Financial support for this program was made possible by the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition a nonpartisan alliance of groups News organizations, and individu dedicated to ensuring the transparency of state and local governments in Colorad by promoting freedom of the pres Open courts and open access to government re and meetings.

(workers chattering) (dramatic music) - [Erin] We're not here to be some cheerleader for the Chamber of Commerce.

We're not here to do PR for anyone.

- Congressman, it's not 10 yet.

How does taking people off Medicaid and into emergency rooms for uncompensated care help medical providers in your district?

I am an equal opportunity reporter.

I don't care what political party you are.

- My only agenda is the truth.

(tense music) (machine whirring) - We've had cases around the country where discovery violations have led to people that were innocent being convicted and spending time in prison.

(tense music continues) - You know what, it would be way to report from a point of view, You can just vomit out some opinion or some invective and you get 50 million page views and people are like, "Oh, they're awesome because they agree with me," but that's morally incorrect.

It's just wrong.

(tense music continues) - We're not the bad guy.

We actually have a really important purpose in this society and it's important that we stick around to be able to tell those stories.

(dramatic music) - The role of the American journalist in this American democracy, this grand experiment is to be a mirror, to be a mirror back to the community that they serve, and then let the populace decide for themselves and form their own opinions and perspectives.

(dramatic music) - You got lots of me.

- So right up here is a- (dramatic music) - If people vote yes on this, does that mean they are actually healthy school meals for all?

What is the average stay, hospital stay, NICU stay of prenatal?

I've always heard that, "Oh, you're in the media, you lean left, you're liberal.

You're this, you're that, you're the other."

And, you know, I'm like, "I'm the middle of the road guy.

I'm not leaning one way or another as a journalist because that's just who I am as a person."

- Innovative housing options.

Like, Governor Polis has been ringing this bell for four years now...” I think that's an important role that we play is still being that middle person and offering a little bit of rationality and logical interpretation out there that isn't really agenda driven.

- Now with all the battling bias, disinformation, personal threats to journalists, we have to just find every day doing the work and keeping the pace and understanding that it's for the importance of telling the community of what's going on in their world.

(dramatic music) - [Panelist] West of the divide.

I mean, the greatest concern will be- (dramatic music) - We have a problem nationally with a lack of trust.

- When commentary is being passed as news, and when alternative facts are being passed as news, the spectrum moves over here.

And so that actual fact-based reporting that really strives to have balanced perspectives is going to feel biased because everything has been skewed over here.

- We have a problem in this country where people don't understand what the difference is between facts and opinion.

- Welcome to the "News Hour."

The political fallout from the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk continues.

Last night, Disney suddenly suspended ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

- [Erin] Some of 'em don't care.

- These hosts did it to themselves.

They have failed miserably and they had years to adjust.

- To crack down on free speech, dominate the media, and essentially render the First meaningless.

- And they don't care if people are allowed to use alternative facts.

I think back to that term when it first came out, you know back when Kellyanne Conway was the one who first coined it.

- Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.

But the point remains- - Wait a minute, "alternative facts"?

"Alternative facts"?

Four of the five facts he uttered.

The one thing he got right - Hey, Chuck- - was Zeke Miller.

Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true.

Look, alternative facts are not facts.

- That was a huge turning point That has become so warped and twisted in recent years, and combine that with a lack of news media literacy with the rise of things like AI technology, we're in a really dangerous spot right now.

- The Stoner Mesa fire is burning northeast of Dolores.

There is an evacuation order for San Juan National Forest lands on Stoner and Taylor Mesa.

(dramatic music) - Americans need to know that journalism is vitally important.

It's the First Amendment.

When we celebrate on the 4th of July, what are we celebrating?

This profession is one of the things we're celebrating.

I reached out to Democratic Governor Jared Polis's office about these ballot issues.

- We really are defenders of democracy.

(chuckles) We are the people who are paid to go to all the meetings that you can't go to because you have to go to work that day and pay attention to what's going on in our governments.

- I think the job of a journalist, what we do and what we have special training in how to do is to be careful, is to pay attention, is to know what to look out for so that we can get it right, and get it clear, and make sure that it's accurate.

