Despite her history of misinformation, KFKA's Amy Oliver won Colorado Broadcasters Association's Best Talk Show Host award

Summary: 1310 KFKA owner and General Manager Justin Sasso on March 17 congratulated host Amy Oliver for winning an award as "Best News/Talk Broadcast Personality or Talk Show Host" in a major Colorado market. But as Colorado Media Matters has documented, Oliver on numerous occasions has used her radio program to spread misinformation and falsehoods.

On the March 17 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show, KFKA owner and General Manager Justin Sasso congratulated host Amy Oliver for winning the Colorado Broadcasters Association's (CBA) 2007 radio award for "Best News/Talk Broadcast Personality or Talk Show Host or Team" in a major market. Colorado Media Matters has documented numerous instances in which Oliver -- who is operations director for the free-market Independence Institute -- has used her KFKA program to spread falsehoods and other misinformation on a variety of issues.

Later in the program, a caller congratulated Oliver, adding, "[T]hat ought to have the Media Matters folks cryin' in their green beer," to which Oliver responded, "Ah, yeah. 'Menial Matters.' 'Menial Matters' might be nitpickin' on that one."

According to the CBA website, "The Colorado Broadcasters Association Awards of Excellence is designed to honor individual and station excellence within the Colorado Broadcast industry and to celebrate broadcasters (sic) service to their communities. An award gala is held each March in Denver. Stations compete in a variety of categories with judging of entrees administered by another states (sic) broadcast association."

Sasso -- who serves on the CBA's board of directors -- announced on the March 17 broadcast that at the March 15 award ceremony, "Amy Oliver won for 2007 Best News/Talk Personality, Talk Show Host for a major market. That means you beat out Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Collins, basically everything on the Front Range except for Denver. So congratulations, Amy." KFKA's website similarly noted, "After 4 years at 1310 KFKA Amy Oliver was recognized as the 'Best News/Talk Personality in a Major Market'. KFKA has had the pleasure of working with Amy for several years now and this award is just further proof of the quality content that Amy delivers on a daily basis."

Colorado Media Matters, however, has identified numerous instances of misinformation and other dubious commentary Oliver has delivered as "quality content." Examples:

"Taxes"

• On March 7, Oliver falsely asserted that "Barack Obama's global poverty tax ... is gonna cost the United States $850 billion." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted, the Global Poverty Act that Obama introduced does not impose a tax on the United States or allow any other body to impose a tax.

• Oliver misleadingly stated on January 29 that, as a result of Colorado's property tax rate freeze enacted in 2007, "my property tax rates cannot go down, but only go up," and concluded of the measure, "[T]hat's a tax increase." In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council Staff estimated that the measure Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter proposed and the Colorado legislature enacted as part of Senate Bill 199 to redistribute sources of public school funding is expected to result in decreased property tax revenue in some districts while increasing revenue in others, depending on changes in property valuations.

• Oliver falsely stated on her June 21, 2007, broadcast that Referendum C was "only going to cost us 2.9 million [sic] dollars. Then it went up to about 3.4, then it went up to 3.7, then it was up to about 4.25, then 4.5, then 5.2, 5.7, and now we're at 5.9 billion dollars." On her January 8 program, she similarly claimed that Referendum C "was going to be 2.9, then 3.1, then $3.7 billion. Now I think we're upwards of $6 billion." In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, the 2005 Colorado Blue Book specified in its analysis of Referendum C that its $3.7 billion figure was an "estimate" of the revenue the state could retain under the measure. Furthermore, the Blue Book specifically stated that the "exact amount of the spending increase could be higher or lower, depending on the economy and the amount of money collected." Oliver's comments about Referendum C costing a fixed amount echoed those of her boss at the Independence Institute, Jon Caldara, who on numerous occasions has made the same baseless claim.

Environment

• On February 5, Oliver agreed with Republican Weld County Commissioner William "Bill" Jerke's assertion that oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) "would have absolutely no impact -- on nothing!" Jerke added, "There's nothing there to impact!" and Oliver replied, "[N]othing there to impact ... absolutely."

• After claiming that "overall 2007 weather was average" without citing a source, Oliver, on her January 7 broadcast, asserted that for "global-warming alarmists, that's probably blasphemy to you." The claim echoed a misleading headline that the conservative "news" website Face the State used to link to a January 3 Rocky Mountain News article about Denver weather conditions in 2007. As Colorado Media Matters noted, in contrast with Denver's weather, an Associated Press article published January 2 on the National Geographic website reported that globally, "Through the first 10 months of 2007, it was the hottest year recorded on land and the third hottest when ocean temperatures are included."

• Echoing the conservative argument that cold weather in one particular geographic locale, over a specified period of time, tends to contradict the reality that global temperatures are rising, Oliver three times in 2007 -- on March 6, October 1, and December 11 -- cited local cold temperatures as casting doubt on the science of global warming. In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted repeatedly, pointing to any sporadic regional weather event as "evidence" that disproves global warming is simplistic and misleading.

• Ridiculing former vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore as "the Goracle, high priest of global warming" on October 15, 2007, Oliver stated, "By the way, judge in Britain ... found nine falsehoods in the Goracle's movie," a reference to Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount Classics, May 2006). At no point did Oliver elaborate on the ruling by pointing out that the judge's findings in fact confirmed the overall scientific veracity of An Inconvenient Truth.

