Denver, CO – Colorado Public Radio (CPR) appears to be in the habit of posting misleading tweets, this time tweeting about their coverage of Initiative 76.
The CPR story, posted November 12, 2019, takes a familiar left-leaning stance on the subject. CPR tweeted the story twice, but the second tweet is a bit misleading.
Readers may notice the missing news card in the second post, creating confusion over the title of the article.
Now, tweeting a story twice is not a major problem. However, the way CPR appears to go about tweeting stories multiple times might cause confusion for Twitter users.
Instead of tweeting the link and allowing Twitter to populate the news card, CPR tweets an image with commentary about the article. Because of this, the title appears to be, “Ban something that’s already illegal? Some in Colorado are trying to do just that with Initiative 76,” in the second tweet.
We will not pretend to be Twitter gurus, but find ourselves scratching our heads at CPR’s strategy. We do not see other major news sources employ this method. Here at the Colorado Citizen Press, we post stories with commentary but never cover up the news card.
CPR tweets this way consistently, leading us to believe they intend to sway their audience. The commentary CPR used for the second tweet certainly reveals a left-leaning bias.
As we understand it, Initiative 76 seeks to clarify old language in the Colorado Constitution to ensure “only citizens” can vote in the state. The CPR article titled, “Initiative 76 Seeks To Ban Noncitizens From Colorado Elections. Dems Say It Misses The Point,” skews the argument against Initiative 76.
In fact, the author dismisses arguments for Initiative 76 by the fifth paragraph!
“Only people eligible to vote by virtue of being a citizen should be allowed to vote. This will ensure that will take place,” said Stengel, a former Republican state legislator from Littleton.
From: Initiative 76 Seeks To Ban Noncitizens From Colorado Elections. Dems Say It Misses The Point, by Andrew Kenney
The measure wouldn’t immediately change much, even if it’s approved by voters.
We often read and cite CPR articles in our writing. As such, this bias does not surprise us. What does surprise us is the way the mainstream news source chooses to disseminate their articles.
Whether or not their intent was to mislead the public intentionally, CPR’s use of Twitter in this instance is misleading and concerning.
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