When I first entered Denver media in 2011, it was as a fill-in talk radio host, fresh out of Regis University. 

In those early days, I’d frequently describe my radio interviews as “EXCLUSIVE” in social media promotions. It was grandiose language for fairly ordinary radio hits. In my youthful exuberance, I never quite realized that. 

Political journalist Lynn Bartels did. 

Bartels and I became Facebook friends in June 2011, though we wouldn’t meet in person until October 2012. Online and offline, she’d rib me over my word choice. 

What I didn’t grasp at 22 is that “exclusive” isn’t just a label you claim. It’s something you earn: the rare guest, the genuine scoop, the digging no one else dares to do. Bartels knew the difference between substance and hype. 

Bartels’ passing last week, at 69, was felt deeply across the world of media and politics, bridging partisan divides. 

Much has been written about Bartels, whose storied Colorado career began at the Rocky Mountain News in 1993 and continued at the Denver Post from 2009 to 2015. After a stint in public service at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office in 2015, she wrote a column for our sister publication, Colorado Politics. 

What made Bartels matter wasn’t the LinkedIn résumé. It was the kind of journalistic discipline that has become increasingly rare yet held respect even from the people she bruised. 

“Bartels reported on me off and on for decades, and she could be rough,” wrote Independence Institute president and Gazette columnist Jon Caldara wrote. “It wasn’t personal. It was her job to go after anyone involved in politics.” 

Today’s political age is marked by clickbait, hot takes and hit jobs and journalism increasingly rewards them. It has given way to tribalism that only ever aims its lens at the other team, never swiveling back home.  

Real reporting earns its label by going where it’s uncomfortable: at your own side or at powerful figures others won’t touch. Anything less is the word without the work. 

Doing the work requires toughness — the nerve to chase a story others avoid for fear of retribution, being called a nasty name or being shut out under the Golden Dome. 

It requires a dedication to evidence. Follow the facts where they lead. Seek real answers, not talking points. Call out the hypocrisy on both sides. 

It also needs honesty about your own viewpoint, whether that means setting biases aside or being upfront about them. Investigative work belongs on the opinion side, too, so long as it’s rooted in evidence, fact-checking and integrity. 

Journalism isn’t about telling readers what to think. It’s about taking them along for the ride, trusting their intelligence and empowering them with the tools to make up their own minds. Persuasion may be the byproduct, but it isn’t the purpose.  

A journalist willing to challenge his or her own side or those in power has become rarer, such that it feels surprising when it happens. 

Until her primary bid for attorney general started heating up, Secretary of State Jena Griswold largely escaped scrutiny, especially from left-leaning media. The flip side is convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whom too many in right-leaning media have covered with far less scrutiny than they apply to Griswold. Both have been shielded — and often cheered — by the same tribal instinct.  

Since transitioning from commentator to journalist, I’ve learned that identifying a story is only part of the work. Getting a genuine “exclusive” isn’t enough, either. Sticking the landing requires every one of those elements. 

That’s why the surprise we feel when journalists scrutinize their own side is a measure of how far we’ve drifted. Bartels always stuck the landing because she did her homework. 

Now and then she’d reach out with a tip, a nudge or a word of encouragement on one of the politicians I was covering. It meant a great deal coming from a veteran journalist who knew when a story is fundamentally about accountability, not the politics of the thing. 

In this age of social media and fast-moving news, that approach matters more than ever. Getting the story right beats getting it first every time. The temptation to churn quick hits that don’t dive deeper because the “attention span isn’t there” is a cop-out. 

Local journalism has fewer and fewer reliable homes. Digging in, laying out the story and holding public figures accountable without slogans has never been more important. 

Some years back, Bartels connected me with a Democrat who had information on a left-wing figure I was covering. The figure was someone others in the media were largely unwilling to touch. This source was wary of speaking out publicly — as Democrats often are about their own these days — yet certain that light had to be shed. 

The source, who later became a friend, put it simply: the kind of “real journalism” Bartels practiced — the kind that exposes hypocrites on both sides — isn’t so common anymore, kept alive by a smattering of individuals still willing to carry the tradition. 

If only we could all be so bold. And so consistent. 

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.