The biggest news story of Colorado's political year so far has been running this past week. All about Scott McInnis, lawyer, ex-congressman and the Republican Party's choice to be our next governor.
All about how McInnis borrowed extensively from another man's scholarly writing on water policy and then sold his "musings," including the lifted material, as his original work. All for a considerable sum of money.
Well, that's called plagiarism, and it's serious, and in this case it's something every voter had a right to know about. Also, I think it's important to recognize just how it all came to light.
It wasn't from a talking head on TV. Not from a press agent's sanitized handout. Not from Google or Wikipedia or someone's blog.
It was from a daily newspaper. That old thing. From the Denver Post.
It was painstakingly dug out -- almost literally, I'd guess -- and laid before us by a reporter named Karen Crummy and a backup staff of people who, fortunately for us, are still doing what a newspaper is supposed to do.
It isn't like picking an apple off a tree. It takes days and days of poking around, scanning documents, asking a multitude of questions, weighing answers, checking everything twice. It takes time, money, brains, dedication.
And what I'm saying to you is that without newspapers, which are a financially endangered lot these days, stories like this would never see the light of day.
Who else would do it? Think about that.
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