Colorado has two political Web sites, one on the left and the other on the right, that are acting like traditional news outlets - gathering news and claiming to be practicing journalism.

On the left, there's Colorado Confidential.org. Its managing editor, Wendy Norris, oversees five paid fellows who produce news stories and commentary, much of it about Colorado politics.

Staff-written stories on the Web site carry bylines, which add accountability and credibility to articles.

Contact and biographical information on the site provide a window into the progressive political leanings of writers. "Commentary" pieces are clearly distinguished from news articles.

In its most notable investigation, Colorado Confidential revealed that Rep. Bill Berens, R-Broomfield, accepted a $20,000 check for hitting a hole-in-one at a Colorado Oil and Gas Association event, violating the spirit of a law prohibiting Colorado lawmakers from accepting cash gifts. Berens lost his subsequent bid for re-election.

The right-leaning Web entity that most resembles Colorado Confidential is FaceTheState.com, whose managing editor, Brad Jones, has ties to the Republican Party. He says his site supports "free market" principles. But Jones says he's committed to producing credible journalism.

You have to wonder about this.

For starters, the site's articles have no bylines and no other information about its writers. There's no explanation of the site's free-market orientation.

Jones doesn't use bylines in part because of the personal attacks his named writers would likely receive from leftists, he says.

Face the State sometimes puts strange headlines on links to articles in the dailies. For example, it placed this headline on a Feb. 15 Rocky Mountain News article: "Enviro-Wacko groups to push severance tax increase to the ballot."

Jones says this is his way of trying to make his Web site fun. But in a number of cases, as pointed out by Colorado Media Matters, the fun headlines misrepresent articles from the dailies.

To its credit, Face the State conducts investigations, including a recent look at dubious spending by Republican and Democratic members of the State Board of Education.

In a review of 10 recent news articles on Face the State and Colorado Confidential, I found at least one instance when each site did not seek comments or present views from public officials under scrutiny - which runs counter to basic journalistic practice.

Colorado Confidential's content looks a lot more like professional journalism as I know it. But I don't want to trash Face the State. I want it to improve and thrive.

If daily newspapers continue to shrink, online news sites like these - as distinct from opinion blogs - could represent the evolution of journalism, and without something to fill the void, as Colorado Confidential fellow Cara DeGette says, "It looks bleak and scary for journalism and for democracy."

Left vs. right. In a recent column, I pointed out that Denver needs a talk radio show co-hosted by a real progressive, unlike KHOW's Craig Silverman, and a hard-right conservative, like KHOW's Dan Caplis.

Regular left-right debate is nonexistent on local TV, as well.

There's Head-On, a stiff, 90-second feature on KBDI-Channel 12 airing prior to the BBC News. This show pits a left-leaning pundit, Susan Barnes-Gelt, against a right-leaning one, John Andrews.

But judging from my review of five recent programs, this is another example of a show contrasting the positions of the hard right (Andrews) and the center-left (Barnes-Gelt).

To imagine what an interactive left-right debate could look like, think about the entertaining and informative fights on Colorado Inside Out (8 p.m. Thursdays, KBDI) between Dani Newsum and my counterpart on these pages, Dave Kopel.

In this case, Newsum's further to the left than Kopel is to the right, so you really have to imagine Newsum taking on Caplis.

Or imagine if The Denver Post's PoliticsWest.com "Gang of Four" bloggers David Sirota and John Andrews hosted a TV talk show together.

Local pubic affairs shows, like Your Show (10:30 a.m. Sundays on KTVD-Channel 20), air left-right debates on occasion, and Jon Caldara occasionally invites a leftist to his KBDI studio for debate, but it would be nice to see more of it.

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.