Thursday, July 30, 2026
WHY IS PHIL WEISER AVOIDING ALDEN GLOBAL CAPITAL?
The New York hedge fund gutting Colorado's newspapers has been on Phil Weiser's watch
for seven and a half years. He has never said their names.
Not once.
Coloradans deserve to know why.
Contact: Christian Komor, k4gov.com — christiankomor@k4gov.com — (800) 884-0824
Something is wrong in Colorado, and Coloradans deserve an answer.
A New York hedge fund walked into our state. It bought the Denver Post. It bought the Boulder Daily Camera. It bought the Longmont Times-Call, the Loveland Reporter-Herald, the Greeley Tribune, the Cañon City Daily Record, and more than a dozen other Colorado newspapers.
Then it cut newsroom staff by more than two-thirds.
It fired the reporter who covered your city council. It fired the reporter who covered your statehouse. It fired the reporter who covered your school board. It fired the environmental reporter who covered your air, your water, and the oil-and-gas wells behind your kid's elementary school. And it wired the profits from your community's advertising dollars to Wall Street investors who have never set foot in your town.
The hedge fund is called Alden Global Capital. The men who run it are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman. They are named. They exist. Their business model has been documented by PEN America, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic, 60 Minutes, and journalists across the country as a systematic strip-mining of local American newsrooms.
Colorado's Attorney General for the past seven and a half years is Phil Weiser.
Phil Weiser has never said any of those names out loud.
Not one of them. Not once. In seven and a half years.
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Coloradans deserve to know why.
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Phil Weiser sues media giants. Just not this one.
He led a 38-state coalition suing Google for search monopoly abuse — December 2020. Colorado won.
He joined the DOJ lawsuit against Google's ad-tech monopoly — January 2023. A federal judge ruled in Colorado's favor.
He sued to block the Kroger-Albertsons merger — February 2024. It was blocked.
He joined seven other state attorneys general in suing to block the Nexstar-Tegna TV merger — the parent companies of Denver's Fox31 and 9News — March 2026. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction. The merger was halted.
Phil Weiser knows how to name a corporation. He knows how to name its executives. He knows how to file the paperwork.
In the Nexstar-Tegna case, Weiser said: "Competition in the local media market is critical for a healthy democracy, an informed citizenry, and affordable access to sports, news, and prime time shows."
He said:
"Local journalism is essential for democracy because it fosters community, keeps us informed, and holds power to account."
He has not said those things about Alden Global Capital.
He has not filed the paperwork on Alden.
He has not written the letter on Alden.
He has not given the speech on Alden.
Coloradans deserve to know why.
A Democratic attorney general in Connecticut did what Colorado's has not.
In January 2021, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong sent a formal letter to Alden Global Capital. He named the hedge fund. He named the harm. He called Alden "a hedge fund with a history of decimating newspapers across the country." In the letter, he acknowledged that Alden's Digital First Media controlled more than 50 newspapers across the United States — and he specifically cited the Denver Post as one of them.
Tong was writing about his own state's newspaper, the Hartford Courant. But in doing so, he publicly confronted Alden Global Capital by name. He demanded information. He went on the record.
A Democratic attorney general in Hartford, Connecticut — 1,800 miles from the Denver Post's newsroom — was willing to publicly name what Alden was doing to American newspapers.
Colorado's own attorney general was not.
Five and a half years later, he still hasn't.
Coloradans deserve to know why.
He talked about press freedom to the journalists Alden was laying off. He never said the word "Alden."
In August 2025, Phil Weiser addressed the Colorado Press Association's annual convention in Thornton. He spoke about press freedom for roughly 45 minutes. He warned about Donald Trump's hostility to the media. He quoted Louis Brandeis on sunlight and transparency. He said he was "open to creative public policy ideas" to sustain local journalism.
Many of the people in that room worked for newspapers Alden owns. Many of them had watched their colleagues get laid off. Many of them had watched their beats disappear.
Phil Weiser did not say the word "Alden" in that address.
He did not say the words "MediaNews Group."
He did not say the words "Randall Smith" or "Heath Freeman."
He did not say the words "hedge fund."
He talked about press freedom to a room of journalists whose newsrooms had been strip-mined — and he never named the company doing the strip-mining.
Coloradans deserve to know why.
Ninety-plus pages of vision. Zero mentions of the hedge fund gutting his state.
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Phil Weiser released his Colorado Blueprint — his flagship policy document, his comprehensive vision for how he would govern this state — in October 2025. It runs more than 100 pages.
A word-by-word review of that document returns:
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"Alden" — zero mentions
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"MediaNews Group" — zero mentions
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"Randall Smith" — zero mentions
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"Heath Freeman" — zero mentions
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"hedge fund" — zero mentions
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"Denver Post" — zero mentions
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"newspaper" — zero mentions
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"local news" — zero mentions
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"journalism" — zero mentions
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"press freedom" — zero mentions
More than one hundred pages. Zero mentions. Zero.
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This is a man who has sued Google three times. Who has named Kroger, Albertsons, Nexstar, Tegna, Ticketmaster, Meta, and dozens of other corporations by name in court filings and press releases. He named them when it served his interests. He has not named Alden Global Capital once.
