State Green Party Press Release

Green Party of Colorado

Green Party of Colorado Blasts Denver Post Decision to Ignore Third Parties.

August 6, 2002
For more information, contact:

Bruce Meyer, co-chair, Denver: 303.477.6890
John Burritt, co-chair, Hotchkiss: 970.835.8689
Art Goodtimes, County Commissioner (G),
Sam Miguel County, 970.728.3844

The Green Party of Colorado has called the Denver Post's decision, announced in its editorial of August 2, to continue excluding third parties from its news coverage, "reprehensible." State Party co-chair Bruce Meyer of Denver said, "The Denver Post's editorial is their clearest statement yet that they will continue to exclude coverage of the Green Party, and other independent parties, and their candidates, from their newspaper. Their recent election insert gave equal coverage only to the candidates of the Democratic and Republican Parties - the parties of corporate influence. Our candidates were mentioned only in footnotes. How can democracy function in an environment like that?"

The recent editorial of the Denver Post praised third parties for being able to "make...major difference[s] in the American political system" and lauded our ability to get people participating in the political process "who would simply stay home [on election day] if limited to what they see as the tweedledee/tweedledum choice between major parties". "But," the Post then went on to say, "as a practical matter, we rarely have the staff or space to cover all the possible bases in the hundreds of state and local races we cover...The best answer to such dilemmas is to provide alternative channels by which a thousand flowers may bloom...", such as the www.coloradovoices.org web site, the web site of the Colorado Coaliton of Independent Political Parties, of which the Green Party is a member.

Colorado Green Party co-chair John Burritt of Hotchkiss, in Delta County, responded, "It's incredible that the Denver Post is parroting, almost verbatim, the Green's criticism of the two corporate parties, and then twists that to justify their ignoring us in the future. How much additional staff effort does it take to run five additional candidates' positions in their election supplement, for example? They don't have enough space to report our candidates' views? What is the price of democracy? It's unacceptable for the only statewide newspaper to say they will print all the news that fits - their corporate agenda. Political voices which call for 'One Person, One Vote', not 'One Dollar, One Vote', will not find expression at the Post. That's bad journalism, and that's bad for democracy."

The Green Party of Colorado is a state-recognized 'Minor Political Party' and is an affiliate of the Green Party of the United States, which was recently recognized by the Federal Election Commission as the national Green Party. It is also associated with Green Parties worldwide. There are 12 local chapters in Colorado, from Fort Collins and Colorado Springs to Cortez and Grand Junction. There are 4,800 registered Green voters in Colorado, and over 90,000 Coloradans voted to elect Ralph Nader, the Green Party's candidate, for President in 2000. The Green Party accepts only donations from individuals, not corporations or PACs.

Green Party candidates for state and federal races in the November election are Ron Forthofer for Governor, Sunny Maynard for Attorney General, Ken Seaman for US House in District 1, Dave Chandler for US House in District 7, and Eric Rechel for Colorado House District 54 (Mesa County).

The Green Party of Colorado has established a toll-free voicemail number (1-888-884-7336 [888-88GREEN]) for people who want to contact the Green Party. The voicemail number in the 303 area code is 303.575-1631. In addition, the Green Party of Colorado web site is at www.greens.org/colorado. To register to vote as a member of the Green Party, you will have to check the 'Other' box and write in 'Green Party' on the registration form.