Face the State's distorted headline referred to environmental and sportsmen's organizations as "enviro-wacko groups"

Summary: Once again, the "news" website Face the State published a misleading headline linking to a news report, a practice Colorado Media Matters has documented repeatedly. On February 15 its headline referring to "enviro-wacko groups" linked to a Rocky Mountain News article reporting on organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited backing a proposed tax measure for the November ballot.

Continuing its frequent past practice, the "news" website Face the State on February 15 provided a distorted and misleading headline as a link to a news article on a mainstream media website. The headline, "Enviro-Wacko groups to push severance tax increase to ballot," linked to a February 15 Rocky Mountain News article reporting that a group "backed by the state's most influential environmental organizations" had filed paperwork to place on the November statewide ballot a proposed increase in the oil and gas severance tax "to preserve open space and fund clean energy initiatives." Among the organizations supporting the initiative, the News reported, were The Nature Conservancy, Environment Colorado, Trout Unlimited, "and several land trusts and sportsmen's groups."

Face the State describes itself as "the 'go-to' news resource for Coloradans interested in state and local politics." The website's founder and managing editor, Brad Jones, recently defended Face the State's journalistic practices -- in a February 6 guest editorial published by the News and in an article published in the February 7 issue of the weekly Westword, which stated, among other things, that "Jones resents the insinuation that he'd sacrifice accuracy and journalistic credibility if given the chance to spatter political opponents."

However, as Colorado Media Matters has documented repeatedly, Face the State frequently publishes misleading headlines on its aggregated news articles, uses the noun "Democrat" ungrammatically as an adjective, and makes other distortions that advance conservative viewpoints and denigrate liberal positions and political figures.

—B.J.M.