Why did you come at 16 years old by yourself?

(Lupe speaking Spanish) - And without journalism, people are not gonna be accountable for their actions.

They're gonna continue to be corrupt, they're gonna continue to be shysters, be crooks, and take advantage of the system because nobody's putting their story out there of how they did somebody else wrong.

- [Reporter] Fernandez went to prison in 2017 after Denver prosecutors found he pretended to be a plastic surgeon.

- We are critically reporting on those who are in power, those who have authority, those who are making decisions on behalf of broader community.

(dramatic music) - For me, it's part of my moral compass to tell the truth.

(typewriter clacking) (bell dings) (typewriter clacking) - "In addition to offering free healthy meals to all public school students.

If voters in November vote to preserve the Governor's commitment to providing healthy school meals for all."

I didn't ask for a statement from the governor's office.

I asked, "What did he mean by this?"

I just need a casual conversation.

I don't need a two-paragraph statement.

(tense music) I have to take hard-to- understand topics, make them easy to understand in a visually compelling way in two minutes or less, and hope that you got all that you needed to get out of it.

The statement actually is a decent statement for once, but I didn't need a statement.

I just needed to talk to a human basically.

(chuckles) If I could just get a direct answer as like, if SNAP changes, is the governor looking at this additional funding to cover what the federal government would have used to have covered?

And then all, you know, healthy meals for all might be at risk be, but that funding would be diverted to covering healthy meals for the most needy?

I mean, it's for my six o'clock story.

I don't need another statement.

I just need, like, just a basic "Here's what I found out."

First of all, I have to understand it, but everyone watching is not at the same level.

And so I just need to make sure that at the most basic level everyone can understand what I'm presenting.

(tense music) Why is today hard?

I see a news release, or I get a tip, or I see a tweet, something, that seems big, even if I think it's dense.

A lotta my coverage deals with stuff you vote on, legislation that's going to impact your life.

I guess my, my question is, you made this pitch to people, but it sounds like under not a home rule county, Douglas County's doing just fine So how is all that a pitch to make you home rule when it sounds like you're fine?

- What's interesting, and you're talking to the right person.

So, this is my second term as county commissioner.

I've been- - Today's story is Douglas County, Colorado has a special election to become a home rule county.

It's basically what is a home rule county?

What can and can't it do?

What about the argument that you're doing it in a special election in an odd year because you want only people who pay close attention to elections to take part, not the general public who generally participate in even year November elections?

What I'm learning is I need to educate voters in Douglas County that here's what it can and cannot do.

And if you think otherwise, this is our chance to clear it up.

Home rule county gives you the power to structure, but function is still based on what the state legislature has determined.

Does that sound right?

- That's probably correct.

- Someone wouldn't say this on camera, but they said, "If you're a home rule county and you're thinking you're gonna give the middle finger to the state, you're sorely mistaken."

- I believe that's correct.

- Okay.

I didn't get into this business to be the guy covering the topics that might put me at risk.

I got into this business to cover sports, and then it converted into I'm in this business 'cause I'm really good at simplifying really hard-to-understand topics visually compelling way, and I enjoy what I do every day.

But sometimes when I'm asking a tough question to somebody, I have to tell them, "You're wrong."

Journalists can say, "You're wrong.

That's a lie.

That's not true."

Ah.

Mallory?

You watched as I interviewed Douglas County, a commissioner about a ballot issue that I couldn't use most of what that commissioner told me on TV because it wasn't factually accurate.

It wasn't true to what the ballot issue would actually do.

And instead of putting it on TV or in the story and then explain why it wasn't true, I made the editorial choice that I just couldn't show viewers that specific part of the interview.

I'm lacking just a little bit.

Like, I don't have enough examples to hit home for people about like what this is really doing and not doing.

The gist is if you're trying to become a county that doesn't have to listen to the state, this is not the way.

There is no way, and this certainly is not the way, and I think that's the essence of what we need to get across.

Even if you change your structure, you can't suddenly pass new, like, local regulations that say, "If there's another pandemic, here's what we're gonna do instead."

Like, you can't do that.

Or, "Our law enforcement is going to do this instead."

You can't do that.

