Discussing Amendment 46 on KFKA, Face the State's Jones cited "policy foundation," but not its anti-affirmative action agenda

Summary: As a guest on 1310 KFKA for a discussion of a ballot measure that would ban affirmative action in Colorado, Brad Jones of the "news" website Face the State misleadingly described the Center for Equal Opportunity as a "policy foundation," omitting that the organization identifies itself as a "conservative think tank" that opposes affirmative action.

Discussing the anti-affirmative action ballot measure Amendment 46 as a guest June 9 on 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show, conservative political activist and Face the State managing editor Brad Jones characterized the anti-affirmative action Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) simply as "a policy foundation out of Virginia." However, in its mission statement, the CEO declares:

The Center for Equal Opportunity is the nation's only conservative think tank devoted to issues of race and ethnicity.

[...]

We work to promote a colorblind society, one within which race and skin color are no longer an issue and so accordingly we oppose admission, hiring, and contracting policies that discriminate, sort, or prefer on the basis of race or ethnicity. We oppose racial gerrymandering. We oppose bilingual education, because it segregates students by national origin, encourages identity politics, and fails to teach children English -- the single most important skill they can learn and the most important social glue holding our country together. And, whatever one believes to be an acceptable level of immigration, all should agree that those coming to America must become Americans, and this means that assimilation is not a dirty word, but a national necessity. [emphasis added]

Jones omitted the organization's agenda in asserting that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education should take "a few hours of staff time" to provide the CEO with data for its survey on "the use of race preferences in the admissions process" of American universities.

As Colorado Media Matters has documented, the "news" website Face the State repeatedly has misinformed readers with distorted content that advances a conservative agenda or has attacked what the site refers to as "liberal" causes. Jones also has spread conservative misinformation as a guest on Newsradio 850 KOA, 1310 KFKA, and KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking.

From the June 9 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

JONES: It's sort of a very technical issue, but it's very indicative of how appointees to particular positions in state government can make a big difference in getting information out of government, holding government accountable. Here's a good example: The Center for Equal Opportunity, which is a policy foundation out of Virginia, does about every decade a very comprehensive review of the use of race preferences in the admissions process of universities around the country. And in 1991 -- excuse me -- 1997 they did a survey, so it's about time to do it again, at the University of Colorado. Actually, all Colorado universities. So when you want to get data about all Colorado institutions of higher ed, you go to what's called the Colorado Commission on Higher Education; it's sort of the overarching board that oversees higher ed in the state.

Now, that organization is run by David Skaggs, a [Gov.] Bill Ritter appointee, who is -- basically, the department is refusing to release information, aggregate information, about the use of race corresponding with applicants' preparedness to come into college, particularly test scores, GPAs, that sort of thing. Under a Supreme Court ruling by the state Supreme Court, they can't provide the raw data to the Center for Equal Opportunity to be crunched, because that would violate what the Colorado Supreme Court says are privacy rights of students. But they could take just a few hours -- you know, a few hours of staff time, and aggregate all this information in a form that is acceptable to the Supreme Court, and they're refusing to do so flat out.

—E.B. & J.F.B.