Before we admonish our friend Darryl Glenn, take in a bit of relevant background.

Glenn, president of the El Paso County Board of Commissioners, is a lawyer and Air Force Academy graduate with a crisp command of law. The Gazette enthusiastically endorsed his bids for City Council, the Board of County Commissioners, and the United States Senate.

Just as The Gazette consistently praises Glenn, it routinely excoriates news media for bias. Few other editorial boards are so willing to challenge news colleagues.

– “Media on witch hunt to get Darryl Glenn,” said the headline of our lead editorial, Aug. 4, 2016.

– “Media pretend Glenn does not exist,” said the headline of our lead editorial, Oct. 3, 2015.

– “Statewide and national media have made an embarrassing mistake by mostly ignoring Glenn,” argued an editorial July 17, 2017, after Glenn won the Republican Senate nomination.

We defend all of that, but react with dismay to Glenn’s blasting of “the media,” “irresponsible journalism,” and “The Gazette” during a board meeting Tuesday. Even as willful media critics, we find his charges unfair, unsupportable and uncharacteristically unprofessional.

Glenn lashed out at a Gazette news report published Monday about a letter he signed Nov. 2 as part of a $65 million federal grant application to add lanes to the I-25 “Gap” between Monument and Castle Rock. Glenn’s letter said the request is “to construct a tolled express lane in each direction.”

The letter’s promise contradicts Glenn’s subsequent statements opposing tolls. The story about the letter led commissioners to meet Tuesday and pass a resolution clarifying their opposition to tolls.

“We’re bringing this forward based on what I consider irresponsible journalism,” Glenn said, in introducing the resolution.

He did not stop there.

“Any implication by The Gazette and their headlines and their reporter that somehow I’ve been untruthful or misled (the public), that is unacceptable, and that’s why we’re here today,” Glenn said.

He questioned the accuracy of The Gazette report, which merely described the content of a letter signed and submitted to federal officials by Glenn.

The story quoted Glenn saying the letter contained “boilerplate language,” by the Colorado Department of Transportation, that did not accurately reflect the position of county commissioners.

As stated, Glenn is a well-educated, talented attorney. The commissioner knows by placing his name on a letter he endorses the contents – regardless of whether he read them. One cannot sign boilerplate language, then act as if he was helpless in doing so.

John Hancock didn’t write the Declaration of Independence, but he owned every word the moment he signed it. The boilerplate language of a lease, or an organ donor card, becomes binding the moment one signs it.

If Glenn disagreed with the letter, he should not have signed. By doing so, he conveyed a misleading message to federal highway officials who will try holding him to those words if the funds are granted.

Glenn has endured his share of unfair press, but this is no such event. He signed a letter of intent to build toll lanes, asking for money, then came out against them. Those are the facts, exactly as reported in full, fair and accurate detail.

Glenn either made a mistake or changed his mind. Either is forgivable, but neither is the media’s fault.