- Well, I mean, if it's not true then don't air it, I guess.

And if he wanted more sound in the show, then I guess he should have said correct things, I don't know.

- [Marshall] So I had to pick parts of the interview that were safe and accurate, and that was part of the story, is the misinformation about this ballot issue in Douglas County, but a lot of what was said in the interview with the county commissioner that supported the idea of home rule was not based in fact.

(tense music) The people who support the idea of home rule don't probably agree with what my final product looked like.

Either they don't know enough and they truly believe what they were saying, or they just disagree and didn't want the public to know what I provided them.

(upbeat music) - Douglas County's voters are being pitched the idea of home rule in part, they say, to free them from liberal state policies coming outta the capitol in Denver.

As voters in Doug Co.

prepare for the June 24th special election, our Marshall Zelinger found those claims by Republican County Commissioners don't check out.

- Douglas County residents are returning their ballots from home about home rule.

A special election asks voters to approve a home rule - Hello, this is Marshall's microphone.

- charter commission, the first step in becoming a home rule county.

What the heck does that even mean?

- A home rule charter for counties offers structural flexibility but not legislative autonomy.

- At a home rule town hall last month- - I mean you could, the one thing I left out that we cut out is like, okay, what is it then that you can do as a home rule county?

And there was a collective bargaining (chuckles) that the state legislature passed, collective bargaining for county workers in 2022 - That is the governor decides to shut down our county again, - and it specifically said, "If you're a home rule"- - which is exactly what happened last time, our home rule charter would create a barrier to some of those far overreaching state controls.

- If you're trying to preempt state law, a home rule charter doesn't get you there.

- Okay, home rule does not exempt counties from certain laws and policies.

Laydon gave me an example of how Douglas County cannot sign an agreement with ICE to allow the sheriff's office to cooperate with immigration enforcement because state law says they can't.

Well I learned today being a home rule county would not change that, Kyle.

- Well shoot, Marshall, (chuckle these pitches are fallin' one by one.

So, if home rule doesn't allow for that, doesn't allow them to opt outta liberal state policies that they don't like, what would be in it for these county commissioners to get that home rule power?

- You can change your structure, like how many county commissioners there are, your term limits if you want.

There are certain state laws like unionization of county workers that was passed in 2022 that exempts, and the state lawmakers put that if you're a home rule county, you are exempt from this.

So if there is a state law that home rule counties don't have to follow it, that would be something home rule counties could dance around.

- I hear folks in Doug Co., ballots in hand, yelling thanks at their TV 'cause a ton of them have written in asking for a Marshall Zelinger explainer on this and you delivered.

Thank you, sir.

(typewriter clacking) (bell dings) (soft ambient music) - [Tami] We are KUTE Ignacio, KDNG Durango, KUSW Flora Vista, and KPGS Pagosa Springs.

We are Four Corners Public Radio We invite you- KSUT was one of the first tribally founded stations in the country.

(group singing in native language) - They are hosting the 2025 Southern Ute Indian Tribe Growth Fund general meeting... - So at this point, not only Southern Ute tribe, we also serve all the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Hickory Apache Nation in Northwest New Mexico, and then we also serve a large portion of the Navajo Nation with our tribal radio signal.

The Waters Canyon fire is approximately one mile outside of Mesa Verde National Park and is currently estimated at 194 acres in size with 15% containment.

Tribal lands, vast majority of the time are very, very rural.

Folks may not have an internet signal, a broadband signal, might not have reliable cell service.

So these tribal stations, including KSUT, really are vital to the communities that we serve.

At last report, the fire is spreading to the east and is now over 514 acres in size with no containment.

Please be safe out there.

We are the source of news and information.

Any wild lands, as you all know, the fire danger is extremely high.

- The Senate voted to defund public broadcasters like PBS and NPR, and then late last night, the house followed suit leaving the funding for local stations nationwide up in the air.

(tense music) - So KSUT lost 20% of our funding through the rescission package.

That's $330,000.

And right now, we're trying to figure out how to backfill.

So it's significant and it's with a very short window to try to make up that difference.

And I know there's an argument about, well, why should the government be funding and supporting public media?

I mean, I understand that on the face of it, but if you think about the public service, we're public media.

