentioned at the top. “…as long as they are not all owned by the same Republican billionaire.”

It seems as though well-heeled conservatives in news organizations occupy a lot of time and thought among progressive media, and, interestingly, this attention doesn’t seem to point the other direction–at least not with the same intensity.**

If you read up on Mr. Salzman’s outfit, CTR, you will note that they freely admit to (with Hutchins also regularly mentioning) being a progressive news outlet. If you want to know who funds this progressive reporting, however, you’re going to struggle to find that out. The most that CTR will acknowledge is that their donors are progressive.

I wonder if there are any progressive million- or billionaires hiding in there. I wonder if CTR gets any money from foundations, donor advised funds, and the like. I wonder if there are well heeled progressives hiding in there.

I wonder how many progressives and progressive organizations that fund CTR also give to Colorado Newsline, The Colorado Sun, CPR, and other progressive media outlets around Colorado.

I think you can see part of the point. While Hutchins and CTR seem concerned over Anshutz and concentration of media ownership in the hands of monied conservatives, while they seem worried about undue influence by that same group, they apparently don’t seem to worry about people on the opposite side of the spectrum doing the same.

The ultimate showcase of that being that Hutchins doesn’t think it noteworthy to mention CTR’s glass house amid all of CTR’s rock throwing.

I wrote to both Hutchins and CTR’s editor Salzman for their take on this. The questions I asked are quoted from my email:

“Mr. Salzman, is it accurate that the Colorado Times Recorder doesn’t reveal its donors? Do you have any rules about disclosure if you reveal some? Do you put any disclosures on articles?”

“Mr. Hutchins, are you aware of CTR’s policy? If so, why not note their policy when discussing the Gazette? Do you intend to follow up?”

I got the following responses back (copied from my email with link intact):

Salzman:

“Those are legitimate questions. I frequently criticize the Gazette, but that doesn’t mean I think our platform occupies the ethical high ground. It’s true that we do not reveal our donors. We make the overarching disclosure that we are a progressive news outlet and that our donors are progressive. We do not have any rules about disclosures. We add disclosures on occasion to our articles. As an example of a disclosure of ours that’s kind of comparable to the Alameda Avenue story, we once published an op-ed about a program that my wife is involved in, and we disclosed this. https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2022/12/bring-older-coloradans-back-to-campus-to-learn-how-to-make-a-difference-when-they-retire/50461/ Most recently, we added a disclosure to a story because Ari Armstrong is a paid columnist and the subject of the story. https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/01/new-colorado-group-aims-to-be-public-face-for-non-religious-homeschoolers/76245/“

Hutchins:

“I’ve written about the Colorado Times Recorder not disclosing its donors and saying only that they are progressive funders. It would be nice to know who they are; I often wonder. Same with Complete Colorado and others. They have their reasons why they keep them secret. Might it have been useful to reiterate that CTR doesn’t disclose its donors in the item I wrote in case people didn’t know? Sure. More transparency the better. And if CTR, or any outlet, is reporting on the Alameda road plan — or on anything — and one of its donors is significantly involved, it would certainly be appropriate to disclose that as well.”

It’s fair to note what I’ve written above and what Hutchins and Salzman say in their statements back to me. “Never” and “always” are big words, and should be used sparingly. Neither of them are devils who always bag on conservative billionaires.

But neither are they saints, and there is a decided disparity here in how they treat one media outlet and/or one political orientation, this also in comparison to how they view their own behavior. Acknowledging that your outlet doesn’t occupy the high ground is well and good, but it gets drowned out in the shouting about conservative billionaires. Saying more transparency is better is well and good, but gets drowned out by a litany of calls for transparency mainly from one side of the aisle.

Concentration of ownership in one man’s hands strikes me as just as bad as left-wing funders spreading their wealth among a variety of nonprofit news outlets to accomplish essentially the same concentration. At least in the case of the Gazette and Colorado Politics we have a name to put with the ownership. We have the ability to do what Hutchins and CTR do: we can note conflicts and call them out.

With CTR, the Sun, CPR, Colorado Newsline, we can’t always do that.

**See “Related” for an earlier op ed on this topic.

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/01/did-pressure-from-journalists-prompt-an-anschutz-owned-newspaper-to-publish-a-disclosure-albeit-a-weak-one/75201/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/new-book-gangbuster-recalls-1920s?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/newspapers-in-colorados-san-luis?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/springs-cops-asked-a-tv-station-to?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/a-path-breaking-new-colorado-printing?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

https://coloradomedia.substack.com/p/in-court-colorados-public-radio-stations?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

Related:

I think there is a lot of angst among progressive reporters about media consolidation, and the Tegna sale of 9News is one I see/hear about frequently. It was right there in the quote from the Colorado Times Recorder story I link to above.

Thing is, this apparent concern seems to go one way. It seems to go toward consolidation by for-profit outlets, esp those owned by billionaires.

What doesn’t seem to concern them is how many billionaires are shuttling money through foundations, etc. to nonprofit newsrooms, or how lefty outlets pool their lefty resources to produce shared lefty content.

More glass houses and more stones I suppose.

I cover this at more length in one of my op-eds linked below.

https://completecolorado.com/2025/08/26/ideological-journalism-bigger-worry-9news-sale/

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