A couple of years ago, a certain Colorado Public Radio news host read underwriting support spots for Chipotle, and had a tendency to over-pronounce the company's name. Cheeeee-POTE-le! It sounded more like a cheer at a bullfight than an underwriting spot. The company called to complain, and the spots were re-recorded. Well, that news host is gone now, and I haven't heard any burrito spots on CPR lately. Does Chipotle even support Colorado Public Radio? Regardless, Chipotle has been in the news a lot lately. So at CPRB, we were wondering why Chipotle has not been on KCFR News very much? Just so you know, Chipotle is headquartered in Colorado -- downtown Denver, to be exact.A search of the Colorado Matters' site nets only 4 stories about Chipotle, since 2002, for KCFR News. One story from 2002 (repeated in 2003) is about free-range pork. A Colorado Matters story from 2004, reported about how a Chipotle fan (fanatic) created an independent website called Chipotle Lovers -- so, not a story about Chipotle (the company), per se. And, Colorado Public Radio ran two Chipotle stories, one week apart, in April of 2008 about the Slipstream's Garmin/Chipotle cycling team, competing in this year's Tour de France.
Colorado Public Radio's story from April 4, 2008 was an interview with Colorado Matters' Host Ryan Warner and "Joe Lindsay, a freelance writer who covers the sport." CPR's second story on April 11, 2008 wasn't really a story at all, so much as a news bit, which (as an aside) Colorado Public Radio has started calling a news feature, and then cross-listing on the Colorado Matter website even though the news features aren't even played during the 30-minute-long Colorado Matters show. In addition, the news bit was provided to Colorado Public Radio by Nancy Greenleese, who for years has been a freelancer/stringer (sometimes for National Public Radio), and who now works for KUNC-FM, public radio for Northern Colorado including Greeley, Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and the mountains -- not CPR!
As many people in America (most of them white) know, the Tour de France is happening right now, and God knows, white people love public radio! So, why can't Colorado Public Radio, Colorado Matters, KCFR News, KCFR Presents -- WHATEVER -- seem to get a story on the air, about:
- The Tour de France,
- Team Garmin/Chipotle,
- Drugs (antibiotics and hormones) in food,
- Drugs (performance enhancing) in sports,
- Tie-in of enhancing drugs in food AND sports, or
- Sports-team sponsorship, in general?
The degree of incompetence in the way Colorado Public Radio covers the news is astounding. Actually, they way it covers sports --regardless of type -- is positively impotent! If a lily-white organization like CPR cannot seem to cover cycling -- a sport that is CLEARLY in their wheelhouse -- then how can we expect them to cover any other team sports? White people like hockey too -- I'm just saying. A search of cycle or cycling will net 3 dozen stories on the Colorado Matters website. Hockey, on the other hand? ZERO! By the way, wheelhouse? That's a baseball reference, just so the band geeks at CPR know.
Finally, Chipotle (along with many other supermarkets, vendors and suppliers, and restaurants in America) is weathering the fresh tomatoes crisis now. Additionally, NPR reported during a newscast today, that jalapeños and avacados might now be affected. Really? Is it time to give someone at Chipotle a call? Do they even use chiles and avocados burritos and tacos? Hmmmm, I don't know. Better ask a Spanish-speaking, brown person. Do any of them work at CPR? By the looks of it, NOT! However, a potential salmonella outbreak still doesn't seem like a big enough peg (journo-speak) -- even for Colorado Public Radio journalists, one of which is Eric Whitney a full time Health Reporter! Ah, but what the hell do I know, I'm just a blogger with a little public insight -- it's called common freakin' sense.
Hey, KCFR News-- drop me an email message. I will put you in touch with a Public Relations executive at Chipotle. My guess is that he's probably not in your 2700-2800 Public Insight Network Rolodex. Wankers!
1 comment:
i worked at a racially run chipotle in oceanside, california. manager is karen burton, i mentioned that not many black folks worked there, and she said in 7 years she hadn't had any blacks working for her. i told i am black and that some of the mexicans working here have not been around black people. the next day she told me she owed me an appology because she didn't know that i was african- american. some mexicans at this chipotle were sex playing me by calling the milk that i brought to work "lechita" a mexican spanish slang for semen or sperm. in 2 weeks i was fired while i was away to visit my 90 year old father for the presidential election. if i were mexican i would not have been fired.
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