We have a public service mission and we all adhere to it.

Emergency alerting, public service announcements, community announcements, being a voice for community members if they request to be on air and wanna have their voices heard.

So that public service we take really seriously.

The fire restrictions will remain in effect until further notice.

And so with that claw back of funding, it's essentially saying, "Well, you're really not actually that important to your communities."

(tense music continues) KSUT was one of the co-plaintiff and Colorado Public Radio and Aspen Public Radio against the early May executive That completely goes in the face of the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

So, that's why it was so important for us as a small little station in Southwest Colorado.

So, it's obviously important to us even at the risk of, you know, retribution or who knows what with this administration, so we definitely had to think long and hard about joining that lawsuit.

(tense music continues) But on the principle of it is extremely important to us.

(tense music continues) If you don't have free and independent media, it's a real threat to democracy, and I think that media literacy and educating folks about the vitality and how important community media is to have an informed populace is absolutely essential.

They're inextricable.

(tense music continues) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) - Three, two, one.

Coming up, DIA's proposal for a possible nuclear project gets tripped up before the starting line.

Plus, a crackdown on small manmade ponds over water rights.

And your chance to ask the governor your questions.

Here's the news in Colorado today.

I like to be really hands-on.

I like to be able to get in and create things on my own.

(bell dings) Something that I and many others are very concerned about is these same tools that we use, now, everybody can use them and they don't all necessarily have that kind of eye or that kind of training, that journalistic training.

What do you want to ask Governor Jared Polis?

CPR's Ryan Warner is interviewing him on stage and you can take part.

Ryan, this is new.

What's happen - Well, this is going to be in Grand Junction in just a few weeks.

Now, I've had the chance to interview Polis many times, but never like this in front of a live audience.

but we see the federal government saying, "No, we wanna put more law enforcement on the streets because we're so unhappy with these teens that are violent.

So we wanna put the money into this, you know, downstream approach."

- Right.

- I think of this new AI era.

There will continue to be even more information, and a lot more bad information, wrong information that's just out there.

And so, I think that just makes our work even more important that there are still professional and trained journalists who are making sure that good information is available and that people can find information they trust.

(engine whirring) Today, I am driving out to Fort Morgan, Colorado, which is the county that I actually grew up in and a town that I spent a lotta time in.

And I am interested to come back and visit and check in and understand what's happening with the community here.

Especially I'm interested to understand what's happening with the various immigrant communities that are in Fort Morgan.

So, we are speaking today with one woman who herself came here as an immigrant, and was detained at one point and was separated from her children.

And managed to sort of make it through that and went through a long journey in the court system and was able pretty recently to actually get permanent legal status She spends her time helping others who are going through journeys similar to hers.

(gentle music) It is not new that politicians have complained about the media, that they're very unhappy if they think there's any opinions that they don't share expressed.

I don't think that's ever going away.

I think it's exaggerated right now, and that concerns me.

I'm concerned that people are being told that somehow journalists are the enemy instead of what I believe to be true about my profession and about my colleagues is that we're just neighbors who wanna know what's going on in our communities and wanna tell people what's going on.

But most professional journalists are really committed to being factual, to being fair, to being thorough.

It's disheartening to hear attacks on the people who are doing that work every day.

- How did you end up in this community, Fort Morgan?

(interpreter speaking in Spanish (Lupe speaking in Spanish) - [Bazi] I see my primary role, put myself in the shoes of our readers, our listeners, my neighbors, the everyday person who would like to have this information, who would like to try to understand this issue or this story, that's where I start.

- I also would be curious to see a little bit Fort Morgan through her eyes.

Would you show me a few things around town?

Are you okay right behind her?

- Yes.

- Okay.

(Lupe speaking in Spanish) - [Interpreter] Is right next to the gas station.

And this is our church.

- [Bazi] Okay.

And most people who live here, where do they work?

(interpreter speaking in Spanish (Lupe speaking in Spanish) - [Interpreter] They work in the dairies.

(Lupe speaking in Spanish) - [Interpreter] Some work at the meat plant.

(bright music) - I believe that we just have to be here every day, and I hope that there will always be people who are seeking that good information.

