Free expression: How is credibility determined?

I found this article from Reason magazine with regards to a non-profit news outfit in Colorado that is basically under attack from an aide to the Governor of Colorado. It's not that the news published by this publication was inaccurate. It was merely an attempt to portray this publication as non-credible.

Earlier this month, writer Derek Draplin reported that Polis had established a new office—the Office of the Future of Work—to research the state's changing economy and workforce and make policy recommendations to the governor's office. Draplin published the article in The Center Square, a nonprofit media outlet.

The factually accurate story (read it here) quotes Polis praising the creation of the office, as well as a Colorado GOP spokesperson mocking the creation of yet another regulatory bureaucracy with "undefined goals, broad powers, and a name straight from the brain of George Orwell."

The Center Square offers its state coverage up for free reprints by other media outlets as long as they are appropriately credited. This is not an unusual arrangement; as advertising revenue bleeds away from local newspapers to the internet, small newspapers don't have the manpower to cover many state or national stories on their own anymore.


But when two small Colorado newspapers, the Kiowa County Press in Eads, and the Chronicle-News in Trinidad, published the story, they heard from Conor Cahill, Polis' spokesman, who asked them to take the articles down.

Cahill did not challenge any of the facts presented in the story. He, instead, objected to them having run news stories from The Center Square because he does not see them as an objective source of information. The Center Square is a product of the Franklin News Foundation, which offers state-level journalism and opinion pieces focused on fiscal responsibility and transparency. It used to be known as Watchdog.org but relaunched earlier this year under the new brand.

Cahill's argument is that donors to Franklin News Foundation may come from libertarian or conservative backgrounds, and the fact that writer Draplin is also an editor at The Daily Caller, a right-leaning outlet, apparently taints everything The Center Square writes, even if the story is completely accurate. After the editors refused Cahill's request and The Center Square reported what had happened, The Denver Post and even the Associated Press picked up the story.

I published a "Free Expression" page for this blog during the past week and learned from someone who posted a "wet noodle to see if it sticks" that it needs something controversial to really gain some traction. Well the page at first is only designed to inform, but as with most websites it's a work in progress.

I suppose the argument here as far as free expression is whether or not The Center Square is a credible publication. What makes Center Square less credible than say the NY Times or the Chicago Tribune?

Let's go further is this blog with the information shares - even if it's from other credible sources - any less credible than the NY Times or Chicago Tribune?

Also does this mean a government official such as the aide to the Colorado Governor have the ability to determine what outlets are credible? Should a government official tell those outlets who use articles written by smaller outlets to remove them from their publications in order to essentially undermine their credibility?

So many questions here....