On October 25, the monthly, direct-mail newspaper the Fort Collins Forum posted an article on its website that profiled several conservative Northern Colorado radio hosts -- including Amy Oliver of Greeley's 1310 KFKA, Scott James of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL in Fort Collins, and Keith Weinman, also of KCOL -- but provided no outside perspective on the hosts, including any comment regarding their frequent on-air use of falsehoods or misinformation, which Colorado Media Matters has documented.

In addition to quoting Oliver as saying that she is “a fact check freak,” the article referred to James as “fiscally conservative, but socially moderate.” Colorado Media Matters, however, has identified numerous instances when Oliver has dispensed false or misleading information on her show and has also documented inflammatory statements James has made about abortion and homosexuality. The article also quoted Weinman as saying, "[W]e explore ideas, and give information so listeners can form their own opinions," without noting the numerous times he has promoted conservative falsehoods.

According to the Forum article, by Juliette Fardulis, “If mainstream media is dominated by liberal viewpoints, local and national AM talk radio belongs to the conservatives.” The article then asked, “Who are the faces behind the voices on local talk radio, and what, besides the perfunctory paycheck, drives them to continue to perform -- even when it often requires waking up before sunrise to prepare?” It continued:

For Amy Oliver at AM 1310 KFKA Radio, being on the air is “a ton of fun. I have never run out of things to say. I do worry about sharing too much about myself -- what I call the Kathy Lee Gifford syndrome -- but it is easy to draw parallels from my entire life on the show. And I can't believe somebody pays me to read, which I love, and then discuss it,” Oliver said.

Staying informed is paramount on Oliver's list of daily tasks, which include raising her three kids with her husband John Cooke, the Weld County sheriff.

Daily, Oliver devours periodicals, academic journals, magazines, newspapers, television news, and is a huge consumer of nonfiction information.

She thrives on being prepared. “I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I am a fact check freak. I get up at 5 a.m. to get mentally ready for my show at nine. I am a preparation queen,” said Oliver.

[...]

She does public policy work and actively contributes to the Independent Institute, on the Web at www.independenceinstitute.org. Through her connections at the Institute, she has access to senators, congressmen, even the editor of the Wall Street Journal as guests on her show.

The article provided a misleading description of Oliver's work for the Independence Institute, for which she is the operations director and a researcher; Oliver also is producer of the Independence Institute program Independent Thinking on Colorado Public Television's KBDI Channel 12.

The article also uncritically reported Oliver's claim that she is a “fact check freak.” Colorado Media Matters has noted the following examples of Oliver delivering false or misleading information on her 1310 KFKA show:

• During an interview with Colorado House Minority Leader Mike May (R-Parker) on her June 21 show, Oliver falsely stated that Referendum C was “only going to cost us 2.9 million [sic] dollars. Then it went up to about 3.4, then it went up to 3.7, then it was up to about 4.25, then 4.5, then 5.2, 5.7, and now we're at 5.9 billion dollars.” In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, the 2005 Colorado Blue Book specified in its analysis of Referendum C that its $3.7 billion figure was an “estimate” of the revenue the state could retain under the measure. Furthermore, the Blue Book specifically stated that the “exact amount of the spending increase could be higher or lower, depending on the economy and the amount of money collected.”

• During her August 16 show, Oliver stated that “facts come out that [are] possibly damaging to those drinking the global warming Kool-Aid ... [b]ecause as it turns out, NASA backtracks on 1998 warmest year claim.” Oliver further stated, “1934 is now the hottest year on record. Then it goes to 1998, then 1921.” Oliver, however, did not inform listeners that NASA's revision affected annual temperature rankings for the United States only; it had no effect on the annual global temperature rankings. According to NASA climate modeler Gavin A. Schmidt, 2005 remains the warmest year globally in the instrumental record, followed by 1998.

• During her October 2 broadcast, Oliver agreed with a caller's assertion that Media Matters for America is “bought and paid for by one man, George Soros,” and called Soros “a Media Matters funder.” Yet, the claim that the philanthropist Soros funds or has funded Media Matters -- either directly or indirectly -- is false, as Colorado Media Matters has noted (here and here).

