Colorado state Sen. Ray Scott (R) last week accused his local newspaper of publishing fake news about him. Publisher Jay Seaton said criticism of his newspaper as too far right or too far left goes with the territory. But Scott, he said, went too far with a tweet calling the paper our own fake news here in Grand Junction over an editorial that criticized him.
Scott took issue with an editorial published on Wednesday that urged him to give a fair hearing to legislation that would increase public access to government documents. The lawmaker had abruptly canceled a hearing on the bill.
Scott responded on Twitter:
The very liberal GJ Sentinel is attempting to apply pressure for me to move a bill. They have no facts, as usual, and tried to call me out on SB 40 know as the CORA bill. They havent contacted me to get any information on why the bill has been delayed but choose to run a fake news story demanding I run the bill. You may have a barrel of ink but it just splashed in your face. @foolstask@fakenews
The role of newspapers under our system of government is to hold government actors such as Sen. Scott to account, Seaton wrote. He continued:
Scott didnt respond to HuffPosts requests for comment. He did fire back on Twitter:Bring it on Jay, if you lie it blows back.
Seaton said the paper intends to make good on the lawsuit threat.
But fake news he cannot abide. To characterize a reputable news organization as fake or a deceiver of readers is to paint us as the folks who made up the actually-fake news about Hillary Clinton running a child sex trafficking ring from a pizza parlor, Seaton told HuffPost in an email.
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