Crank on Colorado Media Matters: "[T]hey love me, man"

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Responding to a caller who said, “Hey, I got you on ColoradoMediaMatters.com,” former District 5 Republican congressional candidate Jeff Crank -- filling in April 18 as host on News Radio 740 KVOR's The Joseph Michelli Show -- stated, “Oh, they love me, man.”

As Colorado Media Matters has documented, Crank has either advanced or failed to challenge a number of dubious claims and outright falsehoods in various Colorado media outlets. For example:

  • On July 25, 2006, The Denver Post uncritically quoted Crank's suggestion that Denver is a so-called “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants. As Colorado Media Matters has noted repeatedly, Denver is not a “sanctuary city,” according to former Denver City Attorney Cole Finegan, Colorado statute, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
  • Filling in as host on the August 25, 2006, broadcast of Michelli's show, Crank failed to challenge Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's false claim, made during a discussion of hypothetical legislation to ban abortion, that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter said he would support an exception allowing abortion if a fetus had Down syndrome. Beauprez apparently was referring to an August 11 gubernatorial debate; Ritter, in fact, made no such statement in that forum.
  • In an October 15, 2006, guest op-ed in The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Crank claimed that then-House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “stated that her goal is to undo everything that has been accomplished by a Republican Congress in the first 100 hours of Democratic rule” if Democrats were to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. According to a July 23 Associated Press article, Pelosi's “first 100 hours” agenda included “implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations; increasing the minimum wage; making health care and prescription drugs more affordable; renewing efforts to protect Social Security; rolling back subsidies to major oil companies in favor of spending more on alternative energy sources; and improving college affordability.”
  • In a March 2 Post guest op-ed, Crank falsely claimed that “it wasn't the president who committed us to the battle in Iraq, it was Congress” and repeatedly equated the October 2002 congressional votes on a resolution authorizing military action with a commitment to take military action. Colorado Media Matters noted, however, that President Bush had stated in an October 7, 2002, speech -- and on several other occasions -- that "[a]pproving [the] resolution does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable." Crank also listed a number of Democrats who he claimed “all voted to send our troops into Iraq,” when in reality many of those he named stated publicly before the war that they hoped to avoid conflict in Iraq.
  • Filling in again as guest host on the March 23 broadcast of Michelli's show, Crank failed to challenge a frequent caller's homophobic comments, including his remark that homosexuality is “a mental illness.”

From the April 18 broadcast of News Radio 740 KVOR's The Joseph Michelli Show, with guest host Jeff Crank:

CRANK: Hey, [caller], how are you, bud?

CALLER: Hey, I got you on ColoradoMediaMatters.com.

CRANK: Oh, they love me, man.

CALLER: [laughs]