Colorado journos get testy after state official leaks names of Udall/Obamacare panel to select media outlets

A Colorado state official has acquiesced and released names of those chosen for a panel to investigate accusations that Democrat U.S. Sen. Mark Udall attempted to intimidate the state insurance board into understating the number of insurance plans that were canceled as the direct result of the implementation of Obamacare. The panel subsequently cleared Udall of the accusation.

From the Denver Post:

Colorado’s top regulator named on Monday the members of a “neutral panel” she assembled to review complaints that Sen. Mark Udall’s office attempted to bully insurance personnel over Affordable Care Act cancellations, but declined to say who the panel interviewed in clearing the senator.

Barbara Kelley, executive director of the Department of Regulatory Agency, made the decision to release the panelist information after reading a Denver Post online story about a decision she made earlier Monday to stand by her refusal to provide information about the panel and its work.

The problem apparently wasn’t as much about Barbara Kelley’s refusal to release the information to the press in general, but that she initially leaked it to a select outlet and kept others, in this case the Denver Post, out of the loop. Kelley was appointed and re-appointed by Democrat governors.

Denver Post reporters wondered why Kelley was selective in which media outlets were given the requested information:

DORA tells DP it won't name names in Udall flap, then releases them to other outlets. Keep digging. #copolitics

— Lynn Bartels (@lynn_bartels) January 27, 2014

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https://twitter.com/kurtisalee/status/427931643093848064

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A reporter from a media outlet that was given the requested information mocked the Post reporters:

You want some cheese with that whine? RT @kurtisalee: DORA Exec Kelley leaks the names to other media outlets. #copolitics (2/2)

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) January 27, 2014

The selective nature of the state official in this case should be of concern to all reporters, because next time the shoe might be on the other foot.