Maybe it just depends on the balance of what else.

- Yeah.

- But I think we could find ways to do it if we feel like we want to include it.

I think it's really a privilege to be a journalist and to say, "Look, this is the way I contribute to that broader good and that broader progress that we'd all like to have."

(bright music) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) (typewriter clacking) (gentle music) - I go out and get my own stories.

(gentle music continues) I shoot my own stories, I write my own stories, and I edit my own stories.

(door thuds) I've been doing this for 34 years.

Back in high school, you know, I was a musician and I always thought I wanted to be a music major.

I think it was my junior year of high school our high school started the video club.

It kinda made the switch, and that career, you know, kinda launched me into getting into TV news.

You know, you meet governors, you meet presidents, you meet dignitaries from other countries.

You know, having that front row seat for history being made is something that not a lot of people get to witness.

I'm Byron from Channel 9.

- [Beth] I'm Beth.

Nice to meet - Pleasure to meet you, too.

I like to meet with people.

So I can get you... Talking to them face-to-face, one-on-one.

A little bit, let you do your thing, and I might ask you a couple questions, is that okay?

- Sure.

- Awesome.

I love to be able to provide a community service, get, you know, news and information out to the community that I serve, that I live in.

I think that is probably one of the most gratifying things about this job.

(bag rustling) So they know where I'm coming from and kinda have a sense of the stories that I do.

(group chattering) There's been so many different outlets out there, different layers of media.

It's frustrating to know that, you know, my story's gonna be out there with someone else who has an opinion or, you know, kinda wants to spread an agenda and not really look up if this is true or not, not really look up if this is factual or not.

- [Angeline] Today is October 1st.

I guess we learned yesterday that the government was gonna shut down.

So we're heading up to a food pantry in the Broomfield area.

We're talking with her about sort of like the impact.

How long will it take for those benefits or those recipients to see a change in their benefits?

Could we see their benefits lapse?

What kind of funding will be available?

Is there some kind of supplementary in the interim?

So those are all the questions we're hoping to answer for people.

When did you first hear about the government shutdown possibility?

- [Interviewee] The biggest impact for us and for our participants is actually on SNAP and WIC benefits.

- The reliance week to week, month to month, that's not gonna change because of the government shutdown.

- Correct.

So, the impact that we're seeing a lotta folks are reliant on SNAP for their food and nutrition security.

- [Angeline] The impact we're seeing- - Years, years we've heard, "Fake news.

Fake news."

"Oh, that's fake news.

Oh, that's fake news."

Yeah, it's easy to slap a label on something that doesn't agree with what you want your news to be, but understand that not all news is fake.

We're out here fighting each and every day, competing against the vloggers, the TikTok people, the Instagram and I just want people to know that we will continue to do that - For all you do.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Mike.

Appreciate it.

- So good to see you again.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you so much.

- All right.

Have a good day.

- You, too.

(gentle music) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) (gentle music continues) - [Jason] I've always loved the of assembling a story.

- First started the project back in 2020, right?

- [Jason] Oh wow.

- And then we lost our money in 2021.

- Endlessly fascinating the different ways that you could build this cabinet, you know?

(chuckles) Like, that's what I've always thought that I'm doing is I'm a cabinet maker.

- [Interviewee] The Mighty Argo Cable Car.

It's not a resort.

"The Denver Business Journal" did that and I wanted to kill 'em.

I would describe it as an outdoor adventure recreational area for people to experience the mountains and the outdoors who've never been here.

- It's fun to go meet interesting characters.

- You gotta look here for (indistinct).

Look around this.

The 300-person amphitheater.

Music, corporate events, weddings.

This is the Instagram moment.

See, they'll come in here.

- Just the enthusiasm that people have for their place, for their visions, that's something that I will endlessly enjoy sharing.

You guys find any, like, gold?

- Of course.

They're not tellin' me.

(laughs) - They ain't sayin' anything about it.

- I thank you for joining us this morning.

"The Colorado Sun" is an online news organization, so we'll cover the news that matters in Colorado from the Eastern Plains to the Front Range.

- So we were 10 journalists from "The Denver Post" who came over and created "The Colorado Sun," and we had the richest, most robust journalistic chops of any 10 people in this state.

