Colorado officials and Texas journalists are facing scrutiny after an open records request disclosed that the state used taxpayer dollars to pay for the journalists to vacation in the state.
State officials reportedly paid three Austin, Texas-based travel writers nearly $7,000 for their vacations, according to an Oct. 21 article from KUNC. Last year, the state paid a collective $32,000 in travel reimbursements to journalists to boost attention to Colorado tourism amenities.
The travel writers included Austin American-Statesman travel editor Kristin Finan visiting the lux Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, Statesman freelance reporter Mauri Ebel dining on halibut, trout and beef tartare at a Breckenridge upscale restaurant, and freelance writer Pam LeBlanc rafting the Arkansas River and browsing a Paonia orchard.
Colorado taxpayers funded the writers' rental cars, flights, meals, snacks, gas, hotels and campgrounds. In return, KUNC reported, the officials got what they were seeking: attention in major publications praising Colorado vacations.
“The journalist hosting program is how we’re able to keep Colorado top of mind in some of the best travel publications across the country,” said Abby Leeper, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Tourism Office, in the KUNC article. She said the journalism travel program, which has used taxpayer dollars to fund writers' getaways for years, has generated articles in publications the likes of the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Last year, about 120 stories were published promoting travel to Colorado. "And that equates to a media value of about $3 million and 40 million impressions. So to put that in a return of investment term, it’s about 94 to 1," Leeper noted.
The journalism travel program was paused form March through May of this year, but was reinstated over the summer after Gov. Jared Polis relaxed COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Although state officials hope the subsidized trips are encouraging tourism for Colorado, and the stories have been nothing but positive, readers are not explicitly informed in the articles that the stories are sponsored by the state of Colorado – a practice that has drawn concern from others in the journalism industry.
Al Tompkins, a senior faculty member at the Poynter Journalism Institute, said that the absence of transparency in the articles that the paid writers produce is an issue.
"We don’t let the source that we’re reporting on pay for our reporting,” Tompkins said in the article. “And if, for whatever reason—and I can’t even imagine what it would be—we broke that general guideline, then you absolutely would have to disclose it to the public so that the public could know which lens to look through, what to believe and what not to believe.”
Tompkins, who has written ethics codes for journalists before, told KUNC that accepting money can be seen as outside influence on a story, tarnishing a journalist's reputation and independence.
“It’s outside of the ethics of our craft, not embraced by it,” he said, adding that even reporters who fly on Air Force One as part of their coverage pay for their own flights.
The editors of the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle denied KUNC's requests for an interview, but then issued statements after being shown the public records of journalists accepting payment from taxpayer dollars.
“We weren’t aware of this practice, and it doesn’t meet the standards we’ve established for our staffers,” Chronicle editor Steve Riley wrote, according to the article. The Chronicle's ethics policy states that the publication should pay for all travel expenses. “We’ll be looking further into this issue to ensure freelancers follow the same standards,” Riley added.
American-Statesman editor John Bridges said accepting free lodging and other reimbursements is a violation of the newspaper's principles and ethical conduct, and the paper will be "taking appropriate action."
