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Remember the Colorado “Patriots and Warriors” fundraiser in Colorado cancelled, its organizers said, after an “onslaught of personal attacks” raised concerns about the safety of headliner Sarah Palin? Today, the Denver Post reports the threats that led to the May 2 event’s cancellation were never reported to police. “We’ve had no problems,” Glendale Police Chief Victor Ross told the paper. “We are not aware of any specific threats.”

The last place you’d expect a healthy rumble between the media and a high profile critic is at a meeting of religion journalists. But a speech by high-profile Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver at the Religion Newswriters Association meeting on his home turf turned into an opportunity for Chaput to air his grievances with the press and journalists–especially the New York Times’ Laurie Goodstein–who challenge Chaput on how he treats the media.

While the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment has never been successfully challenged politically, it is now being challenged economically: as a practical matter, the press is not so free. So, how to pay for the vital probings on behalf of the entire polity, in this time of forced deprivation?