Journalists are overdosing us not only by quoting the libertarian-conservative organization excessively but also by embedding Independence Institute staff in Denver media outlets - without giving comparable organizations similar treatment.

Look at it this way. It's Thursday, and you've had a long day, so you seek out the TV. You flip on KBDI Channel 12, and there's Independence Institute Research Director Dave Kopel, who's a fixture on Colorado Inside Out.

At 10 p.m., as you're driving to pick up your teenager from an alleged homework session, whose voice is blasting from KOA on the car radio? Why, it's Independence Institute President Jon Caldara on The Jon Caldara Show. So you listen to him until you get your kid.

Earlier that night, you consciously avoided Caldara's Channel 12 program, Independent Thinking, which airs after Colorado Inside Out, but here he is on the radio.

Now you're home, and wouldn't you know it, you can't sleep. So you log onto The Denver Post's new Politics West.com, which features Independence Institute policy analyst Jessica Peck Corry's "Mad Voter" blog.

You recognize Corry's name, because she's one of the Post's prominent "Colorado Voices" columnists this year.

A day later, on Saturday morning, you open the Rocky Mountain News and On the Media columnist Kopel is staring at your from the Commentary section.

It's perfectly fine for staff of an advocacy group to have part-time media gigs, but the Independence Institute has way more than any other comparable organization, on the left or right. And that's counting just institute staff, not "fellows."

None of the staff at left-leaning Bell Policy Center, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, Colorado Progressive Coalition, or ProgressNow, for example, have regular platforms in the mainstream media, though Bell voluntarily dropped a regular Op-Ed spot at the Boulder Daily Camera, as did Caldara.

So here's my humble and reasonable request: Next time an editor or producer is looking for a regular conservative-libertarian voice, they should - for the sake of diversity and fairness - avoid choosing a staffer from the Independence Institute.

Here's why this matters. A policy organization that's in the media spotlight often has huge advantages over its competitors in fundraising, volunteer recruitment, staff morale, and more. Not to mention the benefit of spreading its message to well over a million people each month, like the Independence Institute does.

I understand journalists aren't solely responsible for creating this media imbalance. Organizational priorities play a role. In the case of Caldara's Channel 12 show, the Independence Institute pays production costs for the program.

But the media's problem of overexposing the Independence Institute goes deeper.

The Independence Institute is the single most quoted policy organization in Colorado, according to my analysis of staff-written news articles appearing in the dailies in 2007.

The institute was mentioned in a total of 38 news stories vs. Focus on the Family (28), Colorado Progressive Coalition (13), Bell Policy Center (10), Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute (10) and ProgressNow/ProgressNowAction (10).

Jon Caldara is the dailies' No. 1 favorite policy activist. He was quoted in a total of 22 news stories this year in the dailies.

The vast majority of articles quoting Caldara weren't biased toward the position of the Independence Institute. They were fair stories about policy issues, reporting on Caldara's activities or presenting the conservative view.

Journalists turned to Caldara for an astonishingly wide range of opinions - on FasTracks, the tax freeze, zoning, unions, prison sentencing, green subsidies, and more.

The Post even asked him for ideas on names for the cable TV show featuring the Colorado legislature. His answer: The Price Is Wrong. That's a good quote, and it partially shows why so many reporters call Caldara.

When asked why Caldara gets so much coverage, Post reporter Mark Couch said Caldara is quotable and often "actively campaigning as a newsmaker."

He's right. But even if you subtract the instances when Caldara's a newsmaker, he still gets double the mentions of comparable activists, except James Dobson.

It's true that there are fewer conservative policy organizations in Colorado than liberal ones, but the Independence Institute, whose positions usually align with the fiscally conservative branch of the Republican Party, doesn't have a monopoly on articulate and conservative policy mavens.

Journalists should find them and quote them, instead of relying repeatedly on the Independence Institute.

I'm not saying that the Independence Institute should be muzzled, and besides, who could muzzle a guy like Caldara anyway? My point is that journalists are giving this single organization too big a media megaphone.

Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.