Defining 'business friendly'.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: On Colorado - Editorial

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE "BUSINESS FRIENDLY," as we often describe ColoradoBiz to be?

I've been thinking a lot about that as I've read, interviewed and edited stories for this issue about U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Janus Funds money manager Tom Marsico, and as I've fielded inquiries and some complaints about our last month's cover story about U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's crusade against illegal immigration.

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I've considered the question, too, as the jury verdict was announced acquitting HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard M. Scrushy of all fraud charges; and as word came down that Bernie Ebbers, the former boss of WorldCom who has been convicted of one of the nation's largest-ever corporate frauds, would give up practically all his possessions in order to settle a lawsuit filed against him by angry and cheated WorldCom investors.

It's a question that should be considered and reconsidered with every story and every issue of ColoradoBiz that we publish. The depth and breadth of the nation's nearly last half-decade of corporate scandals--and the fact that Colorado firms and organizations have not escaped blemish during those five years--demands such constant vigilance.

So how we define "business friendly" at this magazine is important--important to our readers' comprehension of issues, and important to readers' perceptions of our opinions, expressed in columns like these.

So what "business friendly" means to me, I have resolved, is giving a politically conservative Cabinet officer like Norton, who is a Colorado native, a fair venue to make her points to an audience that includes some vociferous environmentalists.

It means profiling a very wealthy money manager who has contributed greatly to Colorado's reputation as a center for mutual-fund-investment leadership, and who will be looked to in the effort to rebuild and restore that reputation after an extended period of losses.

It means outlining, to the extent possible, the impact on Colorado business that a homegrown congressman's campaign against illegal migrants might have on the state's plans for growth. And giving local businesspeople a chance to respond (look to our...