Jared Polis: To Know Him Is To Loathe Him

Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis (D.-Colo.) has a peculiar habit of creating enemies. Silicon Valley's movers and shakers loathe him. His fellow rich Colorado gays shun him. And now the media hates him, too!

The now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, which published its last edition on Friday, endorsed Polis's opponent in the November election which put him in Congress. He just couldn't resist dancing on the newspaper's grave:

"I have to say, that when we say, 'Who killed The Rocky Mountain News,' we're all part of it, for better or worse, and I argue it's mostly for the better," Polis said at the Netroots Nation in Your Neighborhood event in Westminster, according to a recording posted online. The group supports progressive politics. "The media is dead, and long live the new media, which is all of us," said Polis, a Boulder Democrat.

That sent The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg into a predictable fit of apoplexy. (He titled his blog post "Go to Hell, Jared Polis" before some prudish Atlantic editor changed it.)

So the pundits of Washington D.C. are getting a taste of Polis's know-it-all self-righteousness! That's a relief to people in Silicon Valley and Colorado, who bore the brunt of it.

One of his first acts as a congressman? He took his staff on a retreat to Boulder, Colo., and forced them to eat a vegan lunch and do yoga.

Who is this guy? People sure don't like him. And yet it seems like being on the other side of a deal from him is a losing bet. Which means: He's sure going to have fun in Washington!

You've given me an excuse to post this again!

http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2009/03/they-hate-us-out-there.html

"They hate us out there"

A Congressman–a Democratic Congressman, at that–has given public voice to something a lot of journalists don't want to know about or talk about: A large number of people are actively rooting for newspapers and other media to die horrible deaths.

Rep. Jared Polis (D.-Colo.) said this about the closing of the Rocky Mountain News at a political meeting this week: "I have to say, that when we say, 'Who killed the Rocky Mountain News,' we're all part of it, for better or worse, and I argue it's mostly for the better. ... The media is dead, and long live the new media, which is all of us."

Polis' remarks made Romenesko, and drew an angry retort from Atlantic magazine's Jeff Goldberg, who titled his post, "Go to Hell, Jared Polis." But about the only thing remarkable about Polis' inflammatory comments were that they came from a Democrat.

Over on the other side of the political aisle, there's a whole cadre of people passionately rooting for the death of media outlets they see as liberally biased. And the kinds of things they say make Polis look positively temperate.

Want a taste? Jump into any of the discussions here, at FreeRepublic.com, one of the leading right-wing Web sites. A regular feature called "Dinosaur Media Death Watch" chronicles every development in the decline of the journalism business in detail that surpasses even Romenesko–except that these dispatches are accompanied by unalloyed glee. The standard comment about newspaper layoffs or closings is something along the lines of "good riddance." You'll see similar sentiments expressed at other conservative sites. It's nasty stuff.

In the FreeRepublic view of the media world, newspapers are dying–and should die–because they're inaccurate, too liberal and too arrogant. These folks believe, in fact, that those alleged failings are driving readers and advertisers away, causing newspaper problems that go far beyond the real factors like Internet competition, the decline of classifieds and the economy. Like Polis, they revel in how alternative formats like blogs are causing problems for traditional media.

To journalists, this is sort of bizarro world. But it's virulent in certain quarters, and Polis' unfortunate remarks are just one facet of it. While some of us think the existing newspaper business model is fatally flawed, we love journalism and we're working hard along with a lot of other good people to transition the media business to something more sustainable. But there are probably just as many–or more–people rooting heartily for papers and journalism to fail, for political reasons.

Twenty-five years ago, a smart professor and editor of mine named Charles "Puff" Puffenbarger told me something about news audiences that I'll always remember: "They hate us out there." It appears that's true more now than ever.

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