The start of a great relationship.

No, you haven't packed up the wrong newspaper. After fifteen years at The Denver Post, Mike Rosen has moved over to the Rocky Mountain News. (Who said conservatives are opposed to change?) For those of you who have read me or listened to my radio show, I thought you'd like to know why.

But first some biographical history and an anecdote. Once upon a time I had a real job, the kind where you put on a suit and tie every day and go into the office. I was educated, complete with MBA, and trained as a businessman. In the midst of a fairly successful career I had this epiphany, a passion to cross over from the world of commerce to take up arms in the war of ideas. This calling, if you will, was born of frustration. Frustration at the conspicuous absence of perspectives and viewpoints like mine in the media. (Rush Limbaugh, at that time, was still selling hot dogs, or whatever, for the Kansas City Royals.) I seized on talk radio, then in its infancy, as my vehicle. To make a long story very short, I somehow wound up hosting my own show on a new talk-station in Denver.

Now for the anecdote. It was 1984. Chuck Green, then the editorial page editor of the Post, was a regular guest on my program. Chuck was much more liberal at that time (he's since "grown"), and was a worthy adversary for a good argument. One day I asserted that the Post suffered from a lack of balance on its op-ed pages. Chuck disagreed. A month later I produced my evidence: an analysis of the paper's last 105 bylined opinion columns, 67 of which had been written by liberals, and only 10 by conservatives. Chuck, graciously offering me enough rope to hang myself, proposed that I might close the gap by trying my hand at column-writing on his pages. And that's where I've been hanging out ever since. I'm no longer the token conservative - they have added a few more but liberal viewpoints still dominate. For years, I enjoyed being the voice of dissent despite an occasional run-in with liberal Post editors. Lately, however, I've been sensing a growing hostility, especially from the Post's current editor in chief, Dennis Britton.

During the recent election campaign, Britton saw fit to spike two of my columns, citing his policy prohibiting opinion columnists from voicing their opinions on candidates or ballot issues. I understand that it's his ball and his bat, and that he gets to make the rules. I just disagree with the policy. I think it's silly. Moreover, Britton never explained, justified, or defended his policy; he simply imposed it. That kind of imperiousness rankles me. The whole point of commentary pages is to vent private opinions that are designed, in turn, to shape public opinion. Why withhold the opinion of bylined columnists just before an election, while the paper's editorial board still gives its endorsements, and - even more ironically - the paper's news pages spin stories and contrive headlines to favor selected candidates and issues?

The last straw was Britton's initial edict that my column could no longer appear in the Pueblo Chieftain and The Gazette in Colorado Springs, where it's run for more than 12 years. Again, that's his prerogative. But it was unacceptable to me. Having a number of listeners and readers in both of those markets, and a friendly relationship with both of those papers, I prefer to stay put. Money really isn't an issue. What I'm attracted to is the platform, the exposure, and the cachet of being a print journalist as well as a broadcaster. A weekly column like this isn't a big payday, and the Rocky hasn't lured me away with any more compensation.

I have some friends at the Post, and I'll miss them. But I have some friends at the Rocky, too. And, frankly, I'm a lot more comfortable with the Rocky's treatment of columnists and the political philosophy expressed on its editorial page.

To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, "This could be the start of a great relationship."

Mike Rosen is a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, where this column first appeared on January 8, 1999. His e-mail address is [e-mail]