Commenting on Media Matters for America's role in the controversy over radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's September 26 comment about “phony soldiers,” 630 KHOW-AM co-host Craig Silverman noted on his October 3 broadcast, “I've been castigated quite a few times by Media Matters for, in my judgment, sort of picayune things.” Silverman then cited as an example how he “made a reference to Boulder and Denver and other cities and Colorado Springs that they're all about the same” with regard to “this sanctuary city argument” -- an apparent reference to a Colorado Media Matters item that followed the August 24 broadcast of The Caplis & Silverman Show.
In fact, on the August 24 show, Silverman agreed with a caller's contention that “Boulder is clearly a sanctuary city” because, he said, “I don't think they have a policy of turning people over to ICE.” He further stated that “when I hear Boulder or Denver named a sanctuary city, I'm gonna ask you, 'What city in Colorado is not? Where do they have a different policy?' I'm not aware of it.” However, according to a June 18 Rocky Mountain News article, in compliance with a 2006 Colorado law that “required all cities and counties to report any suspected illegal immigrants arrested or cited for crimes to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency,” the city of Boulder reported 161 “possible criminal illegal immigrants” to ICE and Boulder County reported 1,548 from June through December 2006.
From the October 3 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:
SILVERMAN: I do think that Media Matters, which is at the heart of this, looks for any opportunity to get at people they don't like. And I respectfully submit that I'm a person, I'm a perfect person to be objective about Media Matters because I'm not a member of the right, yet I've been castigated quite a few times by Media Matters for, in my judgment, sort of picayune things. But occasionally -- for example, I was trying to say how on this sanctuary city argument, and I'm tough on illegals -- I made a reference to Boulder and Denver and other cities and Colorado Springs that they're all about the same. They want to jump on me and this show, and that's OK. We're in the public arena. There's no doubt that there are some interest groups that want to get at Rush Limbaugh, and one of those interest groups are the Democratic Party. I don't think that they picked the right opportunity.