President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

50%

50%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

70%↑

30%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
March 10, 2010 10:01 PM UTC

"He-said" Biz Journal article needs the "she-said" part

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(More or that well known liberal bias–or was that insurance industry bias I always forget – promoted by Danny the Red (hair))

Journalists may be doing 17 things at once, but if they’re going to write a story quoting not one, not two, but three opponents of bills in the state legislature, you’d think they would at least quote one proponent of the proposed legislation.

But in a Feb. 26 article in the Denver Business Journal, three opponents of health-insurance-related bills in the Colorado Legislature were quoted-while proponents didn’t get a paraphrase much less a quote.

I asked Bob Mook, who wrote the piece, about his strategy in reporting the article.

“The story was about how the insurance industry was reacting to the legislation,” he told me, adding that he had “space constraints” and that the views of Democratic legislators or consumer groups “would convolute the piece.” He also pointed out that he described the bills in question (HB 1166, 1168, 1234, 1266, and SB 76), explaining what they would do.

“In general,” he said, “I’m finding that the he-said-she-said model of reporting has sort of fallen out of favor.”

To a degree, I’m with Mook about he-said-she-said style. With all the dubious information out there, people are looking to newspapers to tell them the facts, if the facts are clear or mostly clear. Who wants to read a newspaper full of regurgitated quotes with factual inaccuracies embedded in them?

For example, reporters shouldn’t give us the he-said-she-said routine when oil industry spokespeople claim that Colorado’s oil-and-gas regulations have driven rigs out of the state. Reporters should state that this is almost certainly false, rather than offer competing claims that are not supported by the facts. (I wrote in more detail about the limits of he-said-she-said reporting here.)

But in Mook’s story, the facts are reasonabley in dispute about the impacts of the health insurance bills. And so we need basic reporting of different points of view, including views from folks who support regulation of insurance companies. With none offered, and none planned, Business Journal readers are left with the impression that business in general is opposed health insurance regulation, especially when opponents in the article say the cumuluative effect of the bills could be bad for business.

I told Mook that some businesses favor health insurance regulation.

“I’d like to meet some people who actually believe that, especially within the insurance industry” he said. “I’d like to talk to people who thought that was true.”

I called Kjersten Forseth, State Director of Change that Works, and asked her about businesses that support health insurance reform.

She told me her organization has held multiple events featuring small businesspeople concerned about the health care situation and favoring reform.

She said: “We’ve gotton Bob [Mook] on the phone, and he says, ‘We don’t cover those kinds of things.’ How is he going to become educated on these issues if he doesn’t attend our events? If Bob wants to take a true business stance, he needs to pay attention to the costs of health care insurance on small business.”

Mook, who is leaving the Business Journal at the end of the week to become Editorial Manager at the Colorado Health Foundation, said, “We [the Denver Business Journal] have the view of a business publication, and we’re pro-business. And you know, what’s good for the bottom line is good for our readers.”

That’s excatly why he should offer a variety of views when the facts are in despute-as they are on the health insurance bills in the State Legislature.

“Things are changing, especially with niche-oriented publications” Mook told me. “It’s not the traditional AP style anymore, where you try to be as comprehensive as you can. It was a business piece written for businesspeople. I didn’t see it as partisan at all. The thesis was, insurance industry insiders have concerns about this legislation. Here are their concerns.”  

Tweet
Share

Comments

6 thoughts on ““He-said” Biz Journal article needs the “she-said” part”

  1. I know all of the bills referenced well

    His description of what 1234 does is only half the truth and 1168 isn’t even close to accurate.  Who can argue with the others accept for insurance industry types trying to prevent consumers from getting low cost, understandable coverage that doesn’t get denied when they make a claim.


    • House Bill 1168, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, limits the ability of health insurers to collect financial damages from third parties responsible for injuries.

    • House Bill 1266, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver, lets certain local governments, small businesses and nonprofits participate in state-sponsored benefit plans, including health insurance.

    • House Bill 1234, sponsored by Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, restricts insurers from using out-of-state medical experts to evaluate claims.

    • Senate Bill 76, sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, prohibits employees at insurance companies from benefiting financially from unfairly denying claims.

    • House Bill 1166, sponsored by Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, requires all insurers to write their policies on a 10th-grade reading level for easier comprehension.

    1. “requires all insurers to write their policies on a 10th grade reading level” – gave me a chuckle.

      Last week I testified at a House Committee hearing and was recommended to present my testimony so “a 5th grader could comprehend it”.

      Perhaps HB 1166 should be amended to read that insurers write their policies so a Legislative Committee member could comprehend it.  

  2. to become Editorial Manager at the Colorado Health Foundation

    Sounds like he’s earning his paycheck early. Don’t journalists call out public officials when they’re making decisions with an industry job in the wings?  

  4. This kind of bias needs to be reported. Even worse is shoddy reporting and outright misrepresentation by reporters who should have a modicum of objectivity in their reporting.

    Feb 22 I posted an article on Pols which got bumped to front page “Pinnacol seeks “quicky divorce“ from the State” covering the proposal by the management of Pinnacol offering a $200 million buyout to divest itself from State control.

    http://coloradopols.com/diary/…

    My information for the article was based on original source documents (the Pinnacol “separation” offer itself), and my knowledge of the Pinnacol issue having covered it for the past year with a number of posts on Pols. I also attended several of the Interim Pinnacol Committee hearings held last summer.

    Although not stated in my OP, I subsequently stated in a comment that Sen. Pat Steadman was going to sponsor the Pinnacol separation legislation, based on an article by Bob Mook in the DBJ that definitively stated as such.

    From DBJ article 2/19/10 byline Bob Mook:

    State Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, will carry the enabling legislation. The state has hired the investment banking firm Morgan Stanley to advise it and the law firm Hogan & Hartson LLP to help with the legal aspects of the proposal.

    Because Pat Steadman (my Senator) carrying this legislation didn’t sound right, I checked with some reliable sources and found this was not the case at all. I corrected my statement on Pols based on the Mook article and also emailed Sen. Steadman to let him know. Sen. Steadman posted this on Pols:

    I’m not drafting legislation…

    Don’t believe everything you read in the Denver Business Journal.  Allyncooper’s “reliable source” is far more accurate than the story in the DBJ that a reporter who never spoke to me chose to print, presumably based on unreliable sources.

    Based on what happened in the Pinnacol issue, and now what I’ve read on this post, it’s pretty clear what Bob Mook is, and “credible journalist” is not it.

    Showing his obvious bias by not including opposing views in the Feb. 26 DBJ article is one thing, but making things up and stating them as fact in a news article to carry water for Pinnacol Assurance is quite another.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

95 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!