THORNTON - From Thursday, August 14, 2025, to Saturday, August 16, the 147th Annual Colorado Press Association (CPA) Convention was held in Thornton.

Amid a weekend of reporters, editors, salespeople, and designers discussing the future of local journalism, Colorado legislators were also present, not only to be recognized for their efforts in upholding democracy, but also to advise the press on the voices out there waiting to be represented and heard.

Phil Weiser, Colorado Attorney General and 2026 candidate for Colorado Governor, kicked off the three-day event with an open discussion with those in attendance, answering questions about threats to the freedom of press and to the democratic process.

“We are facing a crucial moment in our democratic republic. I look at January 6 and I saw law enforcement officers were attacked and people were there to undermine the peaceful transition of power,” Weiser said, referring to insurrectionists forcing their way into the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021. 

“Part of what we need is to keep this temperature at a manageable level and not one where people feel it’s okay to threaten or engage in violence.”

Weiser also fielded questions about harassment by law enforcement, and a lack of transparency from local governments in regard to Colorado Open Records Act requests. These come in the form of “delays, inflated fees, excessive redactions, and deliberate attempts to block access” to certain information.

“There was a world where every media entity was a well-established provider of news and information and had a reputation and were responsible; but now there are lots of people who may say ‘I’ve got my own blog, I’m now the media, I have a right to get this information,’ but they might not exercise the same care before they publicize something, and that’s a challenge.

“It’s so easy to get information out there unfiltered, unmediated, without editors, without responsible norms,” Weiser continued, pointing the finger at media saturation and Artificial Intelligence as main contributors to the growing lack of trust in the press. 

 Another Colorado politician had an opinion about January 6, but presented it to the convention attendees in a different context.

“In my first month I spoke about my feelings as a black man watching what happened on January 6. It was my feelings. And the reaction we got from the press was that Representative Carter is calling the other side racist,” stated Michael Carter, State Representative from the 36th district, directly in the same room where Weiser had called the insurrection a “Rorschach test” for the widely disparate ideologies demonstrated in the nation less than 24 hours prior.

Carter and Jennifer Bacon, Colorado State Representative from the 7th district, spoke with CPA’s CEO Tim Regan-Porter and to the crowd on Friday afternoon during a panel discussion on “Race, Policy and the Role of Local News.” 

“This is a panel I’m very much looking forward to, though with a little trepidation, because we’re going to go places that may be uncomfortable for some of us, talking about race,” Regan-Porter said.

“We’ll talk about why local newsrooms are important to what they do, and we’ll also talk about how we can fail communities and exacerbate problems.”  

Bacon and Carter spoke about being isolated in the capital, underrepresented in policy decisions made on the floor, and misrepresented in the media.

Bacon told a personal story of running for a legislative position while sitting on the school board because there wasn’t a “deep bench” of those who identify as black to lead and take the open position. “As I ran I was insulated, and my community was okay with that, but everyone else was not, so I did take a lot of heat.

“That first year was Hell on Earth,” Bacon explained. “Everyone questioned my qualifications, everyone wanted to say there was a conflict of interest. Because of my background, because of how I identified, they questioned my integrity.” 

She continued to note that, due to her race, she is required to be twice as qualified as her white predecessors in order to be considered on the same playing field, while also being pre-judged based on a spectrum of racist stereotypes created by her peers. 

“It was the Critical Race Theory years, and I didn’t have a choice,” Bacon said, regarding having an obligation to vote in favor of CRT initiatives and being constantly pitted against a universal stand of her colleagues.

“Naturally my bills started to move in that direction, and then the building tried to put me in a box of what they believed black women should behave like, on an ‘angry black woman’ scale.

“There was a joke on lynching on the floor; someone was called Buckwheat; I was intentionally targeted and got death threats because I had the nerve to say that black lives matter.”