In its profile of James, the Forum noted his “27 years of music disc jockey experience on the FM side of the dial. He brings his media know-how to his first AM talk radio show on KCOL, on the air for the past two years.” The article further reported:

“I programmed 97.9 for Clear Channel, when it was Sunny 97.9, and I spent several years with K99 and Tri 102 as office manager,” said James, adding, “I am an opinion hack, not a journalist -- I am a radio guy. We are encouraged to let our opinions out,” he said.

James is fiscally conservative, but socially moderate. He sees a place for both conservative and liberal views in the media, because “it's a free market scenario. There are certainly 'left' shows that are a success, such as Jay Marvin in Boulder,” he said.

“But we wouldn't make a dime or get any ratings with that here. Northern Colorado has a lot of conservative talk shows born out of a free market, not because we have an agenda. It is what people want,” James said.

Contrary to the article's characterization of James as “socially moderate,” Colorado Media Matters has documented James' critical or inflammatory statements about abortion and homosexuality on his show, Ride Home with The James Gang:

• On his July 31 show, James conflated homosexuality with child molestation. In response to a listener's suggestion that those who “speak[] against homosexuality” may become considered “hate-crime criminals” and that the “end purpose” of such purported restraints “is to get rid of the word of God,” James asked, "[D]o you honestly believe it's that divisive? Or do they just want everybody to be politically correct and be tolerant and get along? 'You must accept me in my homosexual and/or perverted, i.e., child molestation ways. You must accept it.' " Those remarks sparked a protest by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and after claiming August 2 on the air that he would not apologize for what he called “a slip of the tongue,” James on August 3 apologized on his website to “members of the GLBT community. ” In that apology James stated that his remarks stemmed from his inability to clearly articulate a parallel between the idea of punishing an alleged pedophile for his thoughts and punishing those who publicly spoke out against homosexuality for their thoughts.
• During his June 19 broadcast, James suggested that an increasing abortion rate was to blame for the “rapid decline of ... civilization.” Touting the book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (Regnery Publishing, September 2006), by Mark Steyn, James asserted that “the civilization that you know ... will be overtaken by those who would like you to practice sharia law ... just by mass numbers” because “the European cheese weenies simply aren't breeding.” James further claimed, “You can do the math and see the rapid decline of ... civilization,” and added that Europe's “birth rate declining, the abortion rate increasing. You do the math. You don't have the sanctity for the life like that, your society will simply extinguish.”

The article quoted Weinman, who co-hosts KCOL's Mornings with Keith and Gail! with Gail Fallen, as saying, “Rather than trying to win arguments, 'we explore ideas, and give information so listeners can form their own opinions, though we do talk about our views.' ” However, as with the profiles of Oliver and James, the article did not mention the numerous times Weinman and Fallen have promoted conservative falsehoods on the air. For example:

• On their January 23 show, Weinman and Fallen repeated a number of conservative falsehoods regarding an increase in the minimum wage, including misleading claims that a minimum wage hike would hurt business, discourage job creation, and apply only to entry-level workers. In fact, numerous studies have examined recent increases in the minimum wage at both the federal and state level and found that higher wages do not result in job loss. Further, an April 2004 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute found that, between 1998 and 2001, the number of small businesses (defined as those with fewer than 50 employees) grew twice as quickly in states with higher minimum wages, as Media Matters has noted.

• On September 17, Fallen claimed that Brookings Institution scholars Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack “for a long time had been on record as opposing our presence in Iraq.” Fallen added that O'Hanlon and Pollack “actually spent some time over in Iraq and came back and were very surprised to report that, yes, the surge is working.” In fact, while O'Hanlon and Pollack argued in favor of continuing the Bush administration's Iraq war escalation in a July 30 guest op-ed column in The New York Times, both men were influential proponents of the Iraq war before the 2003 invasion and O'Hanlon wrote a column in support of the so-called “surge,” as Media Matters has noted.

• During the September 28 broadcast, Weinman promoted the dubious theory that warming on Mars proves that variability in solar radiation is “the major thing that's going on” in global warming on Earth. As Colorado Media Matters and Media Matters have noted, the idea that warming on Mars somehow belies the reality that climate change on Earth is primarily the result of human activity is “one scientist's controversial theory” that “has not been well received by other climate scientists,” according to a February 28 National Geographic article.