Are some of Ogden’s Colorado papers rigging their search engine’s results?
From Real Vail’s David Williams:
Let's just go ahead and call it "Search-Gate." More questionable Colorado news for West Virginia's Ogden Newspapers. https://t.co/jlrlOE4GJM
— davidowilliams (@davidowilliams) October 29, 2022
Apparently, if you used the Vail Daily's search engine to look for news on Democratic candidates, the following message would appear:
“Search functionality is undergoing maintenance. We suggest searching google until maintenance is complete.”
A search of Republican candidates, however, listed the various articles on the candidate. Williams then tried Ogden’s Steamboat Springs paper and got the same results. Williams contacted the Vail and Steamboat Springs publishers and was told it was a software problem that they were working on.
Williams’ report did not surprise me. Could that be the case here? While I’m quite aware of Ogden’s political biases, I doubt that the search engine rigging is occurring locally in Wheeling: they don't need to because our “newspapers,” for the most part, ignore the Democratic candidates. (Best example – in 2020, Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s Democratic opponent, Paula Swearengin, appeared in only one Ogden sentence from the primary election to election day.)
Endorsements (or lack, thereof)
From Ogden's Vail Daily:
We will not be endorsing candidates for this year’s election, as we have in years past. I wish that wasn’t the case, but in a time of intense partisanship and political extremism, including a significant rise in threats of political violence, it’s become a no-win proposition for a nonpartisan news organization to make endorsements.
Interesting. An Ogden paper not willing to endorse? Just a thought, but perhaps the Vail Daily's decision has something to do with a nearby controversial congressional candidate who will be running for reelection.* Here’s a shot of a campaign poster of Colorado District 3 Republican congressperson, Lauren Boebert, headlining a campaign event for our local Ogden-endorsed Republican candidate, Alex Mooney:
(I wrote about it here.)
By the way, the Wheeling Intelligencer has shown no fear in its endorsements. Yesterday, the paper provided guidance for West Virginians by endorsing Mike DeWine for governor of Ohio and today they endorsed J.D. Vance for Ohio senator.
Aspen
I’m a bit tardy on posting this but I think it’s still worth noting this article from the Colorado Sun on how Ogden changed the journalism in Aspen:
The Aspen Times is due to win @ColoradoPress awards for 5 journalists today. None of the 5 are working at the Times today. All of us were forced to resign on principle, or fired, since Ogden Newspapers bought the Times in January: https://t.co/S0RDXwJHoX
— Andrew Travers (@andrewhtravers) September 17, 2022
*11/2/21 -- A correction. My original post erroneously had Boebert representing Vail. I've since discovered that Vail is located just outside Boebert's District 3 in Colorado District 2 and is represented by Democrat Joe Neguse.
