Should journalists continue to quote political spokespeople who use every utterance as another opportunity to call their opponent the same nasty or bizarre name?

That's what I began wondering after reading an excellent May 13 Denver Post article explaining how political campaigns "brand" their adversaries.

In Colorado's U.S. Senate race, Bob Schaffer and his supporters label U.S. Rep. Mark Udall a "Boulder liberal," and Udall supporters call Schaffer "Big Oil Bob" or "Shifty Schaffer," according the Post article.

Interestingly, though, "Shifty Schaffer" and "Big Oil Bob" had never appeared in the Post before the Post's article about political branding ran. Not once.

And "Big Oil Bob" was in just two news stories in the Rocky Mountain News during the past year. "Shifty Schaffer" did not make a single appearance.

"Boulder liberal," on the other hand, was in seven news articles in the Post and eight in the Rocky - beating out "Big Oil Bob" by a 7-to-1 margin.

This imbalance is mostly due to the fact that Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams apparently never says "Udall" without attaching "Boulder liberal" to it - and he doesn't use pronouns. By speaking this way, Wadhams' name-calling is in the news whenever he's quoted.

In fact, more than half of the time "Boulder liberal" appeared in the dailies, it was embedded in quotes from Wadhams, like this one from the May 2 Rocky:

" 'If Boulder liberal Mark Udall wants his dirty work to be paid for by scumbags . . . that tells us everything we need to know about Boulder liberal Mark Udall,' Wadhams said."

"I think Wadhams practiced with electrodes," Rocky reporter Lynn Bartels said. "If he said the word 'he,' [Wadhams] got shocked until he learned to replace every 'he' with 'Boulder liberal.' "

If you're a journalist, and you're confronted with Wadhams' "branding" PR tactics, what do you do? Do you allow his everyday quotes to be a conduit for off-topic name-calling that's not only repetitive but also false, because Udall lives in Eldorado Springs?

No, you don't. You paraphrase the guy. The public interest isn't served by printing "Boulder liberal" repeatedly in the newspaper, unless it's relevant to the story at hand.

"I don't want to be the person who eliminates all 'Boulder liberals' and 'Shifty Schaffers' from the paper," said Post political editor Curtis Hubbard in response to my suggestion that Wadhams be routinely paraphrased. "That's not my role. Part of my role is to share with readers what these people are saying."

Still, if the name-calling by Wadhams or the Democrats continues, Hubbard said he'll be more likely to paraphrase political spokespeople, particularly if their name-calling is irrelevant to the story.

That's good news. Sure, it makes sense to illuminate campaign PR strategies - including the use of "Big Oil Bob" and "Boulder liberal." But the goal for journalists should be to explain the issues - without subjecting readers to crude and repetitive name-calling of the sort Wadhams has mastered.

Radio Free Boyles. One of the dominant myths about talk radio is that it's somehow a free and open forum for the people's voice.

KHOW talk-show host Peter Boyles promotes this illusion when he calls his show "Radio Free Denver" and the "Voice of the People."

It's more accurate to describe talk radio as the "Voice of the Talk-Show Host."

It's mostly about the yakker and his or her antics. It's about infotainment, not the people's agenda.

A May 6 exchange on Boyles' show illustrates this.

Caller ("Rod"): "Pete, I'm not going to let you interrupt me."

Boyles: "Rod, of course I'm going to interrupt you. It's not your show."

Caller: "Yah, it is my show."

Boyles: "Naw it isn't. It's my button."

The caller was then silenced.

To his credit, Boyles gave "Rod" the chance to speak again. And Boyles and other talk-show hosts sometimes really do create a forum for the exchange of ideas. That's why I like talk radio in small doses.

But it's silly for Boyles, with his succession of obsessions and his obvious control on the air, to claim that his show is anything close to "Radio Free Denver" or the "Voice of the People."

The Post's heart? If the media pick apart the private lives of the children of our elected leaders for no reason, what parent in their right mind will run for office?

That's what I thought when I read the May 17 Post story describing the parties thrown by Gov. Bill Ritter's son in the governor's mansion.

Nothing illegal happened. A young person drinking beer and carrying around a flag? That's OK. There was no news here.

Journalists have to be mean sometimes, but in this case, why? The Post forgot to check in with its own heart.

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.