Responding to Colorado Media Matters, 9News says it’s not a sponsor of SurveyUSA poll on Allard and did not consider it “all that newsworthy”

Summary: 9News vice president and news director Patti Dennis claimed that Colorado Media Matters’ item noting that 9News’ failure to report a SurveyUSA poll showing that Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) had the lowest approval rating of any U.S. senator was “based on a false assumption that ’9News sponsored’ this poll.” However, SurveyUSA’s website lists “KUSA-TV” as the poll’s “media sponsor.”

• Why did KUSA-TV/9News not deem this story newsworthy?
• As Colorado’s sole media partner with SurveyUSA, did the outlet have the polling data prior to its public release on July 26?
• Why would SurveyUSA require other media outlets to comply with its stated attribution policy for media sponsors, like KUSA-TV, in their coverage of this poll as Colorado Confidential did in its breaking story yesterday IF 9News was not considered a sponsor of this poll?
• If, as Ms. Dennis stated, the story had been covered previously by the news division in April 2006 when the TIME magazine story was published, will KUSA-TV/9News now refrain from reporting on house fires, bank robberies, and other apparently redundant stories?

But that’s an apples and oranges argument.

Does 9News never comment on poll that it doesn’t pay for? I find that hard to believe.

Are there great pressures in a newsroom to prioritize story coverage in a medium, like TV, that demands imagery and simple narrative that can be boiled down to :15 seconds or less. No doubt.

However, her excuses are just not adding up. This is an easy story to tell, backed by a reputable polling firm (which the station financially supports), and is particularly relevant as the state grapples with budget needs for education, health care, transportation, and economic development – all of which have huge legislative mandates and require significant federal funding to enact.

As Andrew Oh-Willeke pointed out Colorado receives a mere 79-cents in appropriations for every tax dollar paid to the federal govenrment.  We rank 41st amongst all 50 states. That Wayne Allard, our senior Senator, who serves on two prized and influential Senate Committees – Budget and Appropriations – is sleep-walking through his responsibilites to advocate for Colorado is very newsworthy.

I was really hoping that she was going to tell me that her investigative team was working on a expos