Deseret News Fabricates More News
Bob Bernick and the D News were caught in an outright lie. On Monday, Utah Senate leaders met with the Deseret News editorial board. In a broad ranging conversation, they discussed the State’s referendum process, concluding that it was in the right place.
Instead of reporting those facts, Bob Bernick and the D News made up a story. In complete contradiction of the facts, they reported that GOP legislative leaders were going to make a run at changing the referendum process. Again, that was a complete lie.
When called on the lie, the editorial board was forced to acknowledge it. They, then, forced Bernick to write a retraction. He didn’t. Instead, he furthered the lie.
I called the D News and again asked for the recording of the editorial board meeting. It is important that they exercise a little of the transparency they supposedly laud, and give people a chance to see how accurate the D News is with facts.
Instead of reporting those facts, Bob Bernick and the D News made up a story. In complete contradiction of the facts, they reported that GOP legislative leaders were going to make a run at changing the referendum process. Again, that was a complete lie.
When called on the lie, the editorial board was forced to acknowledge it. They, then, forced Bernick to write a retraction. He didn’t. Instead, he furthered the lie.
I called the D News and again asked for the recording of the editorial board meeting. It is important that they exercise a little of the transparency they supposedly laud, and give people a chance to see how accurate the D News is with facts.
posted by steve u. at 8/21/2008
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9 Comments:
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men, ... except in the media.
Bernick's been lying for years. He's also sloppy with the facts. The owners of the Deseret News should fix this promptly! Enough is enough. Bernick's style is better suited for the Salt Lake Tribune.
I agree, that they should release a transcript of what was said. It would be interesting to see if Bernick lied, or misinterpreted the intent of the legislators present, or if such an interpretation is plausible given what was said. I'm with you that some transparency would be welcome.
I was pretty frustrated reading that story online yesterday. But any comments explaining the situation and directing people to this blog were moderated and not placed on the comments section. I said absolutely nothing offensive, but apparently the moderation on the DNews website isn't just for trolls: It's for anyone calling the paper on the carpet.
jeffjames,
Give me more details, please. You pointed out that someone was criticizing the veracity of their story, and they censored those comments?
That's the point of my 8/13 post. Newspapers are unwilling to engage in discourse or tolerate any criticism. No one is allowed to watch the watchdogs.
In the history of this blog, other than spam and 5 really vulgar comments, I haven't censored out any comments. Yet, Bernick rattles on endlessly about transparency.
Happy to give details. I attempted to post a comment, which was responding to another comment which said, in sum, "Is the DNews smoking out the GOP, making them think twice about curtailing our rights, or is this like a retractoin?"
I answered, and basically said: "The latter. Bernick made up the first article based off of quotes from an editorial board meeting. I'm sure he's getting heat for this.
If you want more details on what really happened, check out Rep. Urquhart's blog www.steveu.com/blog."
That comment was not posted, though plenty of quotes lauding the DNews for protecting democracy were posted.
I get censored all the time by the DNews, and never for language. It's always for criticizing Bernick or one of the opinion columnists. Comments on the professionalism of their columnists/journalists are apparently unwelcome.
I've had it with the Deseret News. A few months ago I decided to subscribe mainly to get the LDS Church News (since this is the only way to get it when one lives in Utah). I cancelled my subscription this week. I will not consider subscribing again until and unless they clean up their act. They have become a terrible paper (I know, some of you are saying they've long been a terrible paper) with Bob Bernick and their editorial board "leading" the way.
Steve,
This takes a lot of courage to expose Bernick's lie. He's been doing this for years and nobody's called him on it before.
Don't let up.
In the mean time, I am telling every legislator I know to take your stories to the Trib.
They may be liberal, but at least they are not liars.
Anon.,
You've hit on part of the reason Bernick is so bitter. Legislators do talk more openly with The Tribune. I haven't hidden the fact that I believe The Tribune leans strongly to the left; I think its strong bias hurts political dialogue in Utah. But, The Trib's political reporters don't take the unethical step of making up news. And, unlike Bernick, they actually take notes during conversations, to make sure they get the quotes correctly.
From one of his recent rants, Bernick apparently needs to GRAMA legislators' phone numbers. Trib reporters just need to ask.
I've handled the media relations for a large private organization for the last four years and have had over a dozen experiences with both the D-News and SL Trib.
True to form, Lee Davidson and Bernick have "artfully" covered several stories where we were invovled. It seems like their fact checking went no further than Google and Wikipedia, and forget about properly quoting our view on the subject.
With the Trib you know you are going to see a liberal slant, but if you properly explain your position, they do a decent job covering the story.
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