On its 9/3/2025 evening newscast, KJCT News 8 broadcast a story that was a slap in the face to beleaguered election officials across the state.
KJCT reporter Bella Demosthenous reported about convicted felon/sexual abuser/President Trump’s pronouncement the he will move Space Command out of Colorado to Alabama.
Demosthenous’ report, portrayed by the news anchor as a “full breakdown” of the story, included discussion of why Trump chose to move the agency out of Colorado. Demosthenous said Trump “criticized an entirely different topic than the Space Command move,” and then included a video of Trump saying,
“The problem I have with Colorado, they have mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections, and we can’t have that. When a state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections.”
After that, Demosthenous failed to include any information at all addressing Trump’s blatant lies that mail-in voting in Colorado is “automatically crooked,” that it results in dishonest elections, or his absurd claim that Colorado’s officials “want dishonest elections.”
In a phone call to KJCT’s newsroom to point out the glaring omissions in this story, the woman who answered said the station “can’t include opinions” in its newscast, apparently unaware that the security of Colorado’s election system is well-established and not just an “opinion.” As I was recommending credible, authoritative, easily-accessed sources of information that could confirm Colorado’s elections are secure, the woman hung up on me.
Even if she was under deadline, Demosthenous could quickly and easily have accessed the Colorado Secretary of State’s web page about election misinformation, which states,
“Colorado’s elections are secure. Everyone can be confident that their vote is counted accurately and the results reflect the will of eligible Coloradans.”
Demosthenous could also easily have accessed a September, 2, 2025 press release that the Colorado County Clerks Association (CCCA) posted on its website in response to Trump’s recent criticism, in which Matt Crane, Executive Director of CCCA states,
“It is deeply ironic that President Trump made a decision about the Space Force based on Colorado’s election model, yet moved it to Alabama, a state whose system provides neither the access nor the security that Colorado’s does.”
Crane added,
“Colorado’s mail-in voting system is safe, secure, and fair…Independent audits after every election confirm the accuracy of our results, safeguards that states like Alabama simply do not have. In fact, the Washington Post has called Colorado the safest state in which to cast a ballot.”
It would have been quick and easy for Demosthenous to address Trump’s misinformation by including factual information refuting his charge that Colorado’s mail-in election system is “automatically crooked,” and KJCT could have helped stop the spread of election disinformation instead of showcasing it.
Instead, Demosthenous’ incomplete reporting, and KJCT’s treatment of Colorado’s election security as a matter of opinion and not as something factually verifiable, is an insult to beleaguered election workers throughout Colorado.
Ya know, Anne, I”ll give that young reporter and the station a pass. As far as I know, those segments are time-limited and any intelligent and informed viewer would realize that those quotes that “The problem I have with Colorado, they have mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections, and we can’t have that. When a state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections.” were so absurd as to not need additional amplification.
Sorta like when our Bone Spur Pres just changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War and commented that “We never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win.” As if he’d ever served in the military . . .
This is why we quit watching KJCT and switched to KREX. We became fed up with the sensationalism as well.
As usual, DJT was simply rewarding friends and punishing enemies. A purely spiteful move, totally within his “character.”
This is a problem since it is one of the few news sources available in our county. The responsibility of the station is to ensure the veracity of the reporting. Very disappointing!