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Coloradans deserve to know why.
It is not campaign money. So what is it?​
A direct review of Phil Weiser's campaign committee filings on Colorado's TRACER campaign-finance disclosure system confirms zero dollars from Alden Global Capital, MediaNews Group, Gannett, Nexstar, Tegna, or Sinclair.
So the silence is not explained by direct donor contributions from Alden or its affiliated companies.
But Phil Weiser does have a documented pattern of accepting campaign contributions from parties with interests before his office:
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$75,000 from 68 attorneys at 12 law firms engaged in litigation or settlements with the Colorado Attorney General's office — 66 percent of those donations coming within four months of settlements, according to CBS Colorado, June 2026.
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$40,000-plus from people tied to Dish Network during a deceptive trade practices inquiry by his office, as reported by Colorado Politics, October 2022. He returned some of the money after it was reported.
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$50,000 in dark money to a super PAC supporting his campaign from a nonprofit that has not disclosed its donors, per the Colorado Sun, June 2026.
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None of these contributions connect to Alden Global Capital. There is no evidence of a direct financial relationship between Phil Weiser's campaigns and Alden, Randall Smith, or Heath Freeman.
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But the documented pattern — taking money from parties with business before the attorney general's office, and in at least one case treating a donor differently in an enforcement inquiry — means the question is fair. If Phil Weiser has been willing to accept contributions from regulated parties in other matters, Coloradans deserve to know whether any financial relationship — direct or indirect, through intermediaries, affiliated entities, or future arrangements — exists between Phil Weiser and Alden Global Capital or anyone connected to it.
And if no such relationship exists, then the question becomes even more pressing: what explains seven and a half years of total silence toward the most documented case of civic press destruction in Colorado history?
And it is costing Colorado taxpayers right now.
The Denver Post, under Alden's ownership, stopped paying rent on its downtown Denver building in August 2025. It now owes the City of Denver more than $5.2 million — at a rate of $650,000 per month — on a lease that runs through October 2029, according to the Colorado Media newsletter. Mayor Mike Johnston has not sued. Attorney General Weiser has not acted. Alden Global Capital is costing Denver taxpayers money right now, and the state's top law enforcement officer has said nothing.
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Coloradans deserve answers to specific questions.
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Why did Phil Weiser not join, echo, or issue a parallel action to Connecticut AG Tong's January 2021 letter to Alden Global Capital? The Denver Post was named in that letter as one of the newspapers Alden controlled. The harm was already in Colorado. Silence for five and a half years is a​ choice. What was the reason?
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Has Phil Weiser, in his seven and a half years as Colorado Attorney General, ever had a private meeting, phone call, or written communication with any representative of Alden Global Capital, MediaNews Group, Digital First Media, Prairie Mountain Media, or their subsidiaries? If yes — when, with whom, and what was discussed? If no — why not?
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Has any lawyer, lobbyist, or agent representing Alden Global Capital or its affiliated companies ever contacted the Colorado Department of Law during Phil Weiser's tenure? If yes — regarding what?
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Has Phil Weiser ever received an offer of, discussion about, or interest in future employment, board service, speaking engagements, or affiliation from any entity connected to Alden Global Capital, MediaNews Group, or Randall Smith and Heath Freeman personally? If yes — when, and what was the nature?
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Why does Phil Weiser's 100-plus-page gubernatorial platform not contain a single mention of Alden, MediaNews Group, newspapers, local news, journalism, or press freedom — not one — when he has sued and named Google, Kroger, Albertsons, Nexstar, Tegna, Ticketmaster, and Meta by name in that same period?
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What does Phil Weiser know about Alden Global Capital's Colorado operations that Coloradans do not?
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Komor's statement
"Phil Weiser is by every account intelligent, capable, and a serious lawyer," Komor said. "He does not accidentally fail to name the hedge fund destroying his state's newspapers. He does not accidentally omit five specific proper nouns from a 100-plus-page document he personally wrote and reviewed. He does not accidentally address a room full of Colorado journalists about press freedom and forget to mention the corporation laying them off.
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"There is a reason. There is always a reason. Coloradans, before they hand this man the governorship, deserve to hear that reason from him — in his own words, on the record, under his own name.
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"I am asking. Colorado's press corps should ask. Colorado's voters should ask. And Phil Weiser should answer.
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"If he answers tomorrow, in a way that satisfies the question, I will be the first person to say so publicly. But if the silence continues into November, Coloradans should draw their own conclusions about a man who cannot bring himself to name the New York hedge fund that has been strip-mining this state's press for seven and a half years."
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Weekly accountability series
Komor's independent write-in campaign will publish a new verified-record question about Phil Weiser's public record every Thursday for the next six weeks. Tuesday releases will address Komor's affirmative platform, beginning with the campaign's High-Speed Data-Center + Direct Atmospheric Carbon Removal (HSDC+DACR) proposal.
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About Dr. Christian Komor
Dr. Christian Komor is an Earth Systems Science Advisor running as an independent write-in candidate for Colorado Governor in 2026.
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Verified sources
All findings verified against primary documents or two independent reporting sources.
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