October 10, 2005

WaPo gives free ad to Colorado's ProgressNow outfit

The WaPo offers "Dean Camp's Tactics Applied to Colorado", a "Special to The Washington Post" article by Brian Faler:

A small advocacy group in Colorado is betting that it can take one state-of-the-art Web site [ProgressNowAction.org], add half a million dollars or so and end up with a potent tool that will enable it to organize the state's entire community of liberal activists.

ProgressNow, formed two years ago, is borrowing some of the online tactics that helped fuel the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean, now the Democratic National Committee chairman. It has invited activists from across the state to use its Web site free to push most any issue they like...

It is one of the more unusual -- and ambitious -- efforts in grass-roots organizing at the state level. Notably, the group has no connection to the Democratic Party, which has launched its own effort to rebuild its state parties...

This article is reminiscent of an advertorial one might read in a trade mag, and it's discussed in more depth here. It's also worth looking at this organization's board of directors, one of whom is this:

Jared Polis is the President and Founder of the Jared Polis Foundation as well as Chair of the Colorado State Board of Education. As Chair, he will focus on recruiting and retaining quality teachers as well as spearheading the School for a New America. This is a new non-profit educational endeavor that will provide literacy tutoring for hundreds of recent immigrants to Colorado. He is a businessman and political activist who has founded and run several high-tech start-ups including Bluemountain.com, American Information Systems, Inc., Proflowers.com and Dan’s Chocolates.

But, wait, there's much more about him and ProgressNow in "Tying up the loose ends on Colorado's guide for the illegal alien". Even if the WaPo wants to give free ad space to far-left groups, perhaps they should consider publishing a correction about at least one of the things in their article.

For instance, at the page Colorado Democratic Initiatives and Organizations from the Colorado Democratic Party, the Secretary of the "Democratic Education Initiative" is listed as Scott Groginsky, with an email of "scott@jaredpolis.com". Groginsky is or was Polis' "Education Policy Director".

And, at the page "Elected Democratic Officials" from the Boulder County Democrats, Polis himself is listed as such an official.

I don't know exactly how the Washington Post defines "ties", but just those connections certainly meet my definition.

Please write to ombudsman *at* washpost.com and ask them to improve their coverage.

Posted to Politics at October 10, 2005 10:08 AM

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