Four simple words: I told you so. Last summer when I wrote a column arguing the sale of The Salt Lake Tribune to Denver-based media magnate Dean Singleton did not mean the end of life as we know it, I received letter after letter hounding me for being a short-sighted moron. “You have no idea how completely the [expletive] LDS Church will own Utah when this [sale] goes through,” one angry reader wrote. It was as though The Salt Lake Tribune was the only thing standing between the free world and a Gordon B. Hinckley-masterminded totalitarian state.
Give me a break.
Since the old Tribune was finally put out of its misery with Singleton’s takeover last August, the paper has retained every bit of the so-called “independent voice” it has always claimed to be. It hasn’t toned down its coverage of the LDS Church in the slightest and it leans further to the left politically than it ever did before. Far from becoming a stooge for the LDS Church, Singleton, who is not LDS and claims never to have told anyone that he would restrict the Tribune’s editorial freedom, has actually improved the paper considerably.
Take, for instance, the paper’s coverage of the Main Street Plaza controversy. Nobody could reasonably accuse the Tribune of an unfair pro-LDS slant. The paper not only covered the day by day developments on the issue with an even hand, it also did in-depth stories that leaned against the LDS Church. It commissioned a study by a U law professor, for example, that, according to a Tribune headline, said the LDS Church did not have “a legal leg to stand on.”
The paper also consistently supported the mayor over the church on the opinion page. On Dec. 10, after Rocky Anderson proposed a plan to limit protestors to one side of the plaza, the Tribune ran a house editorial arguing that, since “in a free society, it’s impossible to legislate good manners,” the mayor’s rules for regulating speech on the plaza were “about the best the city [could] do.” This despite the fact the LDS Church vehemently opposed the mayor’s compromise.
The Tribune hasn’t changed its politics much, either. Though it’s still not a bona fide liberal newspaper by national standards, most long-time readers agree the Tribune is even more staunchly Democratic than it was under the old ownership. The U’s very own Ted Wilson–the quintessential Utah Democrat–observed what he called “the new leftward tilt of The Salt Lake Tribune” in his weekly Deseret News point-counterpoint column with LaVarr Webb last Sunday.
Since the ownership change, the Tribune started putting Holly Mullen, a predictably liberal columnist, on the front page of the local section and enshrined Robert Kirby, famous for his pot shots at LDS culture, in the same spot. More importantly, the paper began endorsing political candidates under Singleton-appointed opinion editor Vern Anderson. The Tribune’s endorsements were so thoroughly Democratic that it backed 3rd Congressional District incumbent Chris Cannon–who everyone knew would win regardless of what the Tribune said–just so the paper could say it supported a Republican.
Far from running the paper into the ground (as the old ownership claimed he would), Singleton has deepened its coverage, expanded its staff and widened its scope. Instead of wringing profit out of the paper, Singleton dumped money into it, hiring 10 new reporters, including a permanent Washington, D.C., correspondent, as soon as he took over. Admittedly, the new Salt Substitute section’s only good use is as a liner for bird cages, but the rest of the paper has benefitted from the leadership of someone with a wide vision and national experience.
So, what does The Salt Lake Tribune sale teach us?
If someone tries to sell you something in the name of the LDS Church, don’t buy it. It doesn’t matter if they’re playing on your love of the church or your hatred for it, and it doesn’t matter if they’re selling newspapers, political ideologies, music or beer. If they try to manipulate your attitude about Mormonism, they’re probably up to no good.
People on the ever-declining left side of Utah’s political spectrum already know very well that people like Gayle Ruzicka and John Swallow, who misstate and overemphasize church policies about abortion, sex education and alcohol to advance their own political agendas, are wolves in sheeps’ clothing.
Why don’t we bring the same level of skepticism to people like Dominic Welch, the former publisher of the Tribune? Welch, one of the most bitter opponents of the sale, knew he stood to lose his job if Singleton took over. How’s THAT for a journalistic conflict of interest?! Of course, the Tribune’s comically angry house editorials condemning Singleton never mentioned Welch’s personal agenda. They instead played on fear of the church–the biggest, baddest beast in Utah politics–to try to save Welch’s butt. Mormo-phobes in Utah ate it up with a spoon–more than 1,000 Tribune readers canceled their subscriptions in a paranoid hysteria about Singleton’s editorial machinations.
The Tribune’s former owners manipulated their positions as journalists and the peculiar gullibility of left-wing Utahns to make up for their own bad business decisions and journalistic complacency. They prophesied a destruction that never came, and too many Utahns believed it.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
John welcomes feedback at [email protected]. Send letters to the editor to [email protected].