Carter provided to the crowd an example of the lack of positive press that the black community receives by referencing SB25-024, which increased the number of district and county judges by 15 for criminal and civil court cases, and also bolstered funds to courts for hiring more public defenders, deputy district attorneys, sheriff deputies, behavioral health court professionals, and support staff.

The successful bipartisan bill, sponsored by Representatives Carter and Matt Soper, and Senators Lisa Frizell and Dylan Roberts, unfortunately was not heavily reported on by the local press.

“We passed the only measure in the state that increased the amount of judges. It was one of the most significant pieces of legislation that we got through, and your blank stares tell me you have no clue what I’m talking about,” Carter said as he detailed how stories on the black caucus are primarily negative and only serve to further demonize black people.

A panel discussion the following day showcased the power of proper representation when Latia Henderson, Director of Strategic Communications and Informed Communities for the Gates Family Foundation, sat down with Maritza Félix and Garry Pierre-Pierre.

“With big stories, small publications have to rise to the occasion and set the tone for the coverage at large. That’s really essential in this moment right now,” Pierre-Pierre said.

Pierre-Pierre is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who, after reporting for The New York Times, started The Haitian Times, which he helped to excel by remaining focused on that which truly affected his community. 

The Haitian Times became a publication of merit due to its careful and considerate coverage of impactful events, including the murder of Haitian immigrant Patrick Dorismond by an undercover police officer in 2000, and the viral lie repeated by President Donald J. Trump in 2024 about Haitian immigrants eating household pets in a Ohio suburb. 

“We gave a history of where this trope came from, which is as old as Haiti itself, and the backlash was shocking,” Pierre-Pierre mused, recalling receiving a hate email at that time with the subject line being the n-word.

A public town hall meeting set in Springfield, Ohio with city officials, members of the The Haitian Times—who were partnered with the NAACP—and of the local Haitian community, was cancelled due to threats of violence and a white supremicist rally being scheduled at the same day, time, and place.

The local officials and police explicitly stated to Pierre-Pierre and his team that they could not guarantee the participants’ safety if they decided to hold the meeting.

“What shocked me was that my parents had left Haiti because of situations like this, and 50 years later in America it’s eerily familiar,” Pierre-Pierre continued.

“As Haitians, as many other people around the world, we look to America particularly in cases of freedom, and of press freedom…and we couldn’t exercise that right.” 

“My people have been harassed, we’ve been tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, told to go back to our country,” Félix expressed to the crowd. “And it’s really challenging because there are a lot of people who think this is so far away from them and they just don’t want to look at us.”  

Félix is the five-time Emmy-winning Founder and Director of the news service Conecta Arizona, as well as the creator and host of the Cruzando Lineas podcast and the co-host of Comadres al Aire.

As a Mexican woman running a Spanish-language media company in the United States, she feels it is just a matter of time before the Trump administration’s unconstitutional overreach stretches her way.

“We have outsource support, we have so many pro bono attorneys who have revised our contracts, our social media and HR policies, so we have the infrastructure for success because we know that we’re a target and we need to be ready,” Félix said.

“It’s not about if they’re going to come for us, it’s about when.” 

As important as it is for the press to hear how to bridge the gaps in their coverage and be of service to communities who need to be heard, it is just as important for Colorado legislators to be recognized when they hear their constituents and take action at making notable changes to their lives. 

The CPA awarded six Colorado politicians with a Legislator Award, including Bacon and Representative Anthony Hartsook for their work on HB25-1041, which allows “an institution of higher education or athletic association to compensate a student athlete for the use of the student athlete's name, image, or likeness.” 

Representative Julie McCluskie was awarded for her efforts on providing video broadcasting of committee hearings, which have historically only had the audio recorded; and both Representative Lori Garcia Sander and Senator Byron Pelton were awarded for their work on HB25-1242, which concerns government transparency laws.

Senator Dylan Roberts was also awarded for his work on SB25-038, the Wildlife Damage Protection of Personal Information bill, which protects the identity of those who make legal claim of damage to their property, mainly livestock, due to the reintroduction of wolves to the area.