Be aware of bias in how media covers conflict. Are you a fan of less income tax and a cap on your property tax? Have I got news for you ...
Where there are competing interests and uses, there will be problems and conflict. The way that our media covers this often leaves one party disadvantaged.
Where there are competing interests and uses, there will be problems and conflict. The way that our media covers this necessarily leaves one party disadvantaged.
The article below is about a problem a rancher is having with an oil and gas company, but it could just as easily be about any other pair of overlapping interests. This is particularly the case, as in the ranch profiled in the article, where someone owns the land and someone else owns the mineral rights, thus forcing two groups to coexist.
The conflict here, the mistakes, the problems are inevitable. That's not the point. I"m not here to say one is right and the other is not. The point is how we handle these conflicts, and how our press reports on them.
If you have a minute and the interest to do so, take a second and read the article.
Make a quick note of the quantity and quality of the words and perspective used to tell us what the rancher thinks. When I say quality I mean things like tone, word choice, etc.
Now do the same for the statement (not actually given the reporter apparently--he doesn't indicate whether he asked and was refused or didn't ask) by the oil company and anything said by the state agency supposed to oversee conflicts like these.
Now imagine this. Imagine what a "photo negative" article would be like. Imagine that the reporter had taken a written statement in the same style of the oil company's written responses and then spent a day taking pictures with the oil company while they spoke freely about the issue (which they won't because it's not a smart thing to do no matter where the truth of a matter lies).
Quite a different picture and a different article. And that is exactly the problem with articles like these.
Even not assuming an intent on the part of the reporter, articles like these are fraught with problems because of the manner of the storytelling.
If you cannot interchange things, if you cannot see the perspective of both parties in the same way, then I submit that the article is, at a fundamental level, unfair. Whether intentional or not, the fact that one party is free to speak about anything while the others are not puts a restriction on things and it is something reporters should do a better job with.
The fact that one gets a narrative and humanity while the other(s) do not makes this unfair. Human beings are driven by story, by narrative. Bland factual statements pale in the face of compelling words and pictures.
I don't care necessarily one or the other (narrative or bland statements) but if a reporter is NOT trying to spin things, he or she would do well to remember that fairness here asks for consistency.
That, or an admission, that what we doing is not news but opinion.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/07/05/oil-spill-kills-cows-western-operating-colorado/
In lieu or Prop HH, I will be supporting the overall property tax cut (out for signatures now) and a Colorado Constitution amendment that will cap property tax increases without the permission of voters.
I encourage you to do the same.
According to the article linked first below, an overall property tax cap (a constitutional amendment that would cap property tax increases at 4% without voter approval to go higher) is just now out for signatures.
That spurred a check by me on the Secretary of State's Initiative Tracker (linked second below).
Just as a reminder, we now have two measures that could make it to the ballot: in addition to the alternative to Prop HH, there is a measure out for signatures that would lower the state's income tax. See the screenshot attached (I can't link to individual initiatives. so you want to look at the top two measures #31 and #50).
I emailed the sponsors of both initiatives to see if they had a list or calendar where you could find the petition to sign it so they can have a better chance of making the ballot.
If I hear, I will share.
In the meantime, be aware they're out. Give them a read, see what they do. If you like one or both, try to keep your eyes open and sign the petition if you get the chance.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/record-number-coloradans-protest-soaring-property-tax-valuations/article_1d94b298-2192-11ee-939f-1783098c2ba7.html
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/