Sixty Years Ago This Week: Republicans and Democrats alike came forward to pay their respects to Philip Hornbein Sr., a Denver attorney, philanthropist and civil rights campaigner who died at the age of 83.

Hornbein passed the state bar exam in 1902 and spent his entire career practicing law in Colorado. He represented the Western Federation of Miners during years of turbulence in the mining industry and defended The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News against a high profile libel suit brought by former Gov. Clarence Morley as he sought damages for stories Morley claimed had damaged him personally.

But Phil Hornbein Jr. said that the most significant fight of his father’s career involved the Ku Klux Klan, which had taken the reins of power in much of Denver and state government. Hornbein Jr. said his father opposed the Klan fiercely and spearheaded an unsuccessful recall move against the late Mayor Ben Stapleton. Hornbein Sr. went on to support Stapleton in later years after he felt that Stapleton had seen the significant error in his ways involving his membership in the KKK.

Hornbein Jr. added that even though his father was the subject of frequent threats of physical harm from the Klan, he never backed down, always continuing to battle publicly for the advancement of civil rights and to expunge Klan influence from Colorado’s political sphere.

Doris Banks, a Democratic activist and writer, wrote that Hornbein was “never orthodox nor conforming; vital and fresh and acute; an active, free citizen serving democracy.”

Thirty-Five Years Ago: As a part of a survey conducted by The Colorado Statesman, several Republican legislators stated that Colorado newspapers were committing “great abuses” against citizens by inadequately reporting major issues to their readers.

State Sen. Ralph Cole, R-Littleton, told The Colorado Statesman that he disagreed but only “in part.”

“Citizens have no redress against abuses because the supreme courts of Colorado and the United States have practically destroyed citizens’ rights in an effort to protect themselves by lawsuits against the media,” Cole said.

Besides, Cole added, the media themselves have “no ethical standards.” Cole argued that even though The Denver Post called him “a maniac”, which the Post denied, he felt that courts had made libel complaints so “loaded” that he stood no chance of winning.

“When the Post called me a maniac, I thought about suing,” Cole said. “And after the recent abusive editorial, which led 30 of my colleagues to protest to the Post, I thought again about suing. In fact, another lawyer called me and said, ‘Let’s sue,’ but I said ‘No, a suit won’t get anywhere.'”

Chuck Green, editor of the Post editorial page, denied that Cole was called a maniac. He did, however, concede that the editorial in question had said that “responsible leaders of the Legislature last year had to indulge in maniac management” with some members such as Cole.

“Apparently Ralph Cole measures responsibility in terms of favorable coverage,” Green said. “If you criticize him, you’re irresponsible. If you flatter him, you’re responsible. I don’t regard that as a meaningful measure of journalistic responsibility.”

Green added that one reason people “don’t sue us more often is they know we have truth as a defense.”

Sen. Steve Durham, R-Colorado Springs, jumped to Cole’s defense, arguing that the media “don’t do their job very well.”

“God help the public if they are forced to learn about issues from news coverage,” Durham said. “The media are more involved in the cutesy personality motivation kind of thing than in coverage of hard facts.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.