D News Runs Further With Admittedly Fake Story

Any minute now Ashton Kutcher is going to tell me I’ve been Punk’d. I hope. If not, the D News is punking Utahns big time. Here’s the summary.

1. On 8/19, the D News reported that GOP legislative leaders were going to take on the referendum process. The story was made up. Just the day before, legislative leaders told the D News editorial board the opposite – that Utah’s referendum process was sound.

2. On 8/20, editorial board members admitted to legislative leaders that the story was inaccurate. D News reporter Bob Bernick apologized to President John Valentine for acting unethically in writing the story. Bernick said he’d run a retraction.

3. On 8/20, Bernick did not run a retraction. Rather, he wrote a second story, suggesting that legislative leaders had decided against challenging the referendum process – a significant misrepresentation.

4. Since the beginning of this faux story, Bloggers pointed out that Bernick and the D News made up the referendum story.

5. On 8/22, Bernick snorted about the misinformation of inaccurate and unfair blogs (but courageously vowed to “keep on plugging away”).

6. On 8/25, five days after the D News admitted the story was fake, D News columnist John Florez scolded lawmakers for plotting to change the referendum process.

So, you’ve gotta wonder: is anyone running the D News? It makes up news, admits that it made up news, chastises people who pointed out that it made up news, makes up follow-up news, and, then, editorializes that the Legislature is rotten for seeking to do something the D News editors admittedly know the Legislature never intended to do.

UPDATE: The D News would not post the following comment I left to the John Florez column:

John,

D News reporter Bernick apologized to President Valentine for making up the referendum story. There never was a movement to change the referendum process. The D News made that up. Talk to your editors; they admitted it. Now, you're criticizing the Legislature for something it never planned on doing.

Do you and the D News have any standards?

If you're just going to comment on things you read, read my blog. It's far more accurate than the D News.

The D News won't release the tape of the editorial board meeting, and the D News censors commentary critical of its work. Isn't legacy media supposed to be a bulwark against censorship and for open dialogue?

UPDATE 2: To get a taste for the kind of "dialogue" the D News promotes and/or discourages, you see my comment above thatit would not post. Compare that to the comments it did post following an article about AG Mark Shurtleff possibly losing his leg. Despicable.