Can't believe I was included in that group.

We did not know anything about how to run a newspaper, how to make money, and it was devastatingly obvious.

We're a crew of, you know, less than 30 reporters, and it's a challenge to not write a story that you know that you wrote in the past.

You wrote 20 years ago, you would've been all over that story and now you can't even look at it.

And you could still shine lights and hold people in power accountable and, you know, investigate things and, you know, it's still happening.

It's just much smaller, but it's no less important.

(acoustic guitar music) (engine whirring) - How do we put this on planet Earth?

Where are our views?

One of the things that was a requirement was this couldn't be an unbroken point.

So we staggered 'em and we brought 'em out to meet the code requirements for the frontage.

(acoustic guitar music) - Yeah, we just visited with Jerry Champlin over at Buena Vista base camp, downtown Buena Vista.

He is building what is the largest housing project entirely built with shipping containers.

Idea was creating some affordable, attainable type of housing, a very unique project in and of itself, and we spoke a good bit about some of the challenges that a builder faces in small towns, and really anywhere in Colorado.

Trying to write about stuff that maybe people don't know about, and that will draw them together and maybe they will see, "Hey, I'm not that much different than those folks in that small town, or even in that big city, and there's a similarity there.

I respect that person's viewpoint.

That's so interesting."

It's a curiosity when you pop that open, when you click over to "The Colorado Sun," what are you gonna see that day?

So you don't know what you're gonna get, and that's part of, you know, a curiosity that I hope we all can maintain that not just this, you know, not just scrolling endlessly.

That's not curiosity, that's not consumption, that is idle, brainless, that scroll mechanism is as dangerous as cigarettes.

(acoustic guitar music) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) (motor whirring) - [Erin] You had to have your bars, your brothels, your church, and your newspaper.

It was part of what made a city a city.

The "Ouray County Plaindealer" has been serving Ouray County since 1877, and it's only one year younger than the city of Ouray.

It was something that people really needed.

(waterfall whirring) (engine rumbling) - The "Plaindealer" prides itself on not being a tourism newspaper.

We are not a Chamber of Commerce newspaper, we are not a public relations newspaper.

We are very serious about covering the people and events and news happening here in Ouray County, and there's a lot.

- Hey.

How's it going?

- Good.

How are you doing?

- Good.

Let's talk about the Alpine Ranger story.

Lia, you went out on the ride along with Cricket.

- Yes.

- How did that go?

- Most of the duties she was performing were pretty much everything she did with the Forest Service, but now she's just basically being paid for by the county.

You know, they're still unsure how they're gonna fund it in the end, which I think is something of note, right?

Like, they call it an emergency, they're gonna pay for it this time, but who knows what's gonna happen next time.

- Mike, you have City Council tonight.

Can you tell us what you have going on there?

(Mike groans) - (laughs) That good, huh?

- A bit unclear to me what Michelle Metteer, the City Administrator, is doing but it appears that- - But you're gonna find out.

- She is setting up for potentially going and starting over on a national search for a new police chief.

- [Erin] All right, I think we're good to go.

Oh, man, what a week.

- Purchasing and running the "Plaindealer" means that Erin and I are both partners in life and partners in business.

- I think we're just really well-suited for each other personally and professionally both, and that's tricky, you know, because it's one thing to be married to someone for 20 years, it's another thing to also be business partners.

- We have managed to not kill each other yet.

(chuckles) And yeah, we have Walter Cronkite, the news hound, to help keep us honest and keep us grounded.

Fearless.

- I think our readers appreciate knowing that we are putting out the best information we have, (bell dings) what we know is true every week, and we know that they are smart to make up their own minds.

I just had to post a breaking alert here on social media letting people know that Red Mountain Pass is closed between Ouray and Silverton right now for a vehicle recovery.

Somebody called and reported that there was a vehicle that had been spotted at the bottom.

I definitely wanna let people know that they should take an alternate route.

(bright music) - [Group] And to the republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all - [Council Member] Thank you.

- So, with that in mind, I wanna be very sensitive to ensuring that I am doing my due diligence... We have a very engaged readership.