• During her August 16, 2007, broadcast, Oliver misleadingly stated that "facts come out that [are] possibly damaging to those drinking the global warming Kool-Aid ... [b]ecause as it turns out, NASA backtracks on 1998 warmest year claim." Oliver added, "1934 is now the hottest year on record. Then it goes to 1998, then 1921." But Oliver did not inform listeners that NASA's revision affected annual temperature rankings for the United States only; it had no effect on the annual global temperature rankings. According to NASA climate modeler Gavin A. Schmidt, 2005 remains the warmest year globally in the instrumental record, followed by 1998.

Labor

• On January 24, Oliver misleadingly suggested that after issuing the executive order "Authorizing Partnership Agreements with State Employees" on November 2, 2007, Gov. Bill Ritter (D) "duck[ed] out of town," purportedly to evade media scrutiny. In fact, as Colorado Media Matters noted, Ritter reportedly notified The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News of the executive order before he issued it and gave an interview to the News on the day the order was announced. Additionally, Ritter answered questions about the order in a Denver Business Journal email interview published on November 9, 2007.

In addition, Oliver has used her radio show to promote political issues and candidates without immediately revealing her personal interest in promoting them. For example:

• On October 9, 2007, Oliver touted Initiated Question 200, which would have limited payroll deductions for public employees in the city of Greeley, without disclosing that the Independence Institute sponsored a committee promoting the measure. Oliver asked, "Should your taxpayer dollars be used for the infrastructure of private organizations that have political purposes?" then stated, "It's pretty simple. There's an enormous conflict of interest there." However, Oliver failed to tell her listeners that not only did the Independence Institute launch a policy initiative, Ask First, to promote passage of the measure in Greeley and other Colorado cities, the free-market think tank also "gave money and manpower" to help place the question on the ballot, according to a July 7, 2007, Greeley Tribune article. Oliver did not reveal that she worked for the Ask First Greeley campaign until October 22, 2007.

• Similarly, despite her on-air criticisms of Greeley City Council candidates who accepted contributions from organizations opposing Initiated Question 200, Oliver did not disclose to listeners that she personally contributed money to the campaign of city council candidate Maria Secrest, who supported the initiative. Oliver touted Secrest during the October 9, 2007, broadcast.

From the March 18 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

SASSO: The reason I've marched down the hallway here with my storm troopers is to inform you and congratulate you --

OLIVER: That I'm -- to clean out my desk.

SASSO: To clean out -- exactly. And go collect a box. No. After three years -- and we've entered you into this category for the last three years, and every year our hearts have fallen at the Colorado Broadcasters Association, what we call the CBs affectionately, down at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Every year we get together, we look back at entries, basically, from all the radio stations statewide. They're actually judged -- this year they were judged by the Illinois Broadcasters Association.

OLIVER: I was born in Illinois.

SASSO: So there you go.

OLIVER: There's a tie there.

SASSO: Must have been a tie. There must have been something. Well, what we do is, we send out all the entries. And I sit on the CBA board; I have no control over this. I should announce that right at the get-go. But, essentially, we --

OLIVER: Except for the check that goes out.

SASSO: Except, well, we do have to submit a check for each entry, but every year we've submitted that check knowing that it was a poor investment because we've never seen poor Amy Oliver come back with an award. And for the first time in your three years here --

OLIVER: I am the Susan Lucci.

SASSO: You have finally -- well, here's the setup for this. I have to say, Amy has attended this event with us for the last couple of years. This year, I said, "Amy, we're submitting again. Would you come along?" and she said, "I can't." And I said, "Now, don't be that way. Come on down and enjoy the dinner at least, and, you know, fellowship with some friends in the broadcast industry."

OLIVER: They thought I was pouting.

SASSO: You actually did have a Weld Food Bank event.

OLIVER: I did. I was the emcee for the Weld Food Bank fundraiser. And what a great time we had raising money for the Weld Food Bank right here, it was right here in Greeley.

SASSO: OK.

OLIVER: So they had asked me --

SASSO: You had a legitimate reason.

OLIVER: They had asked me long before I found out about this.

SASSO: I was pretty sure you were sulking when I invited you this year, but you had a legitimate reason. But we are proud to announce -- and it makes me, it fills my heart with joy, as my wife said that night when they made the announcement, I was grinning ear to ear as I went up to accept for you. But Amy Oliver won for 2007 Best News/Talk Personality, Talk Show Host for a major market. That means you beat out Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Collins, basically everything on the Front Range except for Denver. So congratulations, Amy.

OLIVER: Well, thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate that.

[...]

CALLER: First off, congratulations on your award. And that ought to have the Media Matters folks cryin' in their green beer.

OLIVER: Ah, yeah. "Menial Matters." "Menial Matters" might be nitpickin' on that one. You know what, I will say -- few things, well -- I get to do what I love. I get to read stuff and give my opinion. It just doesn't get any better than that. And, you know, it's funny, when I heard about the fact that I had won, first of all, you know, it is truly -- you know, you say," It's an honor," and I cannot overstate that. It would just be impossible to do. And the fact that you're voted on by people that have no idea who you are, or what you are, or anything else -- they just listen to your clips -- you know, you're voted on by your peers, so it is such an incredible, incredible honor. But I'm not kidding when I say when I was little, it terrified me that there were countries that put people in jail for what they said. And I think that has truly always been in the back of my mind. And that's probably why I'm sitting here today.

CALLER: Well, it's well deserved, and we're well on our way to getting to that point with the PC people.

—C.H.