Colorado Daily - History 1970-1998

History 1970-1998

The Daily took shape as an independent newspaper under the leadership of Tim Lange, who served as editor from 1970–75 and again from 1980 to 1986. Lange spearheaded coverage including original reporting from the civil war in Nicaragua, an investigation into the budding U.S. missile-defense program, and an expose on a Federal Emergency Management Administration civil-defense plan for use in the event of a nuclear strike in U.S. cities including Boulder. "Articles like these induced Nation scribe Alexander Cockburn to declare the Daily the best leftist newspaper in the country," the Denver newspaper Westword wrote in a 2001 retrospective. The newspaper bolstered its anti-establishment reputation by publishing an "anti-Reagan issue" in 1984 and took left-leaning editorial positions as late as 2000, when it endorsed Green Party nominee Ralph Nader for president.

Lange was replaced as editor by Clint Talbott, who led the newspaper for 14 years until 1998. That year, a series of editorials by Talbott on a rape victim who took her case to trial earned the Daily a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The Pulitzer judges called Talbott's writing "powerful."