- This place has this special quality that just gets at people's heartstrings.

The "Plaindealer" is the way that people keep connected to this place that they care so deeply about.

I think that in a small place, you know, the relationship is a little bit different, and there are good things and bad things about that, right?

It can be really challenging.

I have a friend who is a retired journalist who, I think he put it the best, he calls it "close to the bone journalism" because there's really no wiggle room, right?

You might hang out with someone at a public event or something, but if they get arrested for murder next week, you are writing about 'em, that's it.

And there's really no one else to pass it off to.

Is it hard to make friends when you are the co-publisher, co-owner, co-editor, co-janitor of a newspaper in a small community?

Yes.

It's hard to make friends, absolutely.

Because with some people there are strings attached, and you do one thing that they didn't agree with and, poof, they're gone.

Although, I also wanna say that some people have been so welcoming and wonderful and supportive and they know we're doing our job, and they outnumber the people who are mad at us every week.

I try to remember that.

(wind whirring) - I trust our readers.

They're pretty savvy.

You are.

You're here!

We have intelligent people reading the "Plaindealer."

People have an emotional relationship to the printed newspaper.

There's a permanency to it that they love.

Oh, there's Christie.

Christie, hey.

How's your new grandbaby?

- [Christie] Oh good.

- You didn't tell me her name.

- She's cute.

Isla.

- [Erin] Isla.

Oh, I love her.

Isla!

- Isla Nix.

- Isla!

With the huge eyeballs.

We had a story break that involved the Ouray police chief's home.

What we knew in the beginning, we had a group of kids that were partying at the police chief's home, which we later found out wasn't that uncommon.

The story broke that this girl had reported that she had been sexually assaulted by maybe three individuals at the police chief's home while the chief was upstairs sleeping.

And, so of course, this was of public interest for a lot of reasons.

(tense music) - The day that story published in January 2024, we discovered that most of the copies of that edition containing that story were stolen out of our racks here in Ouray County.

A business owner here in Ridgeway was the responsible party, that he had gone around that morning, put four quarters in each rack, and then took all the newspapers out.

- We had people that thought that it was somehow connected to the Ouray Police Chief, that somehow he must have not wanted people to read this story.

It turned out it had nothing to do with anyone down there, that nobody at the police department had anything to do with the theft, and it was another individual who had a grudge against us.

- This person did ultimately confess to stealing the newspapers.

We took that theft very seriously.

We viewed that as an attack on the First Amendment.

- So we got the papers reprinted and we went around and restocked the racks that same day, and that was when the calls started coming in from news outlets all over the place.

I mean, it ended up in "The Washington Post," "The New York Times."

We had so many outlets calling.

I mean, the story about our papers being stolen and the attempt to prevent others from accessing news that they needed to know, it went way farther because of the attempt to suppress it.

People who try to suppress the press give us a chance to show everyone else how we can stand up, and I'm grateful for that.

I don't know how you teach people how to grow a pair.

I don't know.

(tense music) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) - This is our highly technical (chuckles) system that we use to sort of parse out space in the paper every week.

Our top stories this week, our feature about an Alpine Ranger program that Ouray County took on.

It used to be a program that was run by the Forest Service, but federal budget cuts led to the two Alpine Rangers here in Ouray County being fired.

The other story unfortunately is a fatal accident that happened on Red Mountain Pass.

A car ended up actually backing off of Red Mountain Pass and off a very steep cliff.

Incredibly, an 11-year-old girl who was in the car survived.

(tense music) This is one of these examples where (chuckles), the space will fit nicely.

Sometimes it doesn't always come together.

I just have this one.

(tense music continues) Newspapers in their heyday used to employ teams of copy editors, proofreading, making sure pages are clean, making sure copy is clean.

On Wednesday we are two people.

Rangers from one.

- [Erin] It's a clean break.

- Yes.

Will you go to 11?

- [Erin] Accident from 10?

- [Mike] Let's see, see Accident on 11.

Chief from page two, clean break We've done all the other jumps.

- [Erin] Okay, all right.

Mwah.

- [Mike] Okay, thank you.

That's it!

(machine whirring) (gentle music) There's a reason we call it the weekly miracle.

(gentle music continues) It always somehow comes together, even if we're never really sure how we're gonna get there.

(machine whirring) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music) - [Erin] Just glad this one doesn't have a mouse nest in it.

(soft tense music) (door clicks) (gentle music) I think engaging your public and getting them to take ownership in local journalism is key.

Absolutely.

Do I know how to do it on a larger level than this?

No, I don't.

(gentle music continues) We're this microcosm.

I mean, we are in a county of just over 5,000 people.

(gentle music continues) So, if we can keep it going and keep it going strong and serve as an example of how you can run a paper in a rural place in an ethical way with rigorous, relevant news, then I want to do that.

(gentle music continues) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings) - [Linda] I don't know how it's gonna turn out.

- [Interviewer] Talk about some of the antiquated rules around ownership, whether it be cross ownership, foreign ownership, you know, what about that side of things?

- We're gonna try to walk and chew gum at the same time.

There is that whole set of ownership issues that I wanna take a fresh look at as well.

- I worry about the people.

(tense music) And I worry that, you know, that they are worrying about the because I want them to be able to do the job that they love.

- Okay, well I did this because and we have a relationship.

- Thank you.

- Appreciate your journalism.

- Hey, thank you so much.

- That's important.

All right, take care.

Good luck with that documentary.

- Things are so in flux that you can't calm everybody's nerves every day.

- On this vote, the yays are 216 The nays are 213.

The resolution is adopted.

- [Reporter] Congress has passed the rescissions proposal, or immediate cuts proposal from President Trump.

It would be total elimination of the planned funding for the next two years for Public Broadcasting.

- I'm concerned and I'm overwhelmed by the support we've seen from our community.

We may have to make some cuts that we don't wanna make in one of these next two years.

What I'm more worried about is the sustainability.

- The Southern Indian Montessori Academy open enrollment for the 2025- - A year or two from now when there's a lot more crises that are happening and need, $330,000 is a lot to backfill over the course of, you know, multiple years.

- I'm most anxious about the degradation of truth.

This is gonna sound like so deeply paranoid, but I can't help it.

That we're allowing like this government to just go into the shadows, and I think that's kind of anti-American.

We ostensibly have this, you know, government for the people and by the people and that seems to be being taken away.

- If we lose journalism, we're probably losing democracy, because then you're just getting state-fed news from a government that only wants you to believe whatever they want you to believe.

- [Reporter] Trump describes the 45-year-old attorney as quote, "a warrior for free speech."

Carr wrote about the FCC in the conservative policy priority handbook, "Project 2025."

(graphic whooshes) (dramatic music) - [Leah] There's definitely other challenges kind of going on up there.

She's not really- - We decided that we wanted to be people who doubled down and invested our own skin in the game.

(dramatic music continues) We really believe in journalism and we believe that it's integral to sustaining our democratic society.

(dramatic music continues) If people aren't informed, they can't be involved, they can't make decisions, and if you aren't involved in a democracy, other people make the decisions for you.

- To be clear, this is still in the study phase at this time, right?

DIA was nowhere close to building this small nuclear power plant.

- That's right.

The idea for now is to spend more than $8 million of city money to figure- - Trust is the glue in our broader systems, and we need those systems to function.

You know, journalism is one of those important systems that we need in a democracy.

- Without it, you know, we become that corrupt society, that corrupt community.

- Can we work around fire mitigation?

And town says, "Well the code says this."

People are maybe tricking themselves into thinking that they don't need journalism.

That is a dangerous path.

You don't wanna live in a place that doesn't have a newspaper.

Communities without that common shared information source will dwindle and they will become less of a community.

(dramatic music) - I'm struggling because I can't most of what Abe told me because I don't believe it's true.

- The work we do is too important to let it go.

(dramatic music continues) - Even small places deserve quality journalism, especially small places.

- All right, I think that's it.

We're your neighbors.

We cover the items that impact your day-to-day life, and we can be held accountable because we live next to you, and we're impacted also by what we cover.

- [Tami] We're here to find the truth.

- [Bazi] Speak truth to power.

- Keep journalism alive.

(dramatic music) (typewriter clacking) (bell dings)