Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Ben
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Writer / Editor For Hire
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
  • Archives
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
Home blogging The Need for Journalistic Remediation on Colorado Amendment 49

9/23/2008 By Ben 1 Comment

The Need for Journalistic Remediation on Colorado Amendment 49

Channel 7 reports that Gov. Bill Ritter has turned down an offer from Jon Caldara to withdraw Amendment 49 from the Colorado ballot in exchange for Ritter revoking his executive order that unionized state government:

Jon Caldara, head of the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank, said he also wants Ritter’s word to oppose any effort to pass a paycheck deduction into law.

Not exactly, at least if you read the letter Caldara sent to Ritter yesterday:

…These same opponents have been champions of your Executive Order D 028 07, which drastically reshaped labor relations by introducing collective bargaining to state government.

I therefore propose withdrawing Amendment 49 from the statewide ballot, contingent upon your repeal of Executive Order D 028 07 and your word to oppose any effort to bring it forward via legislation….

The issue is not “a paycheck deduction” but more broadly “collective bargaining,” which grants unions monopoly representation over state workers to negotiate on their behalf for wages, working conditions, and the like.

Rocky Mountain News blogger Bridget Johnson (who has kindly linked to this blog on several occasions) makes a similar error with her one-line description:

Jon Caldara offers to withdraw Amendment 49 if Gov. Ritter agrees to withdraw his executive order that overturned Gov. Owens’ executive order on paycheck protection.

No, wrong executive order. Ritter’s order overturning Owens’ “paycheck protection” order was D 006 07. The story from Johnson’s own Rocky Mountain News properly identified (congratulations!) the order in question as the one “allowing state workers to unionize” (D 028 07).

Most egregious was the Denver Post‘s headline for the same story (at least the online edition) this morning: “Ritter declines offer on right-to-work measure.” Confusing, misleading, inaccurate … what other words should I use? Maybe the headline writer should talk to the reporter who wrote a fairly good story.

Right-to-Work is Amendment 47, which frees workers from the obligation to subsidize unwanted union representation. The initiative at hand is Amendment 49 (aka Ethical Standards), which stops government from bundling and collecting money to special interest groups through payroll systems. Amendment 49 is not, never has been, nor ever will be Right-to-Work.

All these observations today from a supposedly unaccountable, pajama-clad blogger. While there are many things MSM is capable of doing that individual bloggers cannot necessarily do, we’re still glad to be here to provide a little correction and clarification as needed.

Filed Under: blogging, clean government, Colorado Politics, General, Labor Tagged With: Amendment 47, Amendment 49, Bill Owens, Bill Ritter, blogger, Bridget Johnson, Channel 7, clarification, Collective Bargaining, Colorado ballot, confusing, correction, Denver Post, egregious, error, Ethical Standards, Executive Order, headline, headline writer, inaccurate, Independence Institute, initiative, Jon Caldara, letter, misleading, monopoly representation, MSM, offer, paycheck deduction, paycheck protection, reporter, right-to-work, Rocky Mountain News, state government, think tank, unionization, unwanted union representation, wages, withdraw, working conditions

Comments

  1. Nicole Sauce says

    9/23/2008 at 3:07 pm

    Nice work!

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Inside

  • About Ben
  • Archives
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
    • Colorado Ballot 2014
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Writer / Editor For Hire

About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

  • Common Learning Disabilities in Children
  • Tips to Teach Kids to Set and Achieve Goals
  • The Christmas Music Countdown You’ve Been Looking For: 2022 Edition
  • Sleep Deprivation and Parental Controls: How to Ensure Your Kids are Safe from Media Exposure
  • 8 Original Ways To Leverage Influencer Marketing

Colorado News

  • Colorado Senate News
  • Complete Colorado
  • Independence Institute
  • Loveland Politics
  • The Colorado Observer

National News and Politics

  • Drudge Report
  • Hot Air
  • National Review
  • Politico
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Reason
  • The Washington Times
  • TownHall
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Weekly Standard
  • World Magazine

Blogs Extraordinaire

  • American Thinker
  • David Harsanyi’s Blog
  • E!! The True Conservative Story
  • EIA Intercepts
  • Evangelical Outpost
  • Hugh Hewitt
  • Instapundit
  • LaShawn Barber
  • Lileks
  • Little Green Footballs
  • Michelle Malkin
  • NRO's The Corner
  • Power Line
  • Red State

Completing the Blogroll

  • Alarming News
  • Black Five
  • Blogs of War
  • Eduwonk
  • Flypaper
  • Fraters Libertas
  • Historical Conversations
  • IMAO
  • Jay P. Greene
  • Mike Anderson
  • Mullings
  • Professor Bainbridge
  • Right Thinking
  • Right Wing News
  • Right Wing Nuthouse
  • Shot in the Dark
  • Talking Points Memo
  • Virginia Postrel
  • Volokh Conspiracy

Christian Commentary et al.

  • Kevin Pierpont
  • Sharper Iron

Conservative and GOP Sites

  • Backbone America
  • Cal Thomas
  • Colorado Republican Party
  • Colorado Republican Study Committee
  • Dennis Prager
  • Denver Metro Young Republicans
  • Free Republic
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Jefferson County Republican Party
  • Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  • Mark Steyn
  • Michael Medved
  • Rush Limbaugh

Colorado Blogs

  • American Kestrel
  • Bob Agard
  • Colorado Charter Schools
  • Colorado Peak Politics
  • Colorado Pols
  • Colorado Right
  • Conservative Libertarian Outpost
  • Coyote Gulch
  • Ed Is Watching
  • Free Colorado
  • Jeff Crank Show
  • Mark Hillman
  • Patient Power
  • PirateBallerina
  • Protein Wisdom
  • Reagan Girl
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 1.0 (Archive)
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 (Archive)
  • Rossputin
  • Stop the ACLU Blog
  • The Spot (Denver Post)
  • We Stand Firm

Other Sites

  • Technorati
  • Word Press

Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0

  • Reclaim the Blue
  • The Business Word
  • The Daily Blogster
  • View from a Height

To Contact Me:
bendegrow-at-gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 RSS Feed · WordPress · Log in