After many years of listening to some of Denver's talk-radio hosts bash the local dailies, I wondered if they care if one or both of them shuts down.

Is their agenda to completely discredit mainstream journalism and run the Denver dailies out of business?

You wouldn't be crazy to think so.

A couple years ago KHOW talkster Peter Boyles called for a one-day boycott of the dailies, because he was upset with their coverage of illegal immigration.

And you don't have to be a regular listener of KOA's Jon Caldara or Mike Rosen to know that they love to go on at length about "liberal media bias" at the dailies, without providing any proof of systemic bias. Such attacks poison journalism.

When I asked him about this, Caldara told me that the dailies are like alcoholics who are so deeply addicted that they cannot see their own problem. The dailies are so biased, they can't see it themselves, he says.

But he doesn't want either newspaper to shut down. Neither does Boyles or Rosen. Neither does AM 760's Jay Marvin, who's a lefty.

"We're fodder for one another," Boyles told me, adding that "we'd be idiots" to want the dailies to "go out of business."

"I enjoy comparing a story about the same event in both newspapers as a demonstration of how you can spin a story," says Rosen.

Bloggers, on the left and right of the political spectrum, are also severe media critics, but they should also value The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. They're even more dependent on mainstream professional journalism than talk-radio hosts.

If talk-show hosts and bloggers really do appreciate the nuts-and- bolts journalism that you find in daily newspapers and nowhere else, how about toning down the rhetoric and making criticism of the local dailies more productive?

To do this, I like to propose a Code of Behavior for Media Criticism in Denver:

* Thou shalt try to get a response. Journalists should be given the chance to respond to serious criticisms.

Maybe a journalist had a reason for reporting a story a certain way - or he or she has a source for facts that appear wrong. Colorado Media Matters, for example, should ask for a response before posting its criticisms.

Even if no middle ground is reached, public dialogue between journalists and their critics is good. It can help people understand what professional journalism is about. It humanizes the profession.

This obviously won't happen unless journalists can find time to answer their critics, and this can be time consuming. But it's worth it.

* Thou shalt avoid generalizations. Journalism is undermined by critics, like some of Denver's talk-show hosts, who make baseless claims that the local dailies have a systemic liberal or conservative bias. Blow this unsupported hot air out the window.

* Thou shalt focus on facts and specific stories. In place of sweeping condemnations of the Rocky and the Post, focus on errors of omission, improper emphasis, bad sources, twisted quotes and other specifics. There's plenty to choose from.

Sure, there's a place for impressionistic observations, but these kinds of criticisms should be the exception rather than the rule.

* Thou shalt refrain from calling names. For example, on his KOA Web site, talk-show host "Gunny" Bob Newman calls me a "jealous self-proclaimed journalism expert." This type of stuff should be avoided.

On my blog and in this column, I've not always followed my own Code of Behavior for Media Criticism in Denver, but I'm going to do better.

If you're a talk-show host or a self-proclaimed media critic, and everyone can be one on the Web these days, please send me your name and I'll add you to my list of followers of the Code.

Two words. George Carlin, who died last month, is best known for his Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television routine from the 1970s.

Carlin's words still aren't broadcast on television.

But are they allowed to appear in the Rocky?

As a general rule, no, says managing editor Deb Goeken.

"If the writer and editor feel there's a compelling reason to include one in their story or in a quote, they can come to me and make their case," she e-mailed me. "In most cases, we feel it's better to come up with a different word."

Doing my work for me, Goeken discovered that p--- appeared a couple times without approval in the Rocky.

She said this "prompted a good discussion at our morning news meeting."

The fact that p--- already slips into the Rocky unnoticed supports my view that it, along with t---, should now be allowed in the Rocky like other acceptable fringe words. What better way to honor Carlin?

Jason Salzman, president of Effect Communications, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him online at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.