Back in February, CBS4 (Channel 4) interviewed a woman claiming to be one of the prostitutes who worked for "Denver Players," an escort service that allegedly catered to lawyers, judges, professional athletes and other muckety-muck men.

She described orgy-like parties that took place at the ritzy Denver Club, before Denver Players was shut down by law-enforcement officials in January.

CBS4's Brian Maass showed the alleged prostitute photos of prominent men who were possible clients of Denver Players. She identified three, he told me. But Channel 4 elected not to name these men. Instead, Maass looked into the camera and pledged:

"CBS4 is not identifying the customers without the clients confirming the information or law enforcement releasing the names."

Maybe some of the Johns breathed a sigh of relief, because this means CBS4 could have a rock-solid anonymous sources and overwhelming evidence, and it still wouldn't release the names.

"If we put names out there, clearly we'd be ruining lives, reputations, families, careers, and to what end?" Maas told me, adding, "What's the news value of that?"

But journalists aren't supposed to wait for criminals to confess or for the police to release the names of suspects before they inform the public about evidence of a criminal act. And like it or not, prostitution-unlike blowing $3,000 at a strip bar-is a crime.

If a journalist has credible evidence that links someone to a crime, they should release it. Right? Maybe Not.

Unlike CBS4, 9News News Director Patti Dennis doesn't have a consistent standard for deciding whether to report the names of Denver Players' clients, but she said the "standard will probably vary depending on the person's public profile."

"Certainly, someone who works for the people has to be held to a pretty high standard of conduct," she said.

That's why 9News reported March 7 that U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham's name and personal cell phone number were on a list of Denver Players clients. This information came from anonymous "sources" and is "indisputable," said Dennis.

Dennis refused to tell me if she has names of other men linked to Denver Players.

In deciding whether to identify the clients, without official confirmation, journalists should ask:

1. Does the petty nature of this crime matter? Yes. As Maass says, the public-interest benefits of releasing names are minimal compared to the risk, however low, that names released by a news outlet turn out to be wrong.

2. Are links to the crime, like names on a Denver Players' list, newsworthy, without further evidence? No.

3. Does the client's job matter? Yes. Journalists should hold public officials to a higher standard.

My real advice for Denver journalists is to focus their investigative powers elsewhere, and spare us interviews with prostitutes.But if reporters must swarm to the Denver Players story and they uncover major and credible evidence that a public official broke the law or is under investigation, then let us know. Otherwise, CBS4's admirable standard should carry the day.

Who's live? KOA radio promotes itself as Colorado's "only local, live 24-hour news source."

Trouble is, if you tune to KOA looking for news, you'll probably hear from a right-wing talk radio host, not a journalist. Or possibly you'll get the play-by- play of a Rockies game.

In response to my e-mail about this, Clear Channel's Kris Olinger wrote: "While our format is news/talk rather than all news, our newsroom is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are constantly monitoring local news, weather, traffic and sports as well as national and international news. In addition to our regular newscasts (hourly), we broadcast breaking news updates and send out e-mail news alerts when merited 24 hours a day seven days a week."

I respect KOA's newsroom, and I'm glad it exists in our era of disappearing radio news departments. But it's obvious that for the most comprehensive and current local news, you should visit the Web sites of the dailies.

Both of the dailies' Web sites are updated throughout the day and into the night with more local news than you'd ever get from KOA-or its Web site-or from any other media outlet in town, like a local TV station. Most of the time, on KOA, you may have to wait an hour for a short news update.

As for the "live" part, newspaper Web sites deliver local news even faster than a radio host or TV anchor can announce it. The exception is when a broadcast journalist is standing in front of a fire, or something, and soon the dailies' Web sites will be doing more of this themselves.

So, given its talk show lineup, it's more accurate for KOA to promote itself with something like the "blow torch of the Rockies."

The dailies' Web sites are the closest thing to the "only local, live 24-